Click below for the list of qualifiers by region as well as a count of qualifiers per team in the second tab. Thanks to Jason Bryant for providing hometown and high school information.
Top 10 Ranked Individuals | February 16th Ranking (24 total) 125: #2 Blasioli (Millikin), #10 B. Koontz (Dubuque) 133: #1 Precin (North Central), #6 Pins (Wartburg), #9 D. Koontz (Dubuque) 141: #1 Terukina (Wartburg), #9 Kinkaid (Loras), #10 Rosen (North Central) 149: #5 Estrada (North Central), #9 Rumph (Wartburg) 157: #1 Smith (Loras), #3 Hollingsworth (Wartburg), #8 Villar (North Central) 165: #5 Fuller (Wartburg) 174: #2 Mulder (Wartburg), #10 Gnida (Loras) 184: #2 Liegel (Loras), #4 Corn (Luther), #10 Bushey (Wartburg) 197: #3 Endene (Wartburg), #7 Cooley (Schreiner) 285: #5 Reeves (Coe), #7 Quick (Luther), #8 Wriedt (Loras)
Contenders & H.M. (40 total) 125: Hornback (Coe), Levy (Wartburg), Valtierrez (North Central), McChesney (Simpson) 133: Boryla (Augustana), Friddle (Coe), Haney (Millikin), McMillan (Loras), Beck (Central), Haynes (Nebraska Wesleyan) 141: Dado (Ozarks), Baldwin (Central), Carson (Millikin), Parke (Coe), Yarbrough (Dubuque) 149: McCusker (Millikin), Schropp (Loras), Wright (Coe) 157: McDonough (Luther), Smith (Cornell), Callaway (Millikin), York (Ozarks) 165: Allen (Cornell), Cervantes (North Central), Mandler (Luther), Esmoil (Coe), Fiser (Loras) 174: Gerkensmeyer (Nebraska Wesleyan), Richardson (Coe), Langley (Simpson) 184: Westphal (Coe), Geigner (North Central) 197: Voss (Coe), Linahon (Central), Montford (North Central), Thurston (Dubuque) 285: Bates (North Central), Dancy (Wartburg), Kinnison (Simpson), Lewis (Ozarks)
Defending NCAA champion Wartburg is poised to win the team title again, to the surprise of no one, as they bring eight ranked wrestlers to the weekend with two more appearing outside the top ten. Four of their wrestlers will be the top ranked individual in the region, and five are returning All-Americans. Loras, North Central, and Coe will make it a fight. Coe and North Central each have nine wrestlers appearing somewhere in the rankings, while Loras has 8. Each of Wartburg, North Central, and Loras has a #1 ranked individual.
Robbie Precin of North Central is the top-ranked returning NCAA champion at 133, and that weight looks to be extremely tough behind him. There will be at least one wrestler who appears in the rankings but is not seeded at 133. All-American Joe Pins of Wartburg is ranked 6th and has a win over Ohio State transfer Dylan Koontz who has wrestled a very limited schedule since joining Dubuque in January. Alex Friddle won the 2021 NWCA tournament at 125 for Coe while Eron Haynes of Nebraska Wesleyan was a 2019 NCAA All-American at 125 and NWCA 4th place in 2021.
Seven wrestlers appear in the rankings at 157 along with #1 Zeke Smith of Loras. 157 has been a tough weight to figure this year as many of the top guys have beaten each other along the way, except for Smith who is undefeated in limited action. That action, however, includes wins over #2 Shilson (Augsburg, 3rd in 2022) and #3 Hollingsworth (Wartburg, 6th in 2022). Smith won one match at the NCAA tournament last year and aims for a podium spot in 2023. Hollingsworth was injured in a semifinal loss and dropped to sixth. #8 Villar (North Central) finished in 4th place at the NCAA championships at 149.
165 could be an interesting weight. Only Wartburg’s Nathan Fuller, a Minnesota transfer, is ranked in the top ten, but five other wrestlers appear lower in the rankings including Will Esmoil of Coe. Esmoil turned it on last postseason, going from a third place regional finisher who was unseeded at the NCAA tournament to a semifinalist and eventual 4th place finisher. He has losses to Cervantes (North Central) and Mandler (Luther), so we will see if he has more end-of-season magic lined up for 2023.
