2024 Central Region Preview
Friday and Saturday, March 1-2, 2024
Ohio Northern University | Host Site | 2023 Results
Teams (19):
Adrian, Albion, Alma, Baldwin Wallace, Case Western Reserve, Heidelberg, Hiram, John Carroll, Manchester, Mount St. Joseph, Mount Union, Muskingum, Ohio Northern, Ohio Wesleyan, Olivet, Otterbein, Trine, Wabash, Wilmington
NWCA Ranked Tournament Teams
#6 Baldwin Wallace
#12 Ohio Northern
#14 Wabash
A pair of returning national champions headline the Central Region this year. Michael Petrella of Baldwin Wallace is the defending champ at 149 and has steamrolled the competition so far with 32 bonus point wins out of 34 matches in an undefeated season. Teammate Jacob Decatur was the 2022 champion at 125 and the runner-up last season. He returned to the lineup for the second half of the year and has just two close losses to the wrestlers ranked ahead of him.
Jacob Reed of Ohio Northern is the other top-ranked wrestler in the tournament (besides Petrella). He has finished 3rd at the last two NCAA Championships and weathered a midseason injury to post a 22-0 record so far this season. Other highly-ranked returning All-Americans here include #2 Chase Baczek of Wabash hoping to improve on last year’s 7th place finish at 184 and #2 Donovan King of Olivet at 285. King was another second semester guy with just a dozen matches to his name this season after finishing 5th last year. He will be challenged by Doug Byrne of Baldwin Wallace who is up to 285 this year after finishing 5th at 197 in 2023. Jaden Hinton of Baldwin Wallace is ranked 4th at 133 which is exactly where he finished last season.
Top 10 Ranked Individuals | February 22nd Ranking (9 total)
125: #3 Decatur (Baldwin Wallace), #10 Day (Wabash)
133: #4 Hinton (Baldwin Wallace)
141: #1 Reed (Ohio Northern)
149: #1 Petrella (Baldwin Wallace)
157: #4 McGraw (John Carroll)
165:
174:
184: #2 Baczek (Wabash)
197:
285: #2 King (Olivet), #6 Byrne (Baldwin Wallace)
Contenders & H.M. (17 total)
125:
133: Diggs (Mount St. Joseph)
141: Burge (Wabash), Phelps (Olivet)
149: Uribe (Wabash), Herrema (Olivet)
157: Nettleton (Mount Union), Nisley (Wabash), West (Baldwin Wallace)
165: Supers (Baldwin Wallace), Hendricks (Ohio Northern)
174: Arebalo (Wabash), McDaniel (Albion), Williams (Adrian)
184: Wellbaum (Adrian), Layman (Ohio Northern)
197: Johnson (Wabash)
285: Krum (Albion)