Friday and Saturday, March 1-2, 2024
University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point | Host Site | 2023 Results

Teams (19):
Augsburg, Aurora, Carthage, Chicago, Concordia-Moorhead, Concordia-Wisconsin, Elmhurst, Lakeland, Linfield, MSOE, Pacific, St. John’s, UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater, Wheaton

NWCA Ranked Tournament Teams
#2 Augsburg
#3 UW-La Crosse
#7 UW-Eau Claire
#15 UW-Whitewater
#23 Concordia-Moorhead

A pair of returning champs highlight this region. Nolan Hertel of UW-La Crosse won a razor thin overtime match at 157 last year and has backed it up with an undefeated season and a win over the defending DII champ in the NWCA All-Star Match. Sam Stuhl of Augsburg surprised many with his unseeded run to the 141 championship after a 3rd place finish in this region last year. He has taken a few losses but hopes to catch lightning in a bottle again in March. The third returning finalist here is Jared Stricker of UW-Eau Claire at 174. He is 34-2 with both losses coming to DI opponents at the Midlands. He could be on a path to repeat last year’s NCAA finals matchup with Wartburg’s Mulder.

#3 Cooper Willis of Augsburg only has a loss to Iowa’s Caliendo this year, but he does have two regular season wins against the defending DII champ at 165. He is one of six returning 2023 All-Americans for Augsburg. #5 Izzy Balsiger of Eau Claire was last seen in the postseason wrestling for UW-La Crosse in 2013 where he finished 4th at 125. He is 9-2 at age 31 after joining the lineup in January. Four of the weights in this region have three top-ten wrestlers set to enter, making 149, 157, 165, and 197 a tough get for anyone hoping to crash the party in La Crosse.

Top 10 Ranked Individuals | February 22nd Ranking (22 total)
125: #5 Balsiger (Eau Claire)
133: #5 Bisek (Concordia-Moorhead), #7 Mallinder (Whitewater)
141: #7 Stuhl (Augsburg)
149: #3 Stuhl (Augsburg), #4 Goebel (La Crosse), #10 Sato (Eau Claire)
157: #1 Hertel (La Crosse), #5 Jagodzinske (Augsburg), #8 Butler (Whitewater)
165: #3 Willis (Augsburg), #8 Leisgang (La Crosse), #9 Massie (Eau Claire)
174: #2 Stricker (Eau Claire), #3 Goetzinger (Augsburg)
184: #1 Schwanebeck-Ostermann (Augsburg), #10 Collins (Eau Claire)
197: #3 Kawczynski (La Crosse), #4 Venz (Augsburg), #9 Zierden (Concordia-Moorhead)
285: #4 Douglas (La Crosse), #5 Kim (Augsburg)

Contenders & H.M. (22 total)
125: Dunson (Whitewater), Wolbert (La Crosse), Kaczrowski (Augsburg)
133: Fleetwood (Eau Claire), Suddeth (Augsburg), Weiler (La Crosse)
141: Lorenz (La Crosse), Pogorzelski (Whitewater), Conway (Chicago)
149: Busse (Whitewater), Connolly (Chicago), Ramos (Concordia Wisconsin)
157: Vlasnik (Chicago)
165: Peet (Whitewater), Estevez (Chicago)
174: Komitas (Aurora), Riser (Whitewater), Trotzer (Stevens Point)
184: Orlandoni (La Crosse)
197: Punzel (Wheaton), Lingen (Chicago)
285: Schichel (Eau Claire)

Saturday and Sunday, March 2-3, 2024
Worcester Polytechnic Institute | Host Site | 2023 Results

Teams (20):
Bridgewater State, Castleton, Hunter, Johnson & Wales, New England College, NYU, Norwich, Plymouth State, Rhode Island College, Roger Williams, Southern Maine, Springfield, Trinity, US Coast Guard Academy, US Merchant Marine Academy, Wesleyan, Western New England, Williams, WPI

NWCA Ranked Tournament Teams
#5 Coast Guard
#9 Johnson & Wales
#11 Castleton
#13 NYU
#23 Williams

Returning national champion Joziah Fry of Johnson & Wales is the top returner in the region and is in the only weight in the tournament with three top-ten individuals. Fry won last year at 125 and spent the first month of the season there before moving up to 133 in December. His only loss is to the #2 ranked wrestler in DI at the Princeton Open. The latest NWCA rankings have him back down at 125, even though he has not wrestled there since December. That said, expect him at 125 this weekend. The other returning finalist in the region is Coy Spooner of Coast Guard. Spooner is just 11-0, as he spent the fall semester successfully battling Hodgkin’s lymphoma before his return to the mat in January.

Six other 2023 All-Americans are back in the region. #2 Cooper Pontelandolfo dropped from 165 to 157 this year and is undefeated since the Princeton Open. #3 Carl DiGiorgio is undefeated at 285 in limited action so far, while teammate Chase Randall is 17-2 at 133. #9 James Rodriguez of Castleton is a two-time All-American who finished 8th in 2022 and 7th in 2023. He is 36-3 and undefeated in the second half. Dylan Harr of JWU and Jake Craig of Southern Maine were each 4th last year at 197 and 125, respectively. Craig dropped to 125 from 133 halfway through the season and recently dropped a match to fellow Contender Christopher DeRosa of New England College.

