Donahue joins Cornell's 90-win club with perfect 5-0 mark in Florida

Senior wrestler Kevin Donahue (Mechanicsville, Va./St. Christopher's) joined Cornell College's 90-win club while claiming the 141-pound title at the Citrus Open Thursday in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Donahue was among 12 Rams to collect top-eight finishes during the two-day event over the holiday break.

Cornell received runner-up performances from junior Nicholas Loughlin (Cherokee/Washington) at 157 and junior Joe Hambleton (Parsons, Kan./Labette County) at 165. The 11th-ranked Rams scored 142 points to place fourth in the 14-team tournament, won by 10th-ranked (NCAA Division II) Upper Iowa with a 174-168 margin over runner-up and sixth-ranked Augsburg. No. 16 Mount Union took third with 151.5 points.

Cornell concluded its Florida trip with a 43-0 rout of Washington & Jefferson Thursday. It was the second shutout win of the season for the Rams, who raised their season dual mark to 8-4-1.

“The most important thing is we wanted to continue to train over (Christmas) break and go up against quality competition,” Cornell head coach Mike Duroe said. “We were able to test ourselves against a strong field and it gave our guys a chance to see where they are at this stage in the season.”

Donahue fashioned a 5-0 mark in Florida, picking up four wins in the tournament as the No. 1 seed in his weight class. He opened the tournament with a 19-4 technical fall and pinned his second opponent in 2 minutes, 8 seconds. Donahue claimed a 5-3 decision in the semifinals and then scored a 5-2 victory over No. 3 seed Michael Trasso of Rhode Island College in the championship bout.

Donahue became the 15th Ram in the modern-day era to reach 90 career wins, currently sporting a 94-38 record that puts him 14th on the school's all-time wins list. He improved to 15-4 on the season.

Loughlin extended his winning streak to seven matches before dropping a 3-1 overtime decision to Upper Iowa's Winston Robbins in the finals. Hambleton was impressive during his route to the finals with a pin, technical fall and major decision. He fell 7-4 in the championship to Upper Iowa's Bryce Lumzy.

The Rams scored third-place finishes from junior Tigue Snider (Wilton/Wilton) at 133 and junior Jacob Schwebke (Aplington/AGWSR) at 149. Snider's lone loss was a 5-2 semifinal battle with top-ranked Kyle Pedretti of Upper Iowa. Schwebke was upended 7-1 in the semifinals by Augsburg's second-ranked Tony Valek.

Timothy Hood (Morrison, Ill./Morrison) placed fourth at 125 with a 5-1 mark. Freshman Ben Rosen (Lincolnwood, Ill./Niles West) at 133 and senior Robert Widmer (Malcom/Montezuma) at 197 both finished fifth. Widmer added a first-period pin in the shutout over Washington & Jefferson.

“We had some good individual performances,” Duroe said. “I saw improvement from our team. Our guys showed a lot more fight and were competitive. That was encouraging.”

NWCA Duals ahead – Cornell will go head-to-head against some of the top teams in Division III this weekend at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals Jan. 8-9 in Cedar Falls. Seeds and pairings for the 16-team tournament will be released early this week.

The Rams have placed in the top-eight four of the last five years. Duroe's squad went 3-2 at last year's event and brought home hardware with a seventh-place finish. The Rams took sixth in 2009 and 2007, and placed seventh in 2006.

This year's field features No. 1 Wartburg, No. 2 Saint John's, No. 3 UW-La Crosse, No. 4 Coe, No. 5 Ithaca, No. 6 Augsburg, No. 7 Concordia-Moorhead, No. 10 UW-Stevens Point, No. 11 Cornell, No. 12 Dubuque, No. 19 Wilkes, No. 22 Elmhurst, No. 25 Delaware Valley, No. 26 Johnson & Wales, No. 28 Heidelberg and No. 29 Luther.

“This is the premier wrestling event of the season, next to the national championships,” Duroe said. “It's always an exciting environment.”