Saturday and Sunday, February 25-26, 2023 University of Southern Maine | Host Site | 2022 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
Johnson & Wales ends the regular season in the #2 tournament slot and will have a shot at hoisting the championships trophy in March. At the National Duals, they finished second to Augsburg after upsetting Wartburg in the semifinals. The Wildcats are the only team with multiple individuals ranked 1st at their respective weights in Joziah Fry and Michael Ross. Challenging JWU will be Coast Guard, last year’s regional champions. NYU also has a strong team with six wrestlers mentioned in the final rankings.
Fry is at the top of a tough 125 bracket in the region, as #4 Craig (Southern Maine) and #8 Manginelli (Springfield) will look to lock down spots in Roanoke. Fry is 34-0 with just seven of his victories coming via decision. The Rhode Island native and Campbell transfer has been outstanding in his first season for JWU. Manginelli hopes to land on the podium this year after a narrow miss last season when a last second headlock ended his season in the All-American round.
Michael Ross at 174 joins teammate Fry at the top of the rankings. He has wrestled just 8 matches this season, but he does have a win over Wartburg’s #2 Mulder, a repeat of their semifinal result in 2022. Ross began his career at Wartburg, entering the 2018 NCAA tournament as the #1 seed at 165. Injuries contributed to an 8th place finish. Last year, he finished 2nd in the NCAA championships, and he heads into the 2023 postseason hoping to earn the #1 seed at the NCAA tournament five years after doing so for the first time.
Nathan Lackman won a controversial NCAA championship at 157 last season, and he returns at 165 to aim for a second title. He is 31-3 and ranked #1 this year, with all three of his losses coming to DI competition at the Midlands where he finished in 6th place. He has been on a significant growth trajectory, moving from 120 as a senior to 141 as a freshman to 165 in 2023. His younger brother Matt is ranked #2 at this weight for Alvernia. There are a lot of matches between now and a potential all-Lackman NCAA final, but it is not a far-fetched possibility.
Augsburg comes in as the favorite, but they will certainly be pushed by a number of the WIAC schools. La Crosse and Whitewater both bring strong teams to the tournament with Platteville and Eau Claire right behind, while Oshkosh boasts a #1 ranked wrestler of their own. Augsburg’s 33-3 win over La Crosse puts them in the driver’s seat this weekend, but every weight will be a fight given the depth of the tournament. Three weights are guaranteed to leave at least one top-ten wrestler home.
Jaritt Shinhoster is the lone returning NCAA champion in the region. Last year he fought his way to the title from the 5th seed. If he wins out here, he will start on top of the bracket in Roanoke. The highlight of his season so far is a runner-up finish in the Midlands back in December. His only DIII loss is to Liegel of Loras, and he avenged that loss later in the season. Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann (Augsburg) a 2022 All-American at 197 and #7 Schoenfelder of UW-Eau Claire will toughen this bracket along with three others who appear in the d3wrestle.com rankings.
The other #1 ranked wrestler in the region is Beau Yineman of UW-Oshkosh. He was 3rd in the NCAA last year and has a single DIII loss this season. That loss, though, is to Ben Kawczynski of UW-La Crosse who should also be in this bracket after spending last season at 285. The rest of the field has spend the season trading matches depending on who has the best week. Four ranked wrestlers will enter, and no more than three will head to Virginia.
Chicago has a pair of wrestlers who were All-Americans last season but fall outside of the top ten leading into the regional. Ryan Fleck stormed to the semis at 149 before dropping to 6th place. He has split with Prunty this year and lost twice to Burford. Can he get in there and take another top three spot? Darian Estevez finished 8th at 157 last year and has moved up to 165 in 2023. He has some good wins this season including a recent victory over 2022 All-American Pontelandolfo (NYU), but his competition this weekend will be stiff. There are four top-ten wrestlers in the weight class, two of whom have already beaten him this year.
