NCAA Championship Page / Complete Results 

LA CROSSE, WI – Wilkes University's Anthony Dattolo (Succasunna, NJ/Roxbury) finished eighth in the 149 weight class at the 2011 NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championships, earning All-American honors for the first time in his career, this weekend.

The junior finished the two-day event with two wins in five matches, advancing to the quarterfinals of the championship bracket on Friday.

In the afternoon's seventh place match against James Locke of Coe College, Dattolo started quickly with a takedown early in the first period. Locke would come back to take a one-point lead with an escape followed by a takedown of his own. Dattolo then rallied to tie it at three with an escape as the bout went into the second tied at three.

Unfortunately, Locke would get the better of Dattolo the rest of the way, dominating with multiple near falls as he would go on to take the 18-3 win, taking seventh place.

Dattolo opened Saturday morning with a 9-6 loss to Delaware Valley College's Zac Andrews. In the opening period, Dattolo quickly opened with a two-point takedown before a reversal by Andrews tied the score. Later, Dattolo would reverse out of a hold to retake the lead before Andrews racked up three-point and two-point near falls at the end of the first to take a 7-4 advantage.

After a scoreless second period, Dattolo chose neutral and immediately got a takedown to narrow his gap to just one. However, that's as close as he would get, as Andrews pulled off a reversal and went on for the three-point decision.

On Friday, Dattolo opened with a 16-7 victory over Andrew Johnson from Heidelberg, as he advanced to the quarterfinals. A loss by pin to Augsburg's Tony Valek bumped Dattolo down to the consolation bracket, where he would wrestle in that night. Facing Wisconsin-Stevens Point's Kris Magruder, Dattolo edged out a tough win, his second of the championships, locking up All-American honors for the first time in his career.

"It's a great feeling," said Dattolo on earning All-American honors  "My goal at beginning of year was to be an All-American and it feels good to achieve that goal."

The two-time Metropolitan Conference runner-up made his first national championships this season when he defeated Centenary's John Stillo 1-0 two weeks ago. Going in as the fifth seed, Dattolo earned a first round bye before battling Johnson on Friday morning. 

“Anytime you can get another All-American in your program it's great," said head coach Jon Laudenslager. "We're building on a tradition here at Wilkes and I feel proud of Anthony. He'll use what he's done to build towards next year."

Dattolo finishes the season with a 29-5 overall record, including a 24-3 mark against Division III competition. He was named Outstanding Wrestler at the Messiah Petrofes Invitational back in early December and proved to be one of the top wrestlers in his weight class in the nation when he went 3-0 at the NWCA National Duals in Iowa in January. He opened the season with three wins in the John Reese Duals and went 4-2 in the Wilkes Open against Division I opponents.