Wrestling Season Preview
11/3/2023
Brown wrestling is ready to return to the mat for its second season under Jordan Leen, the Marvin Wilenzik '56 Head Coaching Chair for Brown Wrestling. The Bears open their season on Sunday, Nov. 5 at the Clarion Open.
The Brown roster consists of 24 members including three seniors, nine juniors, four sophomores and brings in a class of eight freshman. Two newcomers have been added to the staff in Ty Walz, who is a three-time All-American and former Assistant Coach at Virginia Tech, and All-American Micky Phillippi.
EIWA Returners
Seven wrestlers who competed at the EIWA Championships last season are back for 2023-24.
Junior Hunter Adrian led the team last season with a 20-13 record, including a 7-2 mark in EIWA matches at 133 pounds. Adrian posted three falls and three major decisions and finished eighth in his weight class at EIWA's. Adrian has his mind set on qualifying for the NCAA Championships this season.
Junior Sam McMonagle won 11 matches in 2022-23 at 149 pounds with five dual match victories and three major decisions, while junior Blake Saito posted 11 wins as well with four falls at 157 pounds.
Also back from the 2023 EIWA Championship are senior James Araneo (197 lbs.), juniors Keegan Rothrock (165 lbs.) and Ian Oswalt (141 lbs.), and sophomore Alex Semenenko (285 lbs.).
Schedule Outlook
The Bears will be busy on Sundays to start the season. Competition begins on November 5 at the Clarion Open and continues at the Bearcat Open (Nov. 12) and the Black Knight Invitational (Nov. 19). Brown will then wrestle in the Lehigh Invitational (Dec. 22) before kicking off the new year at the Southern Scuffle at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (Jan. 1-2).
Dual matches get started on January 12 at Davidson College against the Wildcats and Presbyterian College. The next day (Jan. 13) the Bears face tough competition at Duke and North Carolina of the ACC.
EIWA matches begin at Cornell and Binghamton (Jan. 27) and continue at LIU (Jan.28). Brown is then home for three-consecutive matches against Penn (Feb. 3), Princeton (Feb. 4) and Drexel (Feb. 10). The final four matches of the regular season are at Bucknell (Feb. 17) and Columbia (Feb. 18) before two home matches against Harvard (Feb. 23) and Sacred Heart (Feb. 24).
The EIWA Championships take place in Lewisburg, Pa. at Bucknell University from March 8-9 and the NCAA Championships will be at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City on March 21-23.
Newcomers
Set to compete on the mat for the Bears this season and beyond are Dominic Frontino, Riley Halal, Alex Hamrick, Colby Isabelle, Austin McBurney, Ethan Mojena and Nico Romero.
“We are pleased with the way our recruiting class came together," said Leen. “The class exceeded our expectations, largely because each individual continued to improve this past year. We targeted prospects that we projected would eventually break through based on the way they live, train, and compete.”
"It was nice to celebrate some of those break-through achievements with them even before arriving on College Hill. Ethan Mojena captured a National Prep Championship and was recognized as the No. 72 overall prospect in the country by Flowrestling, and Dom Frontino knocked off several nationally ranked foes to earn the recognition as the nations No. 99 overall prospect.”
