Terriers Finish Third At Navy Classic
November 20, 2000 | Men's Wrestling
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- After a tune-up last weekend (November 11th) at the Bearcat Open in Binghamton, N.Y. the Terrier wrestling team opened up the team-scoring portion of its season with a third-place tie with Rutgers University at the Navy Classic on November 18th in Annapolis, MD.
Three Terriers won their weight classes, while two others finished in the final four, giving B.U. a total of 99 points. Virginia Tech won the tournament with 152.5 points while Purdue finished second with 133. After a first-round bye, sophomore Mike Messina (Hauppauge, NY) won the 133-pound class with a 7-4 win over Navy's Jason Homestead in the finals. Messina had previously defeated Virginia Tech's Jeremy Gavock and NC State's Adam Cox, 5-3 and 7-0, respectively.
A week after his victory at the Bearcat Open, sophomore Jose Leon (Santa Ana, CA) continued his dominating ways with a sweep through the 125-pound weight class. Leon, who was ranked 13th in the country in the most recent rankings, defeated third-ranked Brandon Lauer of West Virginia in the finals of the tourney, 15-0, after overwhelming Geoff Head of James Madison, 33-12, in the semifinals.
Terrier senior Malik Elliott (Lake Zurich, IL) secured a third Terrier victory in the 149-pound weight class after defeating Purdue's Brad Harper, 9-4, in the final match. Ranked first in the division, Elliott recorded a 10-2 win over Navy's Brett Harman in the semis and an 8-6 victory over Boilermaker Dan Jankowski in the second round. Elliott's bracket also featured Terrier freshman Anthony Pesce (Holtsville, NY), who was defeated in the opening round by James Madison's Ryan Loro, 13-2.
At 141 pounds, freshman Jason Giamoni (Easton, PA) recorded a fourth-place finish after losing in the semi-finals to Virginia Tech's Sean Gray, 13-4. Gray went on to win the tournament. In the same bracket, junior Mark Laramee (Rockland, MA) finished fifth after he defeated JMU's Jim Beringer in overtime.
