Before Thanksgiving break, the Cardinals staged a strong showing at the Doug Parker Tournament at Springfield College. Finishing ninth of 18 teams, Wesleyan set the tone for a great season.

Ranked seventh in the nation, Greg Hurd ’10 dominated his early matches at 174 pounds and came out with a second place finish. Hurd lost in the finals to Brandon MacWhinnie of Stevens Tech, ranked sixth in the nation, by a score of 8-1.

Dan Bloom ’10 joined the action and took second place in the 125-pound weight class, falling 8-4 in the finals to Rickey Redd of Centenary.

The freshmen on the team had a big day at the tournament. Grant Giordano ’11, one of the new and exciting freshman additions to the team, was one of the Cardinal wrestlers that faced many tough opponents at the Doug Parker tournament.

“I wrestled well,” Giordano said. “I lost to three different New England placers by a combined four points.”

Giordano has wrestled in the 149-pound weight class in the past, but is moving up to 157-pounds this season. Giordano explained how competing at such a competitive level in the sport of wrestling can be extremely difficult and physically demanding.

“College wrestling is much different because everybody deserves to be there,” Giordano said. “In high school I could wrestle nearly the whole season until meeting a challenging opponent, but it’s a good experience for me because it makes me hungry again.”

Putting on a spectacular performance, Chris Alvanos ’11 battled through the day going 5-2 in his matches. His efforts earned him a solid fourth place at 125-pounds and a nomination for freshman of the week in a stacked 15-team conference.

Another promising freshman, Charles Hoeg ’11, represented the 149-pound class well and went 3-2 in his matches, one win from placing.

Josh Berkovic ’10 started his first season back from a knee injury that kept him out of competition last year with an exhilarating display of perseverance by taking home a 4-2 record from the tournament at 165-pounds.

Coach Drew Black expressed the team’s determination and hard work in an electronic newsletter.

“We are working as a unit to have all of our cylinders firing as one unit. At the end of the day, the team realizes that although we have had some nice early season success, this team can be even better and will be better,” Black wrote.

This Saturday, the team heads to Rochester, N.Y. to continue its campaign at the RIT Tournament.

“It’s a tough tournament,” Bloom said. “Last year we only had one person place and with the way we’ve been wrestling, it would be awesome to get a solid group placing this year.”

Although The RIT Invitational does not host as many teams as the Doug Parker Tournament, there will be no drop off in the level of intense, nationally competitive wrestling. It can be tough on the individual wrestler to have five, six or even seven matches in one day at a tournament, so with a smaller field at RIT, the Cardinals will look to push through the opening matches and come out on top.

“Guys have been doing really well, coming up just a match or two short of placing, so we should be able to turn that around and have a great showing,” Bloom said.