Dec. 20, 2002
Junior Rob Becker turned in his third impressive performance of the young season by placing second at 149 pounds at the first annual Beast of the East College Invitational Friday at the University of Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, DE.
George Mason, which competed with just six wrestlers due to injuries and other factors, finished 10th among the 15 teams with 27 points. Rider was the team champion in the tournament with 145 points.
Seeded second at 149, Becker improved to 11-4 this season as he won three of his four matches. He has placed in each of the tournaments George Mason has competed in this season, finishing fourth at the East Stroudsburg Open and seventh at the prestigious Las Vegas Invitational.
Becker opened the day with a 10-1 major decision over The Citadel's Vince Bartges, then won by fall in 1:17 over Wagner's Matt Hartigan and scored a 3-1 decision over Buffalo's Ryan Bentley to advance to the finals. Facing Ohio University's Jake Percival, the top seed in the tournament and ranked fourth in the nation by Amateur Wrestling News and InterMat, Becker dropped an 11-6 decision.
Juniors Sean Early and Nick Webster also had solid performances for the Patriots as each won two matches. Early boosted his season record to 5-4 at 157, while Webster improved to 4-6 at 184.
Early, who was struggling with bruised ribs suffered at the Las Vegas Invitational, won his opening match at 157 with a 17-0 technical fall over Virginia's Conor Manley before losing by fall in 3:20 to top-seeded Derek Jenkins of Rider (ranked eighth by InterMat, ninth by AWN). Moving into the consolation bracket, he defeated Delaware Club's Jesse Dixon, 9-5, before withdrawing from the remainder of the tournament.
Webster lost his opening match at 184 to top-seeded Garrett Bontempo of Buffalo, 10-4, but he bounced back in the consolation bracket to defeat Drexel's John Caprio (12-5) and Ohio's Travis Smith (fall in 1:35) before falling to second-seeded Mike Robinson of Rider, 8-3.
George Mason is off until opening its dual meet season on Friday, Jan. 10, at Colonial Athletic Association foe Campbell.