Teams (20): Alvernia, Averett, Delaware Valley, Ferrum, Gettysburg, Greensboro, King’s, Lycoming, Marymount, Messiah, PSU-Behrend, Roanoke, Shenandoah, Southern Virginia, Stevens, Thiel, Washington and Lee, Washington and Jefferson, Waynesburg, Wilkes, York
Stevens will again be favored in the Southeast as they look to repeat last year’s team title. With four wrestlers ranked in the top ten and five others further down, they should comfortably repeat this year. Alvernia was runner-up a year ago and returns much of the same lineup as last year including potentially all four of their NCAA qualifiers. Washington & Lee returns, Lycoming, and York each return a pair of 2022 All-Americans.
125 looks to be the most hotly contested weight class with four individuals in the top ten and only three spots up for grabs. Joining that group of four is Fashouer of Wilkes who qualified at this weight last season. Parker and Barret have split some matches this year while Hoerle and Kuhns have done the same. The semifinals and 3rd place match at this weight will be a fight for sure.
At 141, #3 Slendorn and #4 Wilson could meet in the finals. Slendorn was 4th at the national tournament last year at 141 while Wilson was 5th at 133. The two have not met this season. Also potentially in the weight is 2019 All-American Levi Englman of Ferrum, though he is just 11-6 so far this year. Hunter Campbell of Averett is also here after qualifying at 149 last year.
There are seven wrestlers in the Contender and Honorable Mention categories who qualified for last year’s tournament. Gable Crebs of Lycoming is the the lone 2022 All-American in that group. Garret Cornell of Messiah and Michael Dooley of Stevens are both 2020 qualifiers looking to return to the tournament in 2023.
Saturday & Sunday, February 25-26, 2023 Case Western Reserve University | Host Site | 2022 Results
Teams (20): Adrian, Albion, Alma, Baldwin Wallace, Case Western Reserve, Defiance, Heidelberg, Hiram, John Carroll, Manchester, Mount St. Joseph, Mount Union, Muskingum, Ohio Northern, Ohio Wesleyan, Olivet, Otterbein, Trine, Wabash, Wilmington
Contenders & H.M. (17 total) 125: Day (Wabash), Stanley (Mount Union) 133: Le (Ohio Northern) 141: Burge (Wabash), Boots (Trine), Palmieri (Baldwin Wallace) 149: Uribe (Wabash) 157: Whitten (Otterbein), Nettleton (Mount Union) 165: Hardrick (Ohio Northern), Bush (Olivet), Nevis (Wabash) 174: Arebalo (Wabash), Guilford (Olivet), Rhamy (Heidelberg) 184: Layman (Ohio Northern) 197: Setliff (Otterbein) 285:
Wabash came tantalizingly close to winning the national championship last season after outpacing the field in the regional. Baldwin Wallace looks to be the top team in the region after a runner-up finish last season, and they return the 125 champ Decatur and the 149 runner-up Petrella to go along with three other top-ten wrestlers. Wabash leads a group of four teams between 11 and 16 in the rankings, each of which has potential national finalists entered here.
Heavyweight features the top two ranked individuals in Division III. Donovan King has gone wire-to-wire at #1 this year after a runner-up finish at the same weight a year ago. #2 ranked Jack Heldt of Wabash was the runner-up at 197 last year. Both are undefeated in DIII this season, and both lost last year’s final to a wrestler who had his results vacated at the national tournament. If they both make the finals this weekend, we can all hope they both decide to wrestle.
Perelka (John Carroll) and Petrella (Baldwin Wallace) are two other returning NCAA finalists in this tournament. Perelka dropped a match to #2 ranked Hinton of Baldwin Wallace in the 133 semis at the North Central Invitational and will be looking to avenge that loss. Petrella, on the other hand, has gone undefeated this year without wrestling very many close matches. He also has a 9-2 win over #3 ranked Sumner of Ohio Northern a few weeks ago.
It will take a few upsets, but it is not inconceivable for the Central to match its nine finalists from last season. Seven wrestlers either were in the finals last year or are ranked in the top two heading into the regional.
Almost 2/3 of last year’s 30 qualifiers from this region are back in 2023 for this tournament. The Mideast may lack in top-end strength compared to some other regions, but the overall depth will make for some fierce competition for the top three spots at each weight. RIT is the only ranked team, slotting in at a tie for 24th, but TCNJ, Ithaca, and Cortland will compete for the team title. Heading to the weekend, it looks like the 30 slots will be filled by a smaller group of teams while the rest end their season on Saturday.
