Wilkes Men's Wrestling Takes Third at NCAA Regional; Butka Repeats as Regional Champ, Burkhart Joins as NCAA Qualifier
 
WILLIAMSPORT – The No. 20 Wilkes University men's wrestling team finished in third place seeing seven top-eight finishers and two NCAA qualifiers including Cameron Butka (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) repeating as a regional champion on day two of the NCAA Region II Qualifier Tournament Sunday afternoon hosted by Lycoming College.

Full Results
 
Wilkes finished with 112 total team points, just 3.5 points behind second place No. 19 Ithaca College. No. 25 Stevens Institute of Technology took home the regional team championship finishing with 153 total team points.
 
Butka continued his record-setting senior season with a second consecutive regional championship at 197-pounds earning his second trip to the NCAA Championships. He scored a 5-0 decision over Nicholas Woodruff of Penn College in the semifinals to guarantee an NCAA berth. In the finals Butka cruised to a 10-3 decision, narrowly missing extra-points as the senior picked up his school-record 134^th career victory and 39^th win of the season.
 
Heavyweight Caleb Burkhart (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) joined Butka as an NCAA qualifier after he guaranteed a berth with a fall over Nick Franco of SUNY Brockport in 3:53 in the semifinals, the third straight fall of the tournament for the senior pushing his season-mark to 23. In a final that featured the top two seeds in the bracket, Josh Harkless of RIT was able to turn the momentum of Burkhart and capture the title with a fall in 3:35. Burkhart earned his second straight NCAA Championship berth finishing in second place.
 
Jaryn Hartranft (Catasauqua, PA/Catasauqua) was one of seven top-eight finishers as the junior claimed fourth place at 157-pounds. Hartranft fell in the semifinals to Oswego State's Tyler Rossini before picking up a 4-1 decision over Rudy Brown to earn a spot in the third place bout and keep hopes alive for an NCAA berth. In a hard-fought match, Hartranft would fall short by a 5-2 decision, as a late take down from Jared Lee of RIT prove to be the difference.
 
Wilkes saw three different wrestlers earn sixth place in their respective weight classes including Ryan Santiago (Bethlehem, PA/Liberty) (141-pounds), Caleb Lawrence (Larksville, PA/Wyoming Seminary) (165-pounds) and Christopher Nuss (Gore, VA/James Wood) (184-pounds). After falling in the semifinals, Santiago dropped consecutive falls in the wrestle-backs and fifth place bout to settle for sixth. Lawrence fell in his opening bout, but rallied back with a technical fall (21-4), fall (2:25) and 4-2 decision to earn a spot to wrestle to get to the third pace bout. Lawrence then fell 7-1 before concluding his tournament with a medical forfeit in the fifth place bout. Nuss wrestled back with a 17-2 technical fall and 6-5 decision to earn a spot to try to wrestle for third place. He fell by fall there and finished off his tournament with an injury default in the fifth place bout.
 
At 125-pounds Connor Kerwin (Totowa, NJ/Passaic Valley) was the final Colonel to earn a top-eight finish taking home seventh place. After falling in the quarterfinals, Kerwin won by major decision in his first consolation bout before losing by pin fall. Kerwin then recorded a pin fall in 2:12 in the seventh place bout to conclude his tournament.
 
Butka and Burkhart will travel to the NCAA Championships on Friday and Saturday, March 14-15 in Providence, Rhode Island.