Ohio is known to have some of the greatest wrestling in the entire country! Sure everyone knows Ohio State Wrestling is always a top ten every year. However , some may not know just how good the other NCAA schools are within our state. For example with these three teams, two of them are NCAA D3 schools and Lake Erie College is a NCAA D2 institution. These schools each have great tradition within the sport. John Carroll has been producing All-Americans for years now, along with Mount Union. Lake Erie College is on the newer end of programs , having the first team only in 2010. However within the last 12 years LEC has produced some very solid wrestlers who earned AA Status. These smaller schools do an amazing job on the recruiting trail. They love to have their pick of any Ohio wrestler willing to put in the work and stay somewhat local to NE Ohio. Just because they may be smaller divisions does not take away from the fact that these squads compete with the absolute best on the national stage. With Coach Hawald leading the way for the JCU Bluestreaks , Ryan Riggs at the helm of Mount Union, and Jeff Breese of Lake Erie College. These three coaches are doing an amazing job at building super tough squads that compete at the highest level!
For the Mount Union Purple Raiders. This is Coach Riggs first season as the head coach with his assistant Sam White. Two men with great wrestling roots from Massillon Perry High School. The Purple Raiders have been scrapping hard all season long. As the season comes to a close here with this weekends NCAA Tournaments . Mount Union was able to send a total of 3 wrestlers to the big show! Qualifying for the NCAA Tournament at the D2 or D3 level is a lot different than D1. One must qualify through a “Super Region” and place top 4 in order to advance! The brackets at the NCAA Tournament are only 16 man brackets. Very similar to the State Tournament in Ohio. I have always been vocal about the need to up the # of wrestlers in the tournament. I feel that anyone who places top 6 at a super region should automatically get in to the NCAA Championships. The reason being that , some of these super regions are just so incredibly tough, that even NCAA All-Americans from the year before get left behind. Mount Union being able to send 3 wrestlers to NCAA’s is absolutely amazing. I am sure they would have liked to send the whole team, however this is just Coach Riggs first year as the head coach. They will certainly build from those numbers. The NCAA Tournament is in Cedar Rapids , Iowa this year. The following wrestlers from Mount Union will look to finish their season on top of the podium and to earn All-American Status! Jack Stanley at 125lbs from Brecksville, Ohio. Stanley currently holds the #8 ranked spot in the country going into the tournament this weekend, and he is only a Jr. as far as eligibility goes. At 133 , they take David Massey a senior from Woodridge , Ohio. Currently ranked #4 in the country. A returning All-American as well. Will look to finish on top this season and go out with his hand raised for his last go at this. The final qualifier Mount Union Had is , Jordan James, a senior from Bedford, Ohio. James has been holding down the #1 ranked wrestler in the country spot for the last couple of months now. Even with a target on his back , he has prevailed. He will look to finish the season off on top of the podium in Iowa. Over all Mount Union has a great chance to bring home 3/3 All-American Honors. Coach Riggs, Coach Sam White and these wrestlers truly are building something special in Alliance Ohio. Do not sleep on these dudes! Best of luck to the team this weekend at NCAA’s!
When it comes to John Carroll. Coach Hawald has also been blessed with a great group of young men. In their regional tournament. They were able to get 4 wrestlers out to the NCAA D3 Tournament in Cedar Rapids. Andrew Perelka, Luke Reicosky, Patrick McGraw, and Daniel Devara. These four along with other teammates were able to lock up a third place finish over all! The 4 that will be wrestling this weekend, is the second highest number in school history. Maybe we will get to see a rematch of the regional final between Perelka and Massey of Mount Union? It was only a 5-3 bout during their regional final. McGraw was the lone regional champion for the blue streaks with freshman phenom Daniel Devara and Senior Reicosky able to punch their tickets to the big show in Iowa. Let’s hope for a great showing from our JCU Wrestlers! Good luck boys!
Heading into St.Louis this weekend for Jeff Breese and the Lake Erie Storm are three tough dudes ready to earn AA Honors! The NCAA D2 Championships are in St.Louis this weekend as well. So we are going to have two national championships going on at the same time! This truly is the greatest part of the season. This is where all the hard work starts to pay off. Peaking at the right moment. Just getting to the tournament is such a journey. As I stated before, some of these super regions these teams go through are absolutely treacherous ! Weight classes loaded with former All-Americans and NCAA Champions from years past. Making the trip for the Storm this weekend are Corey Gamet at 133lbs, Ty Swiderski @ 157lbs, and James Penfold at 165. Each one of these guys has sat somewhere in the “Top 10” national rankings throughout the year. Penfold has really had an incredible season for the LEC Storm. He currently sits at the #3 ranking at 165, along with Corey Gamet ranked #12 at 133. Each one of these wrestlers has the potential to surprise the field and find themselves in the NCAA Finals! Literally anything can happen! This tournament is literally made for upsets! Given it is only a 16 man bracket, this means that the hammers are all compacted into one small bracket and literally each qualifier is just a good as the next and can make a title run! Coach Breese and Co, have done such an amazing job the last few seasons at Lake Erie College. In fact the wrestling program might just be the schools greatest sport! Then again, that shouldn’t surprise anybody because we are in North East Ohio, where wrestling is king! Along with the entire midwest! Best wishes and luck to the Lake Erie College wrestlers this weekend! I can’t wait to see who climbs the podium !
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