According to team rosters, there were 68 seniors set to wrestle in this weekend’s NCAA Championships. Ideally, the tournament would begin this afternoon, and those athletes would have the chance to put an exclamation mark on their careers. Sadly, they will not have that opportunity. For some of them, this was their one and one chance to compete in an NCAA Championship. For others, it was their last chance to get on the podium and forever be an All-American. Some were looking for a first NCAA title, and all were looking forward to one last competition in team colors. Here are the names of those 68 athletes listed by school. Please let me know if anyone is missing or on this list in error. They can be recognized here, even if they will not have that chance in Cedar Rapids.
Brendan Ladd, Alma, 141
Ryan Epps, Augsburg, 157
David Flynn, Augsburg, 141
Victor Gliva, Augsburg, 133
Lucas Jeske, Augsburg, 165
Tanner Vassar, Augsburg, 184
Aaron Wilson, Augsburg, 149
Zeckary Lehman, Baldwin Wallace, 197
Charlie Nash, Baldwin Wallace, 133
Nathan Fritz, Central, 184
Duncan Lee, Central, 285
Steve Bonsall, Chicago, 157
AJ Aeberli, Coast Guard, 174
Patrick Irwin, Coast Guard, 285
Cole Erickson, Coe, 157
Taylor Mehmen, Coe, 197
Kordell Rush, Delaware Valley, 133
Dylan Roth, Heidelberg, 184
Ben Brisman, Ithaca, 149
Austin Whitney, Ithaca, 165
Da’mani Burns, JWU, 149
Michael DiNardo, JWU, 285
Mitchell Hertel, La Crosse, 165
Sawyer Massie, La Crosse, 184
Clint Lembeck, Loras, 141
Brandon Murray, Loras, 157
Guy Patron, Loras, 197
Eddie Smith, Loras, 165
Hadyn Swartwood, Lycoming, 174
Joshua Glantzman, Merchant Marine, 184
Stephen Maloney, Messiah, 157
Sean Redington, Messiah, 125
Seth Hayes, Mount Union, 125
Conner Homan, Mount Union, 174
Jimmy Fratantoni, Muhlenberg, 184
Austin Sherman, Muhlenberg, 149
Marc Fleenor, North Central, 141
Ian Mullen, North Central, 133
Anthony Rink, North Central, 149
Evan Drill, NYU, 149
Jack La Corte, NYU, 197
Sean Lyons, NYU, 157
Seth Transue, Ohio Northern, 133
Drew Kasper, Otterbein, 285
John Donohue, RIT, 197
Dempsey King, RIT, 165
Sam Weinger, RIT, 285
Keegan Connelly, Scranton, 285
Peter Del Gallo, Southern Maine, 125
Joe Fusco, Springfield, 285
Noah Becker, St. John’s, 133
Thomas Poklikuha, Stevens, 165
Troy Stanich, Stevens, 141
Dylan Van Sickell, Stevens, 157
Daniel Kilroy, TCNJ, 174
Daniel Ortega, TCNJ, 125
John Boyle, W. New England, 184
Darden Schurg, Wabash, 174
Max Forsyth, Wartburg, 165
Martine Sandoval, Wartburg, 157
Michael Heinl, Washington & Jefferson, 149
Hunter Neely, Washington & Jefferson, 174
Shane Conners, Washington & Lee, 165
Rexx Hallyburton, Washington & Lee, 184
Hazen Rice, Whitewater, 141
Ryder Sigler, Whitewater, 165
Mike Tortorice, Whitewater, 125
Tyler Marsh, WPI, 165
Difficult situation. I sympathize with these young men. Thank you for identifying this group. I hope they recognize and holdfast to the values they learned and the hard work they poured into getting to this stage. And most importantly, know that it wasn’t for nothing. They are better for having gone through it.
I wonder, how many of these were first time qualifiers? And how many returning qualifiers have not yet AA’d?
I hope each of these young men are the same high caliber as Tanner Vassar. Tanner is a Christian with high morals and intellect. His parents and siblings are of the same high quality.
Missing on the list is Lance Benick — senior at Augsburg University— 197#
Bonnie,
Lance is a junior according to the Augsburg athletics website.
Do the right thing
NCAA
This is a way for you to hide behind your extreme decision! You have crushed every DREAM that the Athletes had! nothing you say can sooth the pain, But what you can do is Either reschedule or give them a year of eligibility!
