Caruso, Sughrue Advance to Semifinals of Messiah Petrofes Invitational

GRANTHAM, Pa. – Senior heavyweight Ricky Caruso (Waltham, Mass.) and freshman 133-pounder Paul Sughrue (Methuen, Mass.) each advanced to the semifinals of their respective weight classes to lead the Bridgewater State University wrestling team during day one of the Messiah Petrofes Invitational.

Caruso posted a 9-5 win over Luke Weaver of host Messiah and then pinned Christian Lighten of Springfield in just seven seconds to advance to the heavyweight semifinals.  Caruso, who eclipsed the Bears' previous school mark for fastest pin (13 seconds by Andy Cook in 2001), will take on Michael Shannon of Wilkes in the semifinal round on Saturday.

Sughrue pinned his opening round opponent, Patrick Fruehling of Muhlenberg, in one minute and then earned a 6-3 decision over Tyler Keane of Springfield to advance to Saturday's semifinal round.  Sughrue will face Jeremy Border of Mount Union in his semifinal match.

Also advancing to Saturday's competition out of the consolation bracket are junior 157-pounder Matt Armano (Methuen, Mass.), sophomore 197-pounder Matt Small (Foxborough, Mass.) and freshman 184-pounder Harrison Denoncourt (Plaistow, N.H.).

Armano breezed to a 13-1 major decision victory before dropping a close 4-3 decision to Jon Garrison of Mount Union to move to the consolation bracket.  Armano rebounded with a 17-6 major decision over Stephen Turner of Wilkes to advance to the consolation quarterfinal round versus Richie Jasinski of Ursinus.

Small won by injury default in his first bout of the day and then dropped a 13-3 decision to move into the consolation bracket.  Small posted a 4-2 decision Andrew Tullo over of Muhlenburg to advance to the consolation quarterfinals against Dakota Wilhelm of McDaniel.

After a first round bye, Denoncourt lost his only bout of the day, 8-0, in the quarterfinals.  Denoncourt will take on Brent Kirk of Union in the consolation quarterfinal round.

The Bears are currently in seventh place out of nine schools in the team standings with 43.5 points.