SOURCE: www.cortlandreddragons.com

March 02, 2024

J.C. Cardenas Wins 125-Pound Regional Title, Earns Third Straight NCAA Championship Trip https://t.co/VdfsThKk7P

— Cortland Athletics (@RedDragonPride) March 2, 2024

ROCHESTER, N.Y. - J.C. Cardenas (Brooklyn/Grand Street Campus) won the 125-pound title at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regional Wrestling Championships, hosted by RIT, and earned a berth into the NCAA Division III Championships March 15-16 in La Crosse, Wis.

Cardenas won a regional title for the third straight year. He was the 133-pound champion in both 2022 and 2023. He finished with a 4-0 record at the tournament, capped on Saturday by a 10-0 major decision versus Joey Lamparelli of Muhlenberg in the semifinals and a 9-3 decision over Elizabethtown's Ethan Liptzin in the finals. The top-three placewinners in each weight class advance to nationals. Cardenas will bring a 26-5 record into the NCAA championships.

Two other Red Dragons earned all-region honors with top-six finishes. Culley Bellino (Canastota) placed sixth at 141 pounds and Christian Paredes (Bohemia/Connetquot) finished sixth at 149 pounds.

Bellino finished the weekend 4-3 with four pins. He registered the most pins in the least amount of time of any wrestler at the regional (four in 14:58). He began Saturday with a pin over Noah Hunt of Penn College of Technology in 2:11 before losing to Centenary's Xavier Pena by technical fall and to RIT's Bryson Vaughn in the fifth-place match, also by tech. fall. Bellino closes the season with a 29-17 record.

Paredes was 3-3 at the regional. On Saturday, he opened with an 8-0 major decision versus Zack Vera of New Jersey City before losing, 2-1, to Thomas Monn of McDaniel and, 6-5, to Shane Strausser of Elizabethtown in the fifth-place match. Paredes ends the season with a 16-5 record.

Three additional Cortland wrestlers finished in the top eight in their weight classes. Cody Merwin (Walton) placed seventh at 133 pounds with a 3-2 record. He lost to Muhlenberg's Frank DiEsso, 8-1, to start Saturday and pinned Oneonta's Danny Poggi in 4:32 in the seventh-place match. Merwin ends the year 13-15. Robby Cunningham (Miller Place) ended 2-3 at 184 pounds for an eighth-place finish after losses to Ithaca's Jake Jones, 3-1, and Ryan Fairchild of Muhlenberg, by pin, in the seventh place match. He finishes with a 18-20 record. Dylan Houseknecht (Odessa/Odessa-Montour) went 3-3 at 285 pounds to place eighth. He lost to Jackson Burns of St. John Fisher, 4-0, and by pin by Darius Green of Elmira in the seventh-place match, and he closes the year with a 12-9 record.

Cortland finished eighth out of 21 schools in the team standings with 77 points. The College of New Jersey won the team title with 151 points, followed by Ithaca (138.5), Elizabethtown (115.5), McDaniel (88.5) and both RIT and Ursinus (86 each) rounding out the top five.