Six Columbia University wrestlers secured third-place finishes at the Black Knight Invite, which was hosted by Army at Christl Arena in West Point, New York, on Sunday. Three additional Columbia athletes placed in the top five.
Cesar Alvan, Aaron Ayzerov, Sulayman Bah, Richard Fedalen, Nick Fine, and Adam Haselius each took third place in their respective weight classes. Vincent Mueller finished fourth in the 285-pound division. Evin Gursoy and Lorenzo Frezza earned fifth-place finishes, while Marco Frinzi and Roman Lermer both came in sixth.
Sulayman Bah recorded a 2-1 performance during the tournament. He began with a win by fall over Tyler Tice from Chattanooga. In the semifinals, Bah lost to Penn State’s No. 1-ranked Luke Lilledahl via an 18-5 technical fall but came back to defeat Army’s No. 29 Charlie Farmer with an 11-2 major decision for third place.
Cesar Alvan posted a 3-1 record for the day. His run started with an 18-0 technical fall against Ryan Alvarado of Army and continued with a quarterfinal victory over Sam Beckett of Penn State by a score of 14-3. After losing to Army’s No. 21 Gunner Filipowicz in the semifinals (5-2), Alvan claimed third place by defeating Mason Reiniche from Chattanooga (8-5).
Aaron Ayzerov entered ranked No. 16 nationally in the 184-pound division and opened his tournament with an 8-0 major decision over Landon Jones from Chattanooga in the quarterfinals. Ayzerov fell to Asher Cunningham of Penn State (11-3) in the semifinals before returning to beat teammate Joe Curtis for third place (4-0).
Richard Fedalen started his competition directly in the semifinals but lost to Connor Peirce of Penn State (18-4). In his third-place match, he defeated Army’s Mason Barvitskie (5-0).
Nick Fine finished his day at 3-1 within the 174-pound class after winning matches in both the round of sixteen and quarterfinals before falling to William Henckel from Penn State (7-3) in the semifinals. Fine closed out his event with a technical fall win over Cooper Haase from Army (21-5).
In the 197-pound category, Adam Haselius began by defeating Reid Schroeder of Army via an 11-2 major decision and then pinned LIU’s John Dusza during their quarterfinal match. After losing by fall in the semifinals, Haselius won his final bout against Chris Murphy of Army with a major decision score of 13-3.
Columbia’s wrestling team will next compete at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite on Friday, December 5.
Fans can follow updates about Columbia Wrestling on X (@CULionsWR), Instagram (@culionswr), and Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
