Five RIT wrestlers qualify for NCAA Championship as RIT finished fourth at NCAA Mideast Regional Championship
March 02, 2020

 


ITHACA, NY -- Seniors Dempsey King (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford), John Donohue (Smithtown, NY/Hauppauge) and Sam Weinger (Blooming Grove, NY/Washingtonville), junior Kaidon Winters (Athens, PA/Athens Area) and sophomore Chris Horton (Athens, PA/Athens Area) each qualified for the NCAA Div. III Championship, as the No. 20 RIT wrestling team placed fourth at the 2020 NCAA Div. III Mideast Regional Championship from Ithaca College. Winters won the title at 157 lbs., while King was the winner at 167 lbs. Horton (133 lbs.), Donohue (197 lbs.) and Sam Weinger (Blooming Grove, NY/Washingtonville) (285 lbs.) each qualified by finishing third in their weight classes.

The top three finishers in each weight class earned automatic bids to the NCAA Division III Championships on March 13-14 from the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This will be the fourth straight season that RIT has had at least three student-athletes qualify for nationals. Winters and King will each be making their third straight appearances at nationals, while Weinger will make his second trip. Horton and Donohue will each be making their first trip to the NCAA's.

Winters, who finished fifth at 157 lbs. last season, beat Ronald Grevera (Muhlenberg) with a fall at 2:04 in his opening round bout at 157 lbs, and went on to pin Kyle Shaffer (Scranton) at 2:22 in his quarterfinal match. Sunday, Winters began the day by pinning Stanley Wojdylak (Centenary) at 1:31, and claimed the titled at 157 lbs. with an 8-3 decision over Sam Schneider (Ithaca).

Saturday, King defeated James Geiger (Keystone) 10-1 in his opening match at 165 lbs. and defeated Jeremy Numberger (Centenary) 6-1 in the quarterfinals. King, who finished second at the 2019 NCAA Division III Championship at 165 lbs., beat Charlie Grygas (Oswego), 6-0 in Sunday's semifinal, and brought home the title with a forfeit win over Austin Whitney (Ithaca) in the championship bout.

Horton defeated Shane Reynolds (Scranton) with an 11-3 major decision in his opening round match on Saturday. He advanced to the semifinals with a 10-5 win over Andrew Cota (Hunter) 10-5. Sunday, Horton lost to Travis Jones (Ithaca) with a technical fall at 6:07. He went on to beat William Hardin (Oswego) 9-5 in the consolation semifinal, and defeated Andrew Cota ((Hunter) with a 12-0 major decision in the third-place match.

Donohue beat Jalen Edwards (Penn College) with a technical fall at 4:41 (18-3) in his opening match on Saturday. He went on to beat Jason Carter (URSI) in the quarterfinals, with a 16-4 major decision. Sunday, Donohue lost to Lucas Colestock (Muhlenberg) with a 10-9 decision. In the consolation semifinals, Donohue defeated Justin Hopman (Centenary) with an 8-4 decision. He went on to beat Jason Carter (URSI), who he beat in the quarterfinals, 10-4 to take first place and qualify for the NCAA Championship.

Weinger defeated Toryan Jones with a fall at 2:28 in his opening round bout at 285 lbs. Saturday. He defeated Dalton Elias (Ithaca) 6-1 in the quarterfinals to advance to the semifinals. Weinger was beaten 3-1 by Richard Knapp (Brockport) in Sunday's semifinal. He came back to beat Scott Schaeffer (Muhlenberg) 6-2 in the consolation semifinals, and qualified for the NCAA Championship with a 6-1 win over Trentyn Rupert (Cortland) in the third-place match.

Joe Lupisella (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) finished fourth at 174 lbs., going 4-2 on the weekend, while Isaiah Ocasio (Vineland, NJ/Vineland) went 2-2 at 141 lbs.





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