News of Recent Alumni

#660000

March 16th-18th: Matt Stolpinski(PEA 04, Navy 08) won his first match at the NCAA Division I Championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma by pinning Aaron Miller of Kent State in 3:45. He then was pinned by the number 2 seed (and eventual number 2 person) Jake Herbert of Northwestern. In the wrestlebacks, Matt lost a second time 12-15 to Mike Hernandez of Cal Poly.

QUESTION: Is Matt Stolpinski the first PEA graduate to wrestle in the Division I National Championships?

March 3rd-4th: Two big accomplishments by Exeter wrestling alums:

Jon Dolan (PEA 03, Williams 07) placed 6th at the NCAA Div. 3 Wrestling Championships on the campus of The College of New Jersey (Ewing, NJ) and earned All-America honors for the second year in a row. He finished the year with a 20-4 record. To read about this use this link http://www.williams.edu/athletics/news.php?id=9384&sport=29&year=2005&type=general
to read an article about weight loss and Jon go to http://www.williams.edu/athletics/sport.php?sport=29&year=2005

Matt Stolpinski (PEA 04, Navy 08) placed 4th in the EIWA wrestling championships and earned a ticket to the NCAA Division I championships in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on March 16-18.

February 18th: Jon Dolan(PEA 03) placed 1st at 174 and James Sheehan (PEA 02) placed 3rd at the NECCWA Championships held this weekend. For a review of Jon's match, here is a quote from the Williams College Sports page:

Jon Dolan '07 faces off against Bill Fralick of Bridgewater State

On Sunday morning, the Ephs’ Jon Dolan (174) put his undefeated
record on the line once again and for the third time this season against Bill Fralick of Bridgewater State. Dolan and Fralick battled to a 1-1 tie in double overtime, but Fralick was awarded the decision based on a six second differential in riding time. Dolan then faced

Jerome Owens of Johnson & Wales in the wrestle back-round with the winner advancing to the first finals and the loser earning third place. Dolan, who had defeated Owens earlier in the tournament, downed Owens again this time by a score of 5-1 to set up a re-match with Fralick in the first finals.

A win by Fralick over Dolan would make him the New England champion and a win by Dolan would mean they would have to wrestle one more time to settle the issue because the NECCWAs are a double-elimination event. Dolan edged Fralick 4-3 to set up a third match on the day with Fralick that would determine the berth in the NCAA Championships that goes with being the New England champion.

Dolan out pointed Fralick in the final 3-1 to capture the 174 title and earned his second straight trip to the NCAA Championships. A year ago Dolan advanced to the NCAA Championships and earned All-America honors with a 7th place finish at 165. “Jon Dolan is far and away the toughest athlete that I and Dan [DiCenzo] have ever coached, on any level,” said Eph head coach Raf Vega. “It’s hard enough to beat a good wrestler twice in a season never mind having to win two must-win matches on the same day to get the title. That was a great, great individual effort by Jon.”

And on James Sheehan:

Senior captain James Sheehan (157) defeated Joe Boucher of Johnson & Wales 2-1 and then met Trevor Brown of Trinity for the right to wrestle in the 2nd and 3rd place match. Sheehan prevailed 5-4 over Brown and then met Jake Tyler of Springfield. Sheehan lost to Tyler 5-3 in OT. "James had an unbelievable tournament with some quality wins to cap off a great four-year career at Williams," said Eph assistant coach Dan DiCenzo.

Also on February 18th: Navy Beat Army in a dual meet. Matt Stolpinski decisioned hois opponent Chad Marzac 5-3 winning with a takedown in overtime.

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February 11th: A measure of the regard that other teams have for Matt Stolpinski can be seen in match the Naval Academy had with American University. Here's the quote from the Navy report of the match: "In the 174-pound match, American head coach Mark Cody decided to wrestle up the nation's No. 4-ranked 165-pounder, Muzaffar Abdurakhmanov, to wrestle Navy's Matt Stolpinski (Westfield, Mass.). Abdurakhmanov improved to 18-0 with a 10-7 victory over Stolpinski. Abdurakhmanov scored four takedowns in the match's first 75 seconds of the match to take control early and then needed to hold off a Stolpinski charge in the second and third periods for the victory."

