Snider places third at Loras Open

Senior 133-pounder Tigue Snider battled his way back through the consolation bracket and placed third in the Gold Division to lead the fifth-ranked Rams in their 2011-12 season debut Saturday at the Loras Open.

Snider, a team tri-captain and ranked No. 7 in his weight class, finished 5-1 and was among five Cornell placewinners in the tournament. No team scores were recorded.

In the varsity Gold Division, senior fourth-ranked Nicholas Loughlin finished fourth at 165 pounds, senior fourth-ranked Timothy Hood took fifth at 125, and sophomore Alex Coolidge was sixth at 197. Freshman Brent Hamm placed fourth at 174 in the Silver Division.

Snider is one of six returning national qualifiers on head coach Mike Duroe's squad. He bounced back from a first-round defeat Saturday to post five convincing wins. Snider scored a 6-1 victory over Grand View's Travis Evans in the third-place bout. He also tallied a major decision and two decisions on his way to the place match.

Loughlin and Hood both went 5-2 in the tournament. Loughlin dropped a 2-1 decision to Grand View's Brad Lower in the third-place match. Hood claimed a 3-2 win in his fifth-place match. He recorded a pair of falls and a major decision.

Coolidge advanced to the 197-pound semifinal, where he lost an 8-7 battle with Marty Smith from the University of Illinois. He defaulted his final two matches to finish sixth.

Senior Joe Hambleton, ranked third at 165, went 3-1 with a pin and major decision. Senior Andrew Roberts, ranked eighth at 184, registered a pair of pins and finished 2-2. He fell 3-1 in the consolation semifinals to fourth-ranked Greg Rhoads of Wabash.

Hamm was the team's top finisher in the Silver Division with a 3-2 mark. Freshman Mitch Hood went 3-2 at 125. Ben Rosen at 125, Ray Feliz at 141 and Wyatt Bauman at 285 all finished 2-2.