East Regional Preview
East Region Championship | Event Website
Gettysburg College
Saturday, March 2nd, 9:00 AM
17 Teams – Full List
d3wrestle.com Rankings | NWCA Team Rankings
Ranked Teams: #6 Centenary, #7 Wilkes, #8 Delaware Valley, #16 TCNJ, #17 NYU, #23 Ursinus
d3wrestle.com Top Ten Individuals (Returning AA in Bold)
125 – #2 Bewak (JHU), #4 Frankel (Del Val), #5 Rice (Hunter), #7 Donaldson (Ursinus)
133 – #6 Mendoza (Wilkes), #8 O’Boyle (McDaniel)
141 – #9 Marcello (JHU)
149 – #2 Hartenstine (Wilkes), #3 Ajagbe (Del Val)
157 – #2 Burdge (Centenary), #3 Krawchuk (Wilkes), #9 Jasinski (Ursinus)
165 – #3 Favia (Stevens), #4 Darling (TCNJ), #9 Rice (NYU), #10 Vernon (Centenary)
174 – #3 Dufresne (Centenary)
184 – #5 Broderick (TCNJ)
197 – #3 Karns (Del Val)
285 – #2 Zitone (Centenary)
Seventeen teams descend on Gettysburg this weekend for the first year of the new regional format. Gettysburg hosted the Centennial Conference tournament last season, but this is a step up with almost twice as many teams. With three top ten teams and three more in the top 25, the team race should be tight. Centenary is in the midst of perhaps their best season ever, finishing 3rd in the National Duals and featuring four wrestlers in the d3wrestle.com top ten. Wilkes is right on their heels and is in the midst of a program-record 19 match winning streak. Delaware Valley is the third top ten team with three ranked wrestlers of their own. TCNJ, NYU, and Ursinus round out the ranked teams.
The top weights look to be 125 and 165, as each of those has four top ten wrestlers competing for only 3 spots, and each has a pair of returning All-Americans. Paul Bewak and Charlie Frankel lead the way at 125 as the returning 7th and 8th place finishers, respectively. Donaldson of Ursinus has a win over Frankel this year to go along with an earlier loss. Rice of Hunter has just one DIII loss on the year, and it was 6-1 to Frankel. 165 has a pair of All-Americans in Joe Favia and John Darling. Darling is up from 157 where he was 6th while Favia returns to a weight where he was 5th a year ago. Rice’s only DIII loss is up at 174, and Vernon is 18-4 with losses to Favia and Darling.
Other returning All-Americans include Burdge and Zitone of Centenary. Burdge was 5th and is a two time All-American, while Zitone was 7th in La Crosse.
Some unranked wrestlers to watch for include NYU’s Brandon Jones, an Iowa State transfer at 133 who just won by major against O’Boyle in the Centennial final, Polizzi of Stevens at 149, Thomson of Gettysburg at 174, and Camlin of McDaniel at 285.