BOSTON, MA -- Rising senior Scott Sanderson a three-year letterman in wrestling for the Ephs took the silver medal in the Open Division of the annual Bay State Games held at UMass-Boston on July 7th.
The Bay State Games holds competitions in many different sports throughout the summer for Massachusetts's residents and those athletes that go to school in the state.
The wrestling tournament is, however, open to all of the other New England states (except Ct. which has it's own Nutmeg Games), making for tough competition throughout the weight classes. The Open Division is generally made up of current and former college wrestlers from all three NCAA Divisions. There were over 100 wrestlers entered this year.
Sanderson, who competed or the Ephs last winter at 157 pounds was in the 170-lb. bracket. After a first round bye, Sanderson squared off against Louis Sanclemente of Eastern Nazarene. Sanderson blanked Sanclemente 4-0 to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-final match, Sanderson impressed with an exciting upset of the #1 seed, Edwardo Hopp out of Providence, RI, who was a two-time Rhode Island state champion and had wrestled at the University of Missouri.
Down 2-1 to Hopp in the final period, Sanderson was able to score a take down and established 3-2 lead. Later on Sanderson was able to execute a quick turn and pinned Hopp with just six seconds to go in the match.
In a tough championship final, Sanderson lost to Andrew Tanner of WPI 4-0. Tanner scored an early take down in the first period and the two battled evenly until late into the final period when Sanderson gambled on a shot to try to even the score, but ultimately surrendered two points as time expired.
As a top three finisher Sanderson received an invitation to participate in the 2013 State Games of America wrestling competition in Hershey, Penn., in early August of 2013. The State Games of America features medal winners from over 25 state games organizations across the country including Pennsylvania, Iowa, Nebraska, California and Connecticut.
In both his sophomore and junior years Sanderson was accorded NESCAC All-Academic Team honors. A double major in math and philosophy, Sanderson will write a cross discipline senior thesis in math and computer science.