DO THE RIGHT THING
For all of you that are saying to give them another year of eligibility, have you really thought through that, especially at the D3 level. Most of these are private colleges and tuition is costly, they do not receive athletic scholarships. Most of these athletes will be graduating and moving on with their lives by going on to grad school or entering the working world. Staying another year just to wrestle is not feasible. Have you also thought about the impact to the younger guys in the lineup that were looking forward to stepping into those spots and showing what they can do. Are you then granting everyone another year of eligibility, which is not economically feasible and then you also start impacting incoming freshman and their future place in the lineup. The only feasible thing would be to postpone the tournament, but that gets very difficult on the wrestlers for the next several months not knowing when and if they will even have the tournament.
Bill is correct on all counts, really all you can do at this point is award top 8 seeds AA status, because those top 8 seeds are earned through their season performance. If you give another year of eligibility that impacts incoming freshmen unfairly
To answer Quint’s question, I believe 19 were first-time qualifiers (in order listed above): Lee, Swartwood. Hayes, Homan, Fratantoni, Sherman, Fleenor, Mullen (a former NJCAA AA), Rink, LaCorte, Transue, Donohue, Connelly, Becker, Ortega, Forsyth, Sandoval, Conners and Sigler. Of those, all but Hayes, Forsyth and Sigler had at least competed in the regional tournament before, meaning most at least had an opportunity to qualify for nationals before. I believe Mehmen, Roth and Lembeck also might have an injury hardship year available, perhaps others as well.
Also, Hertel should have been in my previous list of first-time qualifiers, although he had been in the regional lineup before.
As for Quint’s other question, the following former national qualifiers have not earned All-America status (again listed in the order above): Fritz, Irwin, Rush, Burns, DiNardo, Maloney, Redington, Lyons, Weinger, Poklikuha, Van Sickell, Heinl, Neely, Hallyburton, Rice and Marsh.
Other sports in the NCAA all American status is voted on, so the precedent for voting already exists. Top eight seeds make sense since the voting has already been done.
Thank you, Jon Gremmels!
An impressive list… I’m anxious to see how D3 responds to winter sports eligibility.
The problem with naming the eight seeds All-Americans is that seeding in Division III is an unreliable indicator of what will transpire over the two days of the tournament. Last year, for instance, only four No. 1 seeds won titles, the same as the year before when two No. 1 seeds lost in the first 30 minutes of the tournament. Three weights last year had neither the first nor second seed in the finals. Twenty-one All-Americans last year (more than 25%) were not seeded, including one champion. The year before that number was 19. Over the past two years combined, only weight (184 in 2018) saw all eight seeds earn All-America honors.
It’s one of the reasons the Division III tournament is so exciting.
I believe something should be done. I know life is not fair but these wrestlers have all worked hard. under the circumstance maybe All American the top 10? I don’t know I guess. But I do know these guys deserve better than this. at least if you AA them to there seeding it would be better. maybe not perfect. Better than nothing RIGHT?
@Bill you are absolutely correct. If the seniors get another year, what about the Juniors who might would have lost this year to a senior and had next year to compete without this years seniors who they might have lost to. Now their senior year is filled with the same guys who would have kept them off the top step this year and so on down the list all the way to the impact on freshman. And as far as the AA status I think in this instance it should be top 10 given or more as many of the seedings are very difficult to determine at the 8 – 9 – 10 spots. without naming names I have a nephew who seeded 9th. He has head to head wins against a few of the wrestlers directly above him. And many wins against common opponents that have beaten a few of those directly ahead of him. His seeding fell a little because in the final weeks of January he did take 2 losses but was nursing a knee injury and he decided to protect his knee a bit while wrestling to be better prepared for wrestling into and at the National tournament. I know every wrestler has a story and I would think it fair to go top 10 or 12 get AA status.
Saying it’s not fair for a junior because he might have lost to a senior that’s the sport, Give an AA status to the top 8-10 seniors is not fair to a lower seeded wrestler. What about a unneeded or the Athlete that was seeded 11-12 that could have AA. Bottom line the right thing to do is give them a real shot to AA, NCAA royalty screwed the Athletes!
What sense of accomplishment does a WRESTLER GET OUT OF BEING GIVEN SOMETHING, THIS SPORT YOU EARN EVERY POINT YOU GET!
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