2022 NCAA Preview: 165 lbs.

Rankings are from the February 18th NWCA Poll. d3wrestle.com ranking to come next week.

Northeast 19. RogersCoast Guard
Northeast 210. PontelandolfoNYU
Northeast 3MaxwellBridgewater State
Mideast 13. ReyesJohns Hopkins
Mideast 2LambRIT
Mideast 3MathewsOswego
Southeast 16. LackmanAlvernia
Southeast 214. TurleyAverett
Southeast 3DatzWashington & Jefferson
Central 112. McGrawJohn Carroll
Central 2LeightnerBaldwin Wallace
Central 31. HatchWabash
Lower Midwest 12. BirtMillikin
Lower Midwest 213. FiserLoras
Lower Midwest 3EsmoilCoe
Upper Midwest 14. BrossardUW-La Crosse
Upper Midwest 25. SchmidtUW-Eau Claire
Upper Midwest 3MorganUW-Oshkosh

Bradan Birt continued his undefeated season with three first period pins and a tech fall at the Lower Midwest region. He is a two-time NCAA placewinner, an NWCA DIII tournament champ, and is 37-0 this season with 155 career wins. The 3rd and 4th seeds Gabe Fiser and Will Esmoil also qualified here, and Fiser avenged an earlier loss against Allen from Cornell to make the finals.

Things got messier in the Central Region. Undefeated and #1 (NWCA) ranked Kyle Hatch of Wabash was pinned by Dalton Leightner of Baldwin Wallace after pinning Leightner earlier in the season. Then Leightner lost to Patrick McGraw of John Carroll, for the second time this year, in the finals. Upper Midwest champ Seth Brossard of UW-Lacrosse has just two losses, one to Birt and one to Hatch. He beat Chase Schmidt in the regional finals after beating him in the WIAC finals two weeks earlier.

Mideast champ Dominick Reyes is undefeated this year and has qualified for the third time. He defeated Southeast champ Matt Lackman, giving the Alvernia wrestler his only loss this season. Lackman beat NWCA DIII 7th place finisher Alex Turley in the finals.

Phil Rogers of Coast Guard controlled NYU’s tough freshman Pontelandolfo 5-0 in the Northeast finals for his second victory in that matchup this season. He is undefeated, but just 9-0, even including four matches at the region. He finished last season in 3rd place at the NWCA DIII tournament, defeating Fiser of Loras in the finals. The third place finisher Fox Maxwell of Bridgewater State was the 7th seed in the region.