Men's Wrestling 1/24/2015 6:38:00 PM

No. 13 Wilkes Wrestling Finishes Third at MAC Championships as Ten Colonels Place in Top Four

No. 13 Wilkes Wrestling Finishes Third at MAC Championships as Ten Colonels Place in Top Four

WILKES-BARRE – The No. 13 Wilkes University wrestling team finished third of five teams at the 2015 Middle Atlantic Conference Championships with ten Colonels claiming top four finishes Saturday afternoon at the Marts Center.

Wilkes finished with 73 total team points trailing second place Messiah with 124 and MAC champion Delaware Valley with 125.5. Lycoming finished fourth with 58.5 points and King's fifth with 21.5 team points.

Of the ten Wilkes finishers, four finished runner up including Matthew Grossmann (Lancaster, PA/Manheim Township) (133), Sean Lombardi (Newton, NJ/Kittatiny) (157), Kyle Diesel (Westtown, NY/Minisink Valley) (174) and Dave Oberrender (Freeland, PA/Hazleton) (285).

Grossmann, the top seed at 133-pounds, started the day with two falls in the quarterfinals and semifinals. He pinned Messiah's Daniel Rodriguez in 1:48 and Messiah's Hunter Harris in 4:16 to reach the title bout. There Grossmann fell 3-2 in a match where he led by one point late but surrendered a late escape to settle for second place in his first MAC championship appearance for Wilkes.

Lombardi, the second seed at 157-pounds, opened with an 11-8 decision in the first round over Messiah's Josh Toal before pinning William Korzeniewski of Messiah in 1:38 in the quarterfinals. He reached the finals with a 13-2 major decision over third seed Howard Kilpatrick of King's setting up a title match with No. 8 Larry Cannon of Messiah. Cannon posted a hard-fought 5-3 decision in the final bout as Lombardi settled for second place and his first All-Conference selection as a Colonel.

Diesel earned back-to-back decision wins going 10-0 and 3-2 to reach the finals at 174-pounds. In the finals, the junior fell to No. 3 Josh Thomson of Messiah 5-3 in a back-and-forth affair to settle for second place.

Oberrender, the second seed at 285, was the final Wilkes runner up. He earned a 3-1 win in the opening round followed by a fall in 2:39 and 7-4 decision win in the semifinals to reach the title bout. In the finals, Oberrender dropped an 11-3 decision to No. 4 Zach Roseberry of Delaware Valley to claim second.

Other top four finishers for Wilkes included Nicholas Racanelli (West Creek, NJ/Southern Regional) (3^rd at 157), Nick Dawson (3^rd at 285), Mark Misczenski (Easton, PA/Easton) (4^th at 141), Josh Evans (Palmerton, PA/Palmerton) (4^th at 149), Levi Veppert (Kempton, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) (4^th at 184) and Eric Bach (Newton, NJ/Kittatiny) (4^th at 197).

Racanelli earned third place at 157-pounds claiming an 8-6 decision over King's Howard Kilpatrick in the third place bout. Racanelli fell to eventual winner Cannon in the semifinals before wrestling through the consolation bracket. Dawson wrestled through the consolations at 285 earning three straight wins to reach the third place bout where the senior pinned Nick Havener of Messiah in 1:07.

Misczenski finished fourth at 141-pounds going 2-2 on the afternoon including 6-3 and 3-2 decisions throughout the bracket. Evans earned fourth at 149-pounds reaching the semifinals before falling to eventual champion Vincent Fava of Delaware Valley to move to the consolations. There Evans earned a 12-5 win to reach the third place bout before falling 9-5 in the consolation finals.

Veppert went 3-2 over his five-match day at 184 including a major decision (15-2) win in the quarterfinals. Bach reached the semifinals at 197 before falling runner up Jonathan Secor of Lycoming 6-0. Bach then wrestled back with a 6-1 decision win to reach the third place bout.

Wilkes hosts a quad match next Saturday as the Colonels welcome Trinity, Scranton and Alfred State to the Marts Center starting at 11:00 a.m.

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Players Mentioned

Eric Bach: Senior

Kyle Diesel: Junior

Sean Lombardi: Senior

Levi Veppert: Junior

Matthew Grossmann: First Year

Nicholas Racanelli: First Year

Mark Misczenski: Sophomore

Dave Oberrender: Senior

Josh Evans: First Year

Players Mentioned

Eric Bach
: Senior

Kyle Diesel
: Junior

Sean Lombardi
: Senior

Levi Veppert
: Junior

Matthew Grossmann
: First Year

Nicholas Racanelli
: First Year

Mark Misczenski
: Sophomore

Dave Oberrender
: Senior

Josh Evans
: First Year