COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – A pair of Bear wrestlers punched their tickets to next month's NCAA Championships after standout performances at the NCAA East Regionals on Sunday in Lexington, Virginia.
Sophomore Christopher Tan won the 125-pound bracket, and junior Derek Arnold claimed his second consecutive 149-pound title at the regional tournament; both grapplers will make the trip to Cornell College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa to represent Ursinus at the Division III Championships on March 11 and 12.
As a team, Ursinus earned a total of 88 points to place third, just ahead of Delaware Valley (87.5) and Ferrum College (84.5). Stevens took home the team title with 137 points, while TCNJ was runner-up with 98.
After a fifth-place showing a year ago, Tan worked his way to the top of the mountain with an impressive run on the campus of Washington & Lee University. The sophomore needed 4:50 to score a 16-1 technical fall against Delaware Valley's Brenden Velez, booking his spot in the national championships. Not satisfied with that, Tan knocked off Rob Murray of Stevens Institute, the nation's eighth-ranked wrestler at 125, by a 10-6 count in the championship bout.
Tan utilized three takedowns to secure a 7-5 lead after the first period, then recorded an escape and a fourth takedown with 33 seconds remaining in the second period. Murray got one point back with a third-period escape, but could get no closer as Tan collected the crown.
After a bye and a technical fall got him to the semifinals, Arnold continued his dominance of the 149-pound bracket with another tech fall opposite Merchant Marine's Nathan Twito, a 17-0 blanking that officially sent him back to the Division III championships. Arnold made even quicker work of his finals opponent, pinning Ferrum College's Paul Biggs in just 2:15 to clinch a repeat regional title.
Senior Christian Hoogheem (141) and juniors Alex Kramer (157) and Corey Markovitch (174) all earned fifth-place finishes for the Bears.
Hoogheem dropped a 6-2 decision to TCNJ's Ryan Budzek, ranked No. 8 in Division III, in the semifinals. That sent him to the consolation bracket, where he was defeated, 8-2, by Ryan Wilson of Stevens. In the fifth-place bout, Hoogheem notched a pair of takedowns to seize a 4-1 first-period lead against W&L's Alex Pollera; he countered two escapes with another takedown en route to a 7-3 verdict.
Kramer notched a 10-5 victory over Gettysburg's Colin Kowalski in his first consolation match of the day, following a takedown with four near fall points and coasting from there. He was pinned by Stevens' Vic Del Monico in the next round, but rebounded by scoring a fall in 3:42 against Erik Beshada of Merchant Marine in the fifth-place clash.
Markovitch got a tough semifinal draw with Centenary's Joshua Sibblies, who came in ranked ninth in the country and sent the Ursinus junior to the wrestlebacks with a 9-1 decision. NYU's John Messinger pinned Markovitch in his first consolation bout, but he edged W&L's Brandon LeFore, 5-3, to take fifth. Trailing 3-2 entering the third period, Markovitch took the lead with a takedown and added another point on riding time.
Sophomore Cody Richmond suffered an 8-4 setback at the hands of Delaware Valley's Nick Della Fera in his first consolation bout of the day. Freshman Zeb Pfeiffer lost 3-2 against Ralph Bernardo of King's, who used a third-period takedown to break a 1-all stalemate.