Wrestling advances four to NCAA Championship
ELIZABETHTOWN, PA. – Seniors Kaidon Winters and Zach Stedeford, junior Austin Lamb and freshman Josh Harkless punched their tickets to the NCAA D-III National Championship by finishing in the top-three at the NCAA Mideast Regionals, Sunday.
"We are very proud of this weekend's performance. Having two wrestlers from my first recruiting class qualify together is very special," RIT head wrestling coach Jason Bovenzi said.
Of the four, Winters dominated the 157-pound bracket with four pins and took the only two awards given to wrestlers at the event; Most Outstanding Wrestler and Most Falls in Least Amount of Time.
"Kaidon was his usual dominant self, but Zach coming through as a sixth seed to take third and qualify is special as well. He was so close to qualifying his sophomore year placing fourth in the region behind a national champion and two other All-Americans. The following year he had a season ending shoulder surgery which was followed by a COVID-canceled season last year. To see the joy in him and his family was very rewarding. Our younger qualifiers (Austin and Josh) are of sophomore and freshmen eligibility. The experience they get at the NCAA's will help raise the goals and expectations for future teams. We feel like we had the potential to send more, but it is a tough tournament and there is no margin for error. We will learn from it and be better for it moving forward. The next competition is where legends are made. We still have work ahead of us, Bovenzi said.
Winters pinned Perry Maio (The College of N.J.) in 3:39 in the opening round and then pinned Tyler Newton (University of Pttsburgh-Bradford) in 2:06 in the quarterfinals on Saturday. On Sunday, Winters pinned Muhlenberg's Anson Dewar in the semifinals after 6:07 and then took the championship in 3:53 with a pin over The College of New Jersey's Matthew Sacco. Winters needed a combined 15:45 to pin all four opponents with an average pin time of just under four minutes per match.
Lamb finished second in the 165-pound bracket after beginning with a pair of 6-1 decisions over Oswego's Isaac Mathews and Matt Surich (The College of N.J.) in the quarterfinals on Saturday. Lamb took a 7-5 sudden victory over Elizabethtown's Brian Schneider in the semifinals, before falling in the tile bout by a 6-2 decision to Dominick Reyes of Johns Hopkins.
Harkless finished third in the 197-pound bracket starting with a pin over Scranton's Steve Murphy in 4:32 and a 4-2 quarterfinal victory over Kyle Hillermeier (N.J. City University) on Saturday. Harkless fell 5-1 to Quinn Haddad (The College of N.J.) in the semifinals, but registered a pair of wrestleback wins to earn third over Ursinus' Jason Carter (6:59 fall) and Muhlenberg's Luca Colestock (5-1 decision).
Taking the most difficult path to a trip to Iowa was Stedeford. The senior finished third in the 174-bracket after starting with a pin over Brockport's Jared Zenie in 2:42. Stedeford lost a close 7-6 decision in the quarterfinals to Johns Hopkins' Joe Paul before winning all four wrestleback matches (7-0, 4-2 SV, 8-0 MD, 6-2) to claim third.
RIT also had one fifth-place finisher, one sixth-place finisher, and two seventh-place finishers. Sophomore Michael Glynn III took fifth in the 149-pound bracket. Junior Colby Giroux finished sixth in the 184-pound bracket. Senior Christopher Horton (141-pound bracket) and junior Calik Kennedy (285-pound bracket) each finished seventh.
The NCAA D-III Wrestling Championship begins Friday, March 11 at Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Gloss