Barber and Stroud take third at Williams Invitational

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - For the second straight day the Simpson wrestling team competed at Williams College, this time taking seventh place of eight teams at the 2010 Williams Invitational on Tuesday.

Senior 174-pounder Curtis Barber and junior heavyweight Taylor Stroud each took third place at the tournament. For Barber, his 3-1 day caps off a successful two-day stretch in which he went 5-1 after going 2-0 in duals against Williams and Southern Maine a day earlier.

Simpson accumulated 32 points on the day, edging out Norwood (31.5). Williams won the tournament with 144.5 points, followed by Southern Maine (83), Rodger Williams (75.5), Bridgewater State (72.5), AIC (68.5) and Plymouth State (53.5).

After losing his first match of the day, Barber worked his way through the consolation bracket. The Winterset, Iowa native began his run against teammate Jordy Ammons, which turned out to be his most competitive match. Barber snuck by Ammons, 5-4 in overtime.

Ammons pinned AIC's Terrell Belcher in advancing to meet his teammate.

Following the win against Ammons, Barber defeated Plymouth State's Dan Curley, 8-0 before winning a hard-fought match against Chris Nadeau of Rodger Williams, 4-3. Barber met up with Drew Gatewood in the consolation championship, taking a 17-4 decision.

A 2007 graduate of Winterset High School, Stroud won 5-3 against Ryan Stanton of USM before moving to the consolation bracket. Stroud then took a 6-0 decision from Norwich's Matt Ditolla before advancing due to an injury default.

In the consolation semifinals, the unseeded Stroud advanced with a 4-2 decision against second-seeded Ben Kissane of Rodger Williams. He then cruised in the consolation final with a 9-0 win over sixth-seeded Travis Koch of AIC.

Freshman Jeff Sand finished fourth at 133 pounds for the Storm. Seeded fourth, Sand went 2-3 on the day, losing a tightly-contested 1-0 decision against fifth-seeded Kaison Tanabe of Williams in the third-place match.

The Storm returns to Iowa Conference action on Jan. 13 when it hosts Buena Vista in the final home dual of the season at Hopper Gymnasium. The dual is set to begin at 7 p.m.