February 7th: From Williams College, Jon Dolan is still ranked first at 174 in New England and 6th nathionally. James Sheehan is now 3rd in New England at 157 and Lars Ojukwu is 6th at 164.

February 4th: From Navy, Matt Stolpinski won the 174 pound chanpionship at the All-Academy Tournament on the 4th. He won with scores of 18-7, 12-1 and pinned in the finals. Matt is currently 25-6 for the yerar placing him 4th in total wins for Navy.

January 31st: Things get even better at Williams. Their team is ranked 5th, helped along by top ranked wrestlers in senior James Sheehan(PEA 02) at 157 and junior Jon Dolan(PEA 03) at 174. Junior Lars Ojukwu (PEA 03) is now ranked fifth at 164.

January 22nd: A nice article on Jon Dolan, Williams '07 on the Williams College Wrestling Web Site (copy the following and put it in your address box) www.williams.edu/athletics/sport.php?sport=29. He talks about weight-loss, a good topic for any wresatler contimplating loosing weight to wrestle. Jon tells it straight - what worked for him and what didn't. Interesting reading.

Also from Williams, Senior James Sheehan (157) and junior Lars Ojukwu (165) are each ranked third in New England. Jon Dolan is ranked first at 174. This is the first time since the web page began that there have been three PEA alums ranked in the top three of the weight class in New England at the same time.

From Wesleayn, Steve Campbell is still helping the Cardinals as he wrestles Heavyweight for them. At the NECCWA DUALS CHAMPIONSHIPS last weekend, he was 1-3 as Wesleyan placed 12th out of 15 teams.

January 14 Up-Dates:
: From Navy - Matt Stolpinski is now 19-5 on the season having won his weight at the Navy Classic on 1/13 and lost a close match to Travis Frank of Lehigh, 9-6. Travis is ranked 18th in the country at his weight.
From Wesleyan - Steve Campbell is wrestling Heavyweight and was 2 - 2 at the Ursinus Tournament last weekend.
From Hofstra University - Mike Parziale has transfered to Hofstra this year and currently has an 11-5 record. He took a fourth at the Penn State Open in December.
Headlines from Cambridge Mass - All-American wrestler Jon Dolan returned to the line-up Saturday and won both his matches to help the Williams College wrestling team sweep three opponents at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Saturday. In the same meet, Lars Ojukwu won two matches at 165 and James Sheehan went 1-1, the loss being in overtime.

December 10: Williams upset Norwich 23-22 with help from wins by Jon Dolan, just returning from football, and James Sheehan, who now is ranked 5th in New England. James' match was the most exciting of the day as it was the last match. Williams led 22-18 and a pin or tech fall by Norwich's Jacob Rivera, ranked 2nd in New England would have won it for Norwich. Late in the third period, trailing 0-2, James executed a Granby roll and reversed to tie the match. Rivera won in overtime with a takedown with 8 seconds left on the clock, but Williams won 22-21.

December 3: New York, New York. Williams participated in a quad meet in which Captain James Sheehan for Williams went 3-1 for the day. That included a 7-4 victory over Tony Pallara from Roger Williams ranked fifth in New England at the time.

November, 2005 From Williams College comes a picture of Jon Dolan PEA '03 receiving his award as an All-American last year at the Division III Nationals. Jon placed 7th at 165 and compiled a 26-7 record last year. Jon is second from the left in the picture, which also includes the Williams coaching staff and Tom Prairie, a senior who placed second at the Nationals. This year, Jon is a Co-captain and is ranked 4th in the EWIA in the pre-season polls. John is already 6-2 with a 3rd place finish at the Eastern Michigan Open, his only loss being to a 6th ranked Division I wrestler from Stanford

Also wrestling for Williams is Lars Ojukwu PEA '03 and James Sheehan PEA '02. James is off to a strong start also having placed 4th at 157 in the Doug Parker Invitational held at Springfield College November 19th

Matt Stolpinski of Navy

From Navy - Matt Stolpinski PEA '03 has a 12-2 record at 174 for the Midshipmen. He placed first at his weight in the Navy Classic Tournament November 19th

 

Wrestling at Wesleyan College is Steve Campbell PEA '02 at Heavyweight. Steve is a returning letterwinner for the Cardinals.

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