WARRIORS CLAIM ONE ALL-AMERICAN;
FINISH 17^TH AS A TEAM

WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Lycoming College wrestling team wrapped up two days of competition at the NCAA Division III National Championships held at the First Union Arena in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, over the weekend. The Warriors’ Mike Waldron (So./South Williamsport, PA; South Williamsport) placed 4^th at 133 pounds to earn All-American honors. As a team Lycoming placed 17^th with 21.5 points.

Waldron entered the tournament as the third seed at his weight. After a first round bye, he advanced to the quarterfinals by pinning Chuck Griffith of St. John’s in just 25 seconds. Waldron was then upset by Tom Hall of Ithaca College, who recorded a pin with just four seconds remaining in the match. Hall would go on to win the national championship at 133. Waldron rebounded in the consolation bracket to pin John Marchette, the number one seed from Augsburg College, Mario Villa of Hunter College, and Dan Flounders of the College of New Jersey. The three consecutive falls put him in the third-place bout versus number two seed Josh Habeck from UW-Lacrosse, who pinned Waldron at the 4:40 mark of the match.

In addition to his fourth place finish, Waldron recorded the most falls in the least amount of time among all wrestlers in the tournament. Waldron pinned four opponents in a combined time of just 5:26.

Andy Squires (Fr./Clearfield, PA; Clearfield) and Jon Neve (Jr./Norristown, PA; Germantown Academy) also competed at the championships for Lycoming. Squires went 1-2 at 141 pounds, losing to third seed Will Kelly of Wartburg and fifth seed Keith Poloskey of Springfield. His victory came over Jim Russial of York College by a 4-2 decision. Neve also went 1-2 wrestling at 197 pounds. Both of his losses came versus the top two seeds at his weight – Kevin Rasmussen of Augsburg and John Shipley of Montclair State. Neve recorded a 10-3 decision over Justin Post of Loras for his lone win.

Augsburg College scored 87.0 points to defend their team national title. Upper Iowa and Wartburg were close behind, each with 81.0 points. Lycoming was the highest team finisher among the Middle Atlantic Conference schools represented at the national championships, scoring 21.5 points to place 17^th. King’s College was 18^th (20.5), Delaware Valley was 30^th (10.5) and Messiah was 36^th with 6.5 points.