SOURCE: oneontaathletics.com

March 02, 2024

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The SUNY Oneonta wrestling team finished 12th out of 21 teams at the Mideast Regional at RIT and had five wrestlers earn All-Region honors. Junior Jack Ryan (Trumbull, CT/) placed second in 184-pounds and qualified for a spot into the NCAA Division III Championships for the second year in a row. The College of New Jersey won the team event with 151 points.

Along with Ryan, junior Danny Poggi (West Islip/West Islip), sophomore Carson LiCastri (Redding, CT/Joel Barlow High School) and seniors Max Yahre (Plainview, N.Y./Plainview JFK) and Kenneth Sauer (Franklin/Franklin) all received All-Region honors. LiCastri was fifth in 197-pounds, Yahre finished sixth at 157-pounds, while Poggi and Sauer both placed eighth in 133-pounds and 174-pounds, respectively.

Ryan defeated No. 4 ranked Ursinus' Max Borton in a 9-0 major decision in the championship semifinals. Ryan had the upper hand throughout the match and shut down Borton while scoring a couple takedowns. Ryan faced No. 2 ranked Alfred State's Sean Malenfant in the championship where Malenfant won an 8-6 decision. Ryan recorded a takedown and two escapes for a 5-4 edge heading into the third period, however Malenfant scored an escape then a takedown with 1:36 remaining. Ryan escaped from Malenfant but could not earn another takedown in the final minute.

LiCastri started day two beating Oswego's No. 7 ranked Anthony Cascen for the third time this season in a 4-1 decision. He scored an escape to begin the second period then had a takedown with 30 seconds left in the second to gain the lead. Cascen had an escape in the third, but LiCastri held him off for the remainder of the period. LiCastri dropped an 11-5 decision against Ithaca's Ryan Galka then won the fifth-place match by medical forfeit over St. John Fisher's No. 3 ranked Braydon Vandenberg.

Yahre faced McDaniel's No. 3 regional ranked Xavier Howard in the championship semifinals where McDaniels won in a 7-2 decision. Yahre recorded the first point in the match with an escape halfway through the second period, but Howard chose to go neutral in the third period and scored two takedowns. Yahre went into the fifth-place match after dropping an 18-5 major decision against Johns Hopkins Jake Hoffmann and fell to TCNJ's Ryan Dats at 6:21.

Poggi came up short in a 4-1 decision against No. 8 ranked Oswego's Michael Santore. Santore scored a takedown in the first period and earned riding time while Poggi scored an escape in the third period. In the seventh-place match, Poggi fell to Cortland's Cody Merwin at 4:32.

Sauer was defeated by TCNJ's James Romaine in a 16-6 major decision in his first match of day two. Sauer was put in the seventh-place match against RIT's Ben Dougherty, where Dougherty recorded the only point with an escape at the beginning of the second period for a 1-0 decision.

Ryan will travel to La Crosse, Wisconsin for the NCAA Division III Championships on March 15-16.