2017 East Region Preview
Date – Friday and Saturday, February 24-25, 2017
Location – Franklin County High School, Rocky Mount, Virginia (Ferrum hosting)
Teams (19) – Centenary, Delaware Valley, Ferrum, Gettysburg, Greensboro, Hampden-Sydney, Hunter, Johns Hopkins, King’s, McDaniel, Mount St. Vincenct, Muhlenberg, NYU, Southern Virginia, Stevens, TCNJ, US Merchant Marine Academy, Ursinus, Washington & Lee
Top Ten Ranked Individuals (2016 All-Americans in bold)
125 – none
133 – #1 Stanich (Stevens), #3 Pike (NYU), #8 Bylykbashi (W&L)
141 – #5 Ambacher (Delaware Valley), #10 Drummond (McDaniel)
149 – #9 Kramer (Ursinus), #10 Wilhelm (Stevens)
157 – #6 Arnold (Ursinus), #8 Poklikuha (Stevens), #9 Meister (Ferrum)
165 – #8 Navickas (Stevens)
174 – #9 Messinger (NYU)
184 – none
197 – #8 Kowal (Stevens)
285 – #1 Roseberry (Delaware Valley), #8 Triandafilou (Gettysburg)
Top 30 Teams (d3wrestle.com list)
#9 Stevens
#12 Delaware Valley
#15 NYU
#17 Ursinus
Stevens looks to be the class of this region again and is well-positioned to repeat their championship from a year ago. A pair of All-Americans (Navickas and Kowal) are bolstered by returning qualifiers Wilhelm and Murray, while newcomer Troy Stanich has gone undefeated at 133 during his freshman campaign. Delaware Valley has a strong tournament squad, while Ursinus and NYU can put a strong top-to-bottom lineup on the mat that should score well. The host team Ferrum should not be overlooked either after a runner-up finish at the Pete Willson Wheaton Invitational.
Zachery Roseberry is the only returning NCAA champion in this region after an upset victory in the heavyweight national finals last March. He is currently undefeated and favored to win the regional again on his way to becoming a four time All-American for the Aggies. National finalist Nathan Pike is back or NYU after an abbreviated season that has seen him wrestle just nine times with his first match coming on January 21st. 133 is a tough weight with Pike, the top ranked Stanich, and the 8th ranked Bylykbashi in the mix. Bylykbashi is hoping to give W&L a qualifier for the second year in a row after enduring a 15 year drought that ended last season.
157 is the other weight with three ranked in the top ten as 2015 All-American Arnold and 2016 All-American Meister are sandwiched around Poklikuha who is making the most of his first season as a full time starter. The weight also features 2016 NCAA qualifier Jazikoff (NYU) and three other competitors who appear in the d3wrestle.com rankings. Others looking to return to the NCAA Championships in search of their first All-American award include Murray (Stevens), Tan (Ursinus), and Velez (Delaware Valley) at 125, Drummond (McDaniel) at 141, Wilhelm (Stevens) at 149, Herring (TCNJ) at 165, and Messinger (NYU) and Schweiger (Delaware Valley) at 174
Here are the latest standings in the Most Dominant, Most Falls, and Most Tech Falls season-long awards. As a reminder, only matches against Division III competition count in the calculation of the awards. For the Most Dominant standings, a minimum of 16 DIII matches are required for inclusion.
The most recent set of d3wrestle.com Rankings should be the last until after the regional tournaments. Here is some analysis of the rankings with regard to the six unequally sized regions used for NCAA qualification. Each region, regardless of size, will qualify 3 wrestlers at each weight to the NCAA Championships, thus creating a bracket with 18 competitors at each of the ten weights. The West is the smallest region with 11 teams, while the Northeast, East, and Mideast are the largest with 19 teams each.
Luther 38, St. Olaf 9
Pennsylvania College of Technology is looking for a new part time head wrestling coach. The team has spent the last few seasons transitioning into Division III and will be fully postseason-eligible in the 2017-2018 season. It is a public institution in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, that offers comprehensive, hands-on technical education at the baccalaureate and associate degree levels.
