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Northeast 1 | David McCullough | Coast Guard |
Northeast 2 | Edwin Morales | Bridgewater State |
Northeast 3 | Sampson Wilkins | Castleton |
Mideast 1 | Colby Giroux | RIT |
Mideast 2 | Isaac Cory | Penn College |
Mideast 3 | Jack Ryan | Oneonta |
Southeast 1 | Isaac Kassis | Alvernia |
Southeast 2 | Cameron Blizard | Washington & Lee |
Southeast 3 | Mahlic Sallah | Roanoke |
Central 1 | Charles Baczek | Wabash |
Central 2 | Gavin Layman | Ohio Northern |
Central 3 | Blake Williams | Adrian |
Lower Midwest 1 | Shane Liegel | Loras |
Lower Midwest 2 | Donovan Corn | Luther |
Lower Midwest 3 | Tristin Westphal | Coe |
Upper Midwest 1 | Jaritt Shinhoster | UW-Whitewater |
Upper Midwest 2 | Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann | Augsburg |
Upper Midwest 3 | Kalyn Jahn | UW-La Crosse |
The NCAA tournament could be the site of the rubber match between Jaritt Shinhoster of UW-Whitewater and Shane Liegel of Loras. Last year, they split a pair of match with Liegel winning early and Shinhoster winning in the NCAA semifinal. This year, Liegel won in the Concordia finals for the second year in a row, but Shinhoster got revenge at the National Duals. Each has just that one loss in DIII this year, with Shinhoster taking his second loss to a DI opponent in the Midlands finals. Shinhoster dominated the NCAA tournament last year with three major decisions and a 6 point win in the finals. Can Liegel, or anyone else, slow him down this year?
Mideast runner-up Isaac Cory became Penn College’s first ever NCAA qualifier since joining DIII in 2018. Cory was a Pennsylvania state champion last year, joining Castleton’s 125 Gavin Bradley as PA AA state champs to qualify as freshmen this year. Colby Giroux of RIT defeated Cory for the second event in a row in the regional final to run his record to 31-4. Jack Ryan of Oneonta took the third spot in the Mideast, and the seventh seeded Red Dragon has to beat the top two seeds to do it.
Charles Baczek of Wabash is the next highest returning finisher behind Shinhoster and Liegel. Baczek was 5th as a freshman last year and is 20-2 so far with his only DIII loss coming to Upper Midwest third place finisher Kalyn Jahn of UW-La Crosse at the National Duals. The other returning All-Americans at this weight are Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann of Augsburg who placed at 197 and was runner-up to Shinhoster in the region along with 184 7th place finisher Mahlic Sallah of Roanoke. Sallah was upset by Blizard in the regional semifinal but fought back to earn a chance to podium in front of the home crowd.
Like Schwanebeck-Ostermann, Donovan Corn of Luther is down at 184 after qualifying at 197 last season. Corn has defeated the Augsburg wrestler this year and avenged an earlier loss to Wartburg to earn his spot in the regional final. His only DIII losses this year that he has not turned around are to the top three wrestlers in rankings: Shinhoster, Liegel, and Baczek. Northeast champ David McCullough of Coast Guard is undefeated so far this season including two wins over 2022 qualifier Edwin Morales of Bridgewater State. Those are the only two losses so far for Morales in 2022-2023.