Ithaca Wrestling Set to Host Two-Day NCAA Mideast Regional as they Seek National Bids https://t.co/IrYsWb1oOM
— Ithaca Bombers (@BomberSports) February 23, 2023
LIVE COVERAGE
ADMISSION: All spectators must purchase a ticket in order to gain access to Glazer Arena. There will only be single day sales for this event, no "All-Session" passes are available.
$10 single session pass | $5 for Children 12 & Under
CASH ONLY
Free with Valid ID for Ithaca Students & Faculty/Staff
ITHACA, N.Y. -This weekend Ithaca College has the privilege to host the 2023 NCAA Regional Wrestling Tournament for the Mideast region. Although the Mideast is strong in the dual team rankings, wrestling is officially in tournament season. The tournament team rankings differ quite a bit compared to the dual rankings.
The Mideast is known for having strong dual teams but tends to fall out of the national tournament rankings. The Bombers, along with TCNJ, are great examples of this. Ithaca jumped TCNJ in the Dual Team Rankings after the upset, and now both being back-to-back holding the respectable No. 13 and No. 14 ranks. Although both schools have multiple wrestlers ranked within the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) Top-15, they are nowhere to be found in the tournament rankings.
Rochester Institute of Technology is the only Mideast school in the rankings at No. 25 despite having less ranked wrestlers than both schools. In the dual rankings they fall behind both IC and TCNJ at No. 16. Tournament rankings are skewed by advancement points and higher places, therefore dark horse favorite and No. 3 Austin Lamb at 165 for RIT carries many more potential points attached to their school, allowing for them to squeak into the rankings.
Even though RIT is ranked higher, Ithaca and TCNJ are going to be the heavy favorites to win the Mideast with the volume of D3Wrestle (D3W) ranked wrestlers each school has. How many more ranked wrestlers do you ask? Below is the individual weight by weight preview.
125 Matt Haycook 7-15: Unranked
Regional Ranked Matches:
#1 Ryan Rosenthal (TCNJ) Loss 15-3
It's safe to assume last season's Empire Conference champ will get the postseason call now that he's healthy. Haycook has done really well within the conference tournaments, which bodes well for the regional tournament. He has wins over wrestlers from Alfred State, Cortland, Oneonta, Oswego State, and Penn Tech. It's relevant because while Rosenthal is the far and away favorite to win regionals, Haycook can shake things up throughout the rest of the bracket.
133 Isaias Torres 29-8: #25 D3W, #2 Mideast Ranking
Regional Ranked Matches:
#1 Jayden Cardenas (Cortland) Loss Dec 10-5
#5 Patric Snoke (Penn Tech) Win Dec x2 8-3 & 8-2
#6 Anthony Romero (Oneonta) Win Dec 6-2
Torres is shaping up to battle Cardenas for the next three years for the top spot in the Mideast. The decision loss earlier in the season was a turning point for Torres. Since then, he has gone on an absolute tear going 21-5 with his only losses coming from higher ranked national opponents and two wrestlers from NCAA Division I, Army. That stretch led to Torres earning his first ranking of his young career. It's important to note that these wrestlers didn't meet in the recent dual meet. The first year is looking to take revenge in the finals but will most likely have to wrestle Zach Levy from Alfred. Levy won New York States at 133 but entered the lighter bracket without D1 competition. Even then Torres is a favorite to make it into the finals.
141 Luis Hernandez 19-10: #16 D3W, #2 Mideast Ranking
Regional Ranked Matches:
#4 Sean Peterson (Alfred State) Win Dec 9-3
If you exclude the two medical forfeits at the Ithaca Invitationals, Hernandez hasn't lost to a D3 opponent who hasn't been ranked at one point this season. To say his strength of schedule was tough would be an understatement. There are not many times until nationals where you can say that you wrestled multiple top three opponents, but Hernandez has wrestled #2 Jacob Reed (Ohio Northern) and #3 Kyle Slendhorn (Stevens) twice. Everyone ranked below Hernandez he has either beaten or won over mutual opponents, but Hernandez's biggest test will come if he faces yet another ranked opponent in the finals. D3Wrestle has Xavier Pena (Centenary) #5 in their rankings, and nobody expects an upset prior to the finals to be possible. If you want to be the best you have to beat the best, and Hernandez hasn't shied away from tough competition all year.
149 Matthew Beyer 22-6: #15 NWCA, #11 D3W, #2 Mideast Ranking
Regional Ranked Matches:
#5 Mike Conklin (TCNJ) Win x2 Dec 9-3 & 3-1
#6 Angelo Centrone (Cortland) Win Fall 6:48
The Mideast 149 is probably one of the most loaded weight classes from top to bottom that any wrestler is going to see at their regional tournament. Every regional ranked wrestler is also nationally ranked by D3W. Starting from the bottom of the regional rankings is #19 Centrone, who was beating Beyer in their dual until Beyer hit a dirty cement mixer for a fall late fall in the third. #20 Conklin started the year at #5 before being dethroned almost immediately in the New Standard Invite by Beyer. The fourth in the region is the lowest nationally ranked, #21 Jeff Johnson from New Jersey City. The third ranked regional wrestler is Empire Conference champ Eli Sims from Brockport, who earned himself a D3W #10 ranking. Then, if the bracket wasn't loaded enough, the wrestler ranked above Beyer is Thomas Monn from McDaniel, who claims a #4 D3W ranking and an even higher #3 NWCA rank. Loaded bracket? Yes. Winnable for Beyer? Also, a Yes. Sometimes wrestling is just unforgiving.
