On January 27th, the Engineers were part of a tournament that put them up against some of the traditionally top teams in Division III. The tournament included Trenton State, Kean and Hunter from the Metro Conference in New Jersey along with Roger Williams, Bridgewater State and WPI from the New England Conference. The Engineers had a good day; winning two out of the three matches versus the Metro Conference schools.
In the match against Trenton State, WPI was able to win two matches as they were beaten 46-6. The highlight of the dual was senior Mark Simon defeating the #7 ranked wrestler in the country at 134 lbs. The other winner for WPI was Stan Farrell at 177 lbs.
Against Kean and Hunter it was a different story. WPI took control early and defeated both. They beat Kean 33-18 and Hunter 29-11. Winners versus Kean were Rob Polin (118 lbs), Dave Gardner (126 lbs), Joe Tucker (142 lbs), Dan Hugaboom (150 lbs), Jeff Stearns (158 lbs), Matt Marino (167 lbs), Farrell and Rich Regan (Hvwt).
Versus Hunter, WPI winners were Gardner, Tucker, Hugaboom, Stearns (167 lbs), Lance Baden (177 lbs), Farrell (190 lbs) and Craig Howitt (Hvwt).
Last Tuesday, the 30th, the Engineers hosted Coast Guard in one of their two home matches for the season. As always the competition was fierce. Polin got WPI off to the quick start by pinning his opponent. Coast Guard won the next three weights to take a 10-6 lead before the Engineers ripped off wins in the next three weight classes as Hugaboom, Stearns and Baden came through to give WPI the lead at 21-10. Coast Guard battled back to cut the lead to 21-20 entering the heavyweight division. In another exciting finish, Howitt pinned his man and clinched the match for the Engineers 27-20.
WPI opened up their NEW 8 Conference schedule on the 27th against the defending champion Lyons of Wheaton College. Last year Wheaton defeated WPI in the conference tournament final. It took an extra session, but WPI pulled out a 72-66 win. The Engineers had a 10 point halftime lead that they saw disappear and actually turn into a defecit late in the fourth quarter. They did tie it and then outscored Wheaton 10-4 in overtime to take the big win and start us off to a 1-0 conference record. Danielle Batey led all scorers with 20 points and Kim Landry added 17 points to go with her 13 rebounds.
Last Thursday (the 30th), if you didn't catch the game versus Clark, you missed a classic come from behind win. The gym was alive as they witnessed a strong first half by the visiting Cougars who led at the break 34-24. Clark still had the lead by 12 points with eight minutes remaining. WPI then turned up the defense as the began to cut into the lead. They cut the lead to 56-53 with 3:28 remaining. The Engineers trailed by three points with 1:28 left when Batey hit a pull-up jumper to bring the score to 59-58 with less than one minute remaining. Then WPI came up with a defensive stop and moved the ball upcourt to set the offense. The ball was kicked out to Jen Plante who took the shot and made it to give the Engineers their first lead of the game at 60-59. There was now 26 seconds left when Clark had their opportunity to take the lead. They went to their go-to player and she hit a tough shot over three defenders to give the lead back to Clark. With 10 seconds remaining WPI had the ball, but had to go the full length of the floor. They inbounded to Plante who took the ball over half court and passed to Batey above the arc. Batey then drove and hit the runner with three seconds left to give the lead back at 62-61. Clark was not able to do anything with the remaining time as WPI took the huge win to move to 2-0 in the conference.
On the 27th, the Engineers hosted Coast Guard trying to snap a two-game losing streak. The game was tied at halftime as neither team could pull away from the other. WPI did have the lead at 64-63 with 17 seconds left. Coast Guard made two free throws to take the lead. On the next posession WPI turned it over and was forced to foul on the ensuing inbounds play. Coast Guard made the two foul shots to lead 67-64. Mike Shannon had a last shot, but it hit the front of the rim. Jeff Cayer led four players in double figures with 18 points. Jim Naughton had 16 points, Greg Simpson returned to the starting lineup and had 13 points and Shannon had 11 points.
Last Tuesday night the men completed an evening of nail-biters by defeating Norwich 82-77 in overtime. The Engineers had a chance to win the game at the end of regulation, but turned it over to Norwich who ran out the final seconds. In overtime, Shannon hit a three point shot with one minute left to give WPI the lead for good at 78-77. Jeff Kijak iced the game with a layup to make the final 82-77. Naughton scored a career high 31 points in leading the Engineers to go along with 15 rebounds.
Two nights later (on the 1st), WPI traveled to Boston to take on Suffolk University in coach Ken Kaufman's 500th game at WPI. The Engineers gave Kaufman a win as they held off the Rams 65-61. Naughton had another double-double with 22 points and 11 rebounds to lead WPI. Shannon added 15 points and Simpson had 12 points to help in the win.
Give feedback: newspeak@wpi.wpi.edu