RWU Wrestling takes down Coast Guard Academy

The Roger Williams Universi­ty wrestling team claimed their first Pilgrim Conference victory of the season as they defeated Coast Guard Academy by a de­cisive 37 – 6 on Dec. 7 at the Campus Recreation Center.

"It was great," said first-year head coach Jon Egan. "You know, we're ranked 5th in New England, they're ranked 6th in New England, so it's good to fi­nally set the tone of where we belong."

To Egan, getting off to a strong start was extremely important.

"I told the guys before: I don't want a close match, I want to shut them out and be where we should be at 5th in New Eng­land, and our guys did that. They showed up today, showed up ready to win.

"Last year Coast Guard ended up beating us at the end of the season in the New England du­als tournament," Egan said. "And we've always kind of had a chip on our shoulder from then. We thought we thought we were a better team then, and today I told them we need to get back on track, we need to shut these kids out best we can. We don't want them thinking they have any glimpse of hope up against us when we come to the New England duals again in January. So it was kind of nice to set the tone early in the year."

RWU got a great outing all around, sweeping eight of the nine weight classes. The Hawks got a great match from junior captain Phil Ernst who won his match with a pin. To Ernst, going into a match with a clear head is the most important thing.

"It's different with every match," Ernst said. "You al­ways go in there with a clear head you don't want to be caught up with who they are, what they are, or what they've done. It doesn't matter. Noth­ing matters; you just got to get it done."

The Hawks also got a great match from junior Shane Parcel, who defeated Coast Guard's Nolan Salyer 8-1.

To coach Egan, Parcel and Ernst have been the biggest rea­sons for the team's early success.

"Phil and Shane are just at another level," Egan said. "You know, anyone could come into the practice room and pick out two guys that are just working harder than anybody else and doing all the extra little things to become better wrestlers and those are the two guys that are doing it. They're non-stop asking me to work out extra, anything those guys can do to make themselves better, they're doing it, and it's paying off."

To Ernst, it's coach Egan whose efforts seem to be pay­ing off.

"He's been excellent," Ernst said. "He's been a really big part of our team. Keeping the guys motivated he's doing re­ally well this year. I'm really proud of him."

The Hawks next matchup is Saturday, Dec. 10th as they take on Norwich University Cadets in a non-conference match. The match starts at 1 p.m.