Top 10 Ranked Individuals | February 22nd Ranking (15 total)
125: #6 Bradley (Castleton)
133: #1 Fry (Johnson & Wales), #8 Randall (Coast Guard), #9 Manginelli (Springfield)
141: #9 Rodriguez (Castleton)
149: #7 Fitt (Coast Guard)
157: #2 Pontelandolfo (NYU), #10 Camiscioli (Castleton)
165:
174: #6 Geyer (NYU)
184: #3 Wilkins (Castleton), #9 DeVivo (Johnson & Wales)
197: #2 Spooner (Coast Guard), #5 Harr (Johnson & Wales)
285: #3 DiGiorgio (Coast Guard), #9 Abdulrahman (Castleton)

Contenders & H.M. (25 total)
125: Craig (Southern Maine), DeRosa (New England), Thatcher (WPI)
133: Marchese (Castleton), Ford (Southern Maine), Kurachi (NYU)
141: Myers (Wesleyan), Perry (Trinity)
149: Cyr (Castleton), Frost (Southern Maine), Perlleshi (Johnson & Wales), Napolitano (NYU)
157: Caskey (Coast Guard), Richardson (Johnson & Wales)
165: Roeger (Castleton), Wisniewski (Johnson & Wales)
174: Chapman (Coast Guard)
184: Furman (NYU), Kelly (Rhode Island)
197: Fetrow (Roger Williams), McLaughlin (Castleton)
285: Anderson (NYU), Betancur (Johnson & Wales), Sprinkel (Norwich)

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)

Friday and Saturday, March 1-2, 2024
Rochester Institute of Technology | Host Site | 2023 Results

Teams (21):
Alfred State, Brockport, Centenary, Cortland, Elizabethtown, Elmira, Ithaca, Johns Hopkins, Keystone, McDaniel, Muhlenberg, NJCU, TCNJ, Oneonta, Oswego, Penn College, Pitt-Bradford, RIT, St. John Fisher, Scranton, Ursinus

NWCA Ranked Tournament Teams:
#17 TCNJ
#19 Centenary

The Mideast is the only region without a #1 ranked wrestler, but there is certainly some firepower throughout the weights. #2 Angelo Centrone should return to the lineup this weekend for Cortland at 149. He is undefeated with 17 of his 18 wins coming with bonus points. #2 Nicholas Sacco of TCNJ is one of the two highest returning finishers in the region after a 4th place finish last year. He is undefeated against DIII competition. The other top returner is #7 Charlie Grygas of Oswego who was 4th at 174. Other returning All-Americans include Thomas Monn of McDaniel, last year’s d3wrestle.com Freshman of the Year along with Muhlenberg’s pair of 8th place finishers Joey Lamparelli (125) and Anson Dewar (174). Michael Conklin of TCNJ finished 8th in 2022 but missed out on the tournament last season.

Alfred State will be looking for their first NCAA qualifiers since transitioning from the junior college ranks. They have a pair of wrestlers with a good shot. Zach Levey was a qualifier for Brockport in 2022 and will be looking for his second trip to the tournament while #4 Sean Malenfant has worked his way up the rankings and was recently named AMCC Wrestler of the Year for the second year in a row. Another wrestler looking for his first trip to the tournament is Ganon Smith of Elizabethtown. Smith qualified last year but was unable to participate due to an injury. He was injured in the opening weekend this year but came back in January and has not lost since his return.

Top 10 Ranked Individuals | February 22nd Ranking (11 total)
125:
133: #10 Haws (Centenary)
141: #5 Pena (Centenary)
149: #2 Centrone (Cortland), #6 Monn (McDaniel), #8 Beyer (Ithaca)
157:
165: #2 Sacco (TCNJ), #4 Schneider (Elizabethtown)
174: #7 Grygas (Oswego), #8 Dewar (Muhlenberg)
184: #4 Malenfant (Alfred State), #5 Ryan (Oneonta)
197:
285:

Contenders & H.M. (28 total)
125: Cardenas (Cortland), Griffin (TCNJ), Lamparelli (Muhlenberg)
133: Levey (Alfred State), Nase (TCNJ), Torres (Ithaca)
141: Goss (Oswego), Hunt (Penn College), Samson (St. John Fisher)
149: Conklin (TCNJ), Glynn (RIT)
157: Datz (TCNJ), Howard (McDaniel), Pierre-Louis (Ithaca)
165: Green (Penn College), Marchesano (Ursinus), Parker (Ithaca), Strouse (RIT)
174: Smith (Elizabethtown), Gray (Ithaca), Romaine (TCNJ)
184: Davis (Elizabethtown), Borton (Ursinus), Henry (TCNJ)
197: Harris (McDaniel), Berry (Centenary)
285: Wersinger (TCNJ), Waller (Elizabethtown)