The top returning finisher in the tournament is Eze Chukwuezi of Ithaca who finished 5th at 184 last season. He leads the field at 197 that also includes 2022 174 lbs. All-American Demitreus Henry of Cortland and 2022 qualifier Josh Harkless of RIT. Chukwuezi has a single DIII loss and two wins against last year’s 4th place finisher Farrow of York. Henry is coming on strong up two weights after a win at the Wheaton Invitational. Sullivan (Brockport) and Harris (McDaniel) have each beaten a 2022 All-American this season.
Thomas Monn of McDaniel is an undefeated freshman who has made his way up to #4 in the rankings. He will have #10 Eli Sims (Brockport) in the weight as well as 2022 All-American Michael Conklin (TCNJ) and national qualifier Jeff Johnson of NJCU. Matthew Beyer of Ithaca lost in overtime in the third place match here a year ago and already has two wins over Conklin this season.
At 165, #3 Austin Lamb has a single loss by injury default (to TCNJ’s Sacco) marring an otherwise perfect, if limited, season so far. He was 8th in the NCAA a year ago where he beat Jaden Datz (then at W&J) in the placement round. Datz now wrestles for Cortland and they could get a rematch this weekend. Brian Schneider of Elizabethtown placed here last year and has just two losses on the season.
That does it for regular season competition in 2022-2023. The regionals are coming up this weekend. See d3wrestle.com for two previews Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday.
WMTV NBC 15 in Madison, Wisconsin, has reported that three members of the coaching staff at UW-Platteville are no longer employed by the university including head coach Trevor Kittleson, assistant coach Matthew Randone, and graduate fellow Edward Smith. In an earlier article, WMTV published a statement from the school stating, “We are investigating multiple potential UW-Platteville and NCAA rules violations, and we cannot comment on personnel matters while these investigations are ongoing.”
Neither UW-Platteville nor the NCAA provided any further comment to WMTV for the latest article. Former Pioneer head coach Chris Walter, who coached the team from 1997-2014 has been named acting head coach for the remainder of the season.
Final rankings heading into the regionals. See below for a quick team breakdown (if my spreadsheet counted everything right)
Teams with most individuals appearing: 10: Wartburg, Augsburg 9: Coe, North Central, Stevens 8: JWU, Loras, UW-La Crosse, TCNJ 7: Wabash 6: Baldwin Wallace, NYU, UW-Platteville, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Whitewater
Teams with most individuals in the top ten: 8: Wartburg 6: Augsburg 5: Baldwin Wallace, JWU, Loras, UW-La Crosse 4: North Central, Stevens, UW-Eau Claire, UW-Whitewater
Saturday WIAC Championships at UW-Stevens Point – 7th win in a row for UW-La Crosse UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater
PAC Championships at Thiel – Thiel and W&J tied for the win Thiel, Washington & Jefferson, Waynesburg
Centennial Championships at Ursinus – First title since 2014 for Ursinus Gettysburg, Johns Hopkins, McDaniel, Muhlenberg, Ursinus, USMMA
UAA Championships at Chicago – Chicago wins first since 2019 Case Western Reserve, Chicago, NYU
ODAC Championships at Shenandoah – W&L wins first contested ODAC tournament since 1980 Averett, Ferrum, Greensboro, Roanoke, Shenandoah, Southern Virginia, Washington & Lee
A lot of conference tournaments to follow along with this weekend as the CCIW went yesterday, and the AMCC, Centennial, ODAC, PAC, WIAC, and UAA are coming up.
Friday Central Last Chance Invitational Keystone Tri (Elmira, Sussex) Rhode Island College Tri (Trinity, Bridgewater State) Roger Williams at Johnson & Wales Loras at Wartburg Williams at Castleton WPI at Springfield Ohio Wesleyan at Muskingum New England at Southern Maine Ithaca at Wilkes Elizabethtown at Messiah Alvernia at York Luther at Buena Vista Coe at Dubuque
Saturday WIAC Championships at UW-Stevens Point UW-Eau Claire, UW-La Crosse, UW-Oshkosh, UW-Platteville, UW-Stevens Point, UW-Whitewater
PAC Championships at Thiel Thiel, Washington & Jefferson, Waynesburg