157 Wenchard Pierre-Louis 18-5: #24 D3W, #2 Mideast Ranking
Regional Ranked Matches: N/A
Assuming Pierre-Louis is healthy, the #24 ranked wrestler will get the call. He has been the wrestler to take the mat against ranked opponents in duals and dual tournaments, but Travis Jones has gotten his fair share of mat time this season. No ranked matches for Pierre-Louis, but Jones has convincingly beaten #5 Logan McGloine (Oswego) three separate times this season. No matter who wrestles, they will have some tough competition as NWCA #7 Brandon Bowels (Muhlenberg) stands tall at #1 in the region. Nate Sacco (TCNJ) drops down from 165 to 157 for the postseason and claims a NWCA #12 along with a D3W #9. NWCA #11 Dorian Gomez slides into the fourth place slot creating a scrapfest to get on the podium.
165 Jackson Gray 27-7: Regional Ranking #4
Regional Ranked Matches:
#1 Nick Sacco (TCNJ) Win Dec 5-4, Loss Dec 4-2
You are not seeing Deja-Vu, the Sacco brothers both wrestle at TCNJ and weigh nearly the same. NWCA #12 Sacco's record against the Bomber's own Jackson Gray is 1-1, which shows Gray can certainly make the podium. If the brackets workout in line with the rankings, being #4 helps Gray in theory. He is on the same side with an opponent he has history with and has beaten. On the other side is NWCA/D3W #3 Austin Lamb (RIT) and D3W #18 Brian Schneider. Gray has shown he's capable of being quality opponents, but no same athlete wants to wrestle #3 in the country before the finals if they don't have to; especially when your baseline goal is placement to qualify for nationals.
174 Konrad Parker 14-15: Unranked
Regional Ranked Matches:
#1 Charlie Grygas Loss x2 Dec 8-1 & Maj 11-3
#2 Reid Colella Loss Dec x2 3-0 &4-3
Parker's last match against NWCA #13/D3W #11 Reid Colella (TCNJ) was razor close. The first year has been getting better with every match he wrestles and if he peaks at the right time he can definitely cause some turmoil, but he has to rack up a few upsets to reach the podium. While NWCA #6/D3W #7 Charlie Grygas has been upset this year by an unranked opponent, it certainly isn't the norm. There are three other D3W ranked wrestlers ranked three, four, and five in the mideast: #13 Anson Dewar (Muhlenberg), #24 Joe Paul (Johns Hopkins), and #26 Ganon Smith (Elizabethtown). This might be the only other bracket that can rival the stacked 149 weight class.
184: Ryan Galka 9-17: Unranked
Ranked Regional Matches:
#1 Sean Melafant (Alfred State) Win Dec 9-7
#2 Quinn Haddad (TCNJ) Loss Maj 15-4
#4 Brian Torres (Cortland) Loss Maj 8-0
Galka has shown that he is a giant killer. He knocked off a ranked D3W #17 Frank Medina and (Stevens) and NWCA #12 Melafant earlier this season. His season has been plagued by injuries which have shown up in his record and lack of mat time this past month. If he is healthy for this weekend, Galka is going to have to battle against a bracket that holds ranked NWCA #13 Haddad and #14 Colby Giroux (RIT). Torres is also now ranked by D3W at #25. 184 is a strange weight class because many of the rankings from multiple reputable sources are all over the place after the top ten. This is quite honestly anybody's weight class.
197 Eze Chukwuezi 32-1: #5 NWCA, #6 D3W, #1 Mideast Ranking
Regional Ranked Matches:
#3 Michael Sullivan (Brockport) Win Maj 15-3
#5 Blake Ilges (Alfred State) Win Tech 22-7
Eze has been nothing short of dominant this year. He has multiple high ranked wins, multiple wins over D1 competition en route to a NYS Championship, and multiple bonus point wins over regional ranked competition. Eze is in the driver's seat this weekend as he looks to take home his third consecutive regional championship. The only question mark is Cortland's Demetrius Henry, who decided to not wrestle Eze in the dual. The NWCA #12 was most likely avoiding the higher ranked Eze because of seeding this weekend. A loss might interfere with the plan to be on opposing sides and meet up in the finals. Hopefully the crowd gets to witness this ranked matchup that has been building steam since the Rumble and Tumble event.
HWT: Jeremy Mazzella 19-10: Unranked
Regional Ranked Matches:
#2 Peter Wersinger (TCNJ) Loss Dec 6-4
Mazzella is one of the most interesting stories coming into regionals. Certainly, undersized after bumping up to heavyweight, the former 197 pounder has gotten a small taste of every spectrum of heavyweights over his short 10-4 match lifespan as the big guy on the team. He's seen the traditional boring "if I win by 1, I still win" heavyweights, the tall as a tree leg riders, the "go big or go home" throwers, and even some ranked competition. Mazzella has proved he can hang with ranked heavyweights after beating then ranked and #2 in the nation in pins Caleb Burkhart from Wilkes. He also scored on his only regional ranked opponent and D3W #26 Wersinger. The only other ranked opponent is region #1 and D3W #25 Dylan Waller (Elizabethtown). Heavyweight is wide open for the taking this year. Why not make the champ a Cinderella story about an unranked Mazzella? Sounds fun.
Ithaca College will compete in the 2023 Mideast Regional Championships tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. and on Saturday at 11 a.m. inside Glazer Arena.