2015 Mideast Regional Preview
2015 Mideast Regional
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Messiah College – Grantham, Pennsylvania – Event Website
February 18th d3wrestle.com Rankings
Teams
Baldwin Wallace, Brockport, Case Western Reserve, Elizabethtown, Heidelberg, John Carroll, Lycoming, Messiah, Mount St. Joseph, Mount Union, Muskingum, Ohio Northern, Oswego, RIT, Waynesburg, Washington & Jefferson, Thiel, York
Top Ten Ranked Individuals – 2014 All-Americans in bold
125 – #2 Malmberg (Messiah), #3 Mancini (Mt. Union), #4 Gunter (Baldwin Wallace), #5 Kramer (Brockport)
133 – #2 Border (Mt. Union)
141 – #1 Loht (Messiah)
149 – #2 Mirman (John Carroll), #4 Lohr (Waynesburg), #5 Mayville (RIT), #6 Kazimir (Mt. Union)
157 – #1 Carr (W&J), #3 Garrison (Mt. Union), #9 Cannon (Messiah)
165 – #7 Lovejoy (Ohio Northern), #8 Gott (John Carroll)
174 – #4 Thomson (Messiah), #9 Chase (Baldwin Wallace)
184 – #6 Dowdley (Heidelberg), #10 Swarr (Messiah)
197 – none
285 – #1 Lovejoy (Ohio Northern), #6 Majoy (Heidelberg)
Top 30 Teams (d3wrestle.com list)
#3 Messiah College, Mount Union (tie)
#16 Ohio Northern
#18 John Carroll
#22 Baldwin Wallace
#23 Heidelberg
#26 Washington & Jefferson
#27 Brockport
Messiah looks to defend its title as the reigning Mideast Region champions, but they will face stiff competition in a very deep field of teams. Mount Union defeated Messiah in a dual meet this season and is tied with Messiah for the most top ten individual wrestlers in the d3wrestle.com rankings. In addition, Baldwin Wallace has enjoyed one of their best seasons in program history and could make a serious run at the regional title.
The field is littered with returning All Americans and top ten individuals from a host of schools. Washington & Jefferson will look for a repeat performance from 2014 National runner-up (165) Nick Carr down a weight and should challenge to be in the top 3 in several other weights, including 125 where the Presidents have second semester transfer and younger brother of the aforementioned Carr. In addition to Carr, the region boasts two other number one ranked wrestlers nationally in defending National Champion Kaleb Loht (141-Messiah) and heavyweight Cody Lovejoy (Ohio Northern).
One of the more exciting elements in this region will be the number of weights with considerable depth. Two weight classes (125 and 141) are guaranteed to have at least one top 10 wrestler miss the trip to Hershey as both groups have four top ten wrestlers. In addition the 165 lb. weight class has nine individuals ranked somewhere in the most recent d3wrestle.com list.