ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College wrestling program made its long-awaited return to the mats on Friday as they opened their season hosting the 37^th Annual Ithaca Invitational inside the Athletics & Events Center's Glazer Arena. Ithaca who are ranked No. 14 in both the NWCA Preseason National Rankings along with d3wrestle.com Preseason Rankings had several outstanding performances on the first day of wrestling. The Bombers racked up a total of 36 team points and sit fifth in the 11-team field heading into the final day of action on Saturday.

In what has annually been of the premiere tournaments of the opening weekend for NCAA Division III wrestling, Ithaca College welcomed the following 10 teams to South Hill: American International, Baldwin Wallace, Castleton University, Johnson & Wales University, New England College, Norwich University, Springfield College, Oswego State, Stevens Institute of Technology and Western New England University.

It was Stevens Institute of Technology that emerged out of the first day with the slight lead, as the Ducks amassed 46.5 points to enter Saturday with a 6.5-point lead on the rest of the field. Johnson & Wales (R.I.) sits in second place with 40.5 team points and right behind them is Castleton who totaled 38.5 team points. Rounding out the top-5 was Baldwin Wallace (38.0) and Ithaca who amassed 36.0 team points.

The remainder of the field went as follows: Springfield is sixth with 33.5 team points, Oswego State with 24.5 points, New England College is eight with 22.5 points, Western New England is ninth with 22.0 points, Norwich totaled 13.0 points, which is good for 10^th and American International is in 11^th place with 11.0 team points.

It was a strong opening day as far as the Bombers were concerned. Of Ithaca's 18 total entries, seven of them remain in contention within the championship bracket with Matt Haycook (125), Matt Griffin (125), Travis Jones (141), Adam Wagner (157), Wenchard Pierre-Louis (157), Jackson Gray (165) and Eze Chukwuezi (197) looking to continue to make noise on Saturday.

Below is a detailed list of Friday highlights for the Bombers on the first day of competition. Wrestling is slated to continue tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.

125 LB

• Matt Griffin scored Ithaca 3.0 team points with a win over Jared Fantauzzi of Baldwin Wallace with a (Fall 1:03) in his first round matchup. He earned his second pin of the day (Fall 1:56) as he locked up a cradle on Jerry Echevarria (American International) that clinched a bout into the elite eight.
• Michael Snowden received a bye in the first round and in his first matchup of the day against Christian Rivas of Johnson & Wales ended with a Rivas earning the fall in 4:27.
• Matt Haycook also won his first round match with a (Fall 2:40) over Western New England's Nicolas Faraci. He is a non-scoring team member but still moved on within the 125 LB bracket. He clinched a spot into the elite eight of the 125 lb. bracket with his 6-1 decision over Kaya Bogle.

133 LB

• Dylan Earl earned a pin against Matt Laubach of Oswego State (Fall 2:52) that earned the Bombers 3.0 team points.

141 LB

• Travis Jones kept up the streak of early round wins for IC at 141 LBs he was victorious over Mason Preble of Springfield College (Fall 2:19). Jones continued his strong evening of work with a dominant 15-2 major decision over Stevens' Trevor Mastorio. Jones will continue his journey in the championship bracket.

149 LB

• Colin Murphy was the scoring team member for the Bombers and earned 2.0 team points in his second round matchup after his initial bye. He came away victorious with a 12-6 decision over Western New England's Peter Charnley.
• Matthew Beyer also competed for IC and went back and forth with his opponent Max Oprzadek (Springfield College) and earned the fall in 3:01.

157 LB

• First year Wenchard Pierre-Louis won his opening bout earning yet another pin for IC. He bested his opponent from Baldwin Wallace (Naseem Maali-Gentil) with the fall in 1:37.
• Adrian Rosario-Beato kicked off his junior season with a victory that came via a pin. He bested Springfield College's Hiyuma Nagain (Fall 1:31). He was the scoring team member for the Bombers.
• Adam Wagner competed at 157 for Ithaca and had a tough second round matchup with Nicolai Celestain of Oswego State. Wagner came up victorious with 4.0 team points with his (Fall 5:22).
• Both Pierre-Louis and Adam Wagner will move onto the elite eight of the 157 lb. bracket with each earning wins in their next matchups. Wagner earned a 6-3 decision over Gabriel Degraffinree (Johnson & Wales), while Wenchard Pierre-Louis is on the opposite side of the championship bracket and picked up the 12-8 decision over Luke Pinzino.

165 LB

• Jackson Gray was seeded No.7 and earned a trip into the quarterfinals with a dominant 20-3 tech-fall over Tyler Barker of Norwich University.

184 LB

• The Bombers saw yet another pin as Jeremy Mazzella moved on to the second round thanks to his victory. He bested James Spellman from Norwich University (Fall 2:01).

197 LB

• The No. 2 seed in his respective bracket, Eze Chukwuezi picked up a fall within the first period (Fall 4:22) as he was victorious over Jaden Barnes of Springfield College.