Rutgers University
Midlands Championships
Six Wrestlers Place at 54th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships
Dec 30 | Wrestling
Final Team Scores Final Brackets
EVANSTON, Ill. - No. 11 Rutgers wrestling placed fourth (93 points) at the 54th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, earning a total of six placewinners in the two-day tournament at Welsh-Ryan Arena. 141-pounder Anthony Ashnault placed third to lead the Scarlet Knights in the event.
Iowa defended its Midlands Championships title with a 150.5-point showing. Nebraska finished second with 135.5 points, Arizona State third with 106.5 points, and Illinois fifth with 83 points.
At 184 pounds, Nicholas Gravina took sixth with a medical forfeit in the fifth-place match. At 133 pounds, Scott DelVecchio earned a sixth-place finish.
"I thought we wrestled with a ton of effort and won a bunch of big individual matchups," said head coach Scott Goodale. "I loved our fight and toughness all tournament long, but we also need to be more disciplined in certain situations and continue to do the little things right in big matches - our focus late, our positioning, finding a go to shoot in overtimes. All that matters."
Ashnault's (14-3) third place match against Nebraska's Chad Red ended in a 17-0 tech fall rout. The match concluded with Ashnault pulling Red to the mat for a four-point near fall. The third-place finish is the highest for a Rutgers wrestler since Mario Mason's runner-up result in 2011 and bests Ashnault's fourth-place performance last season.
DelVecchio (13-5) headed into the third period against NC State's No. 10-seeded Jamal Morris trailing 3-2 with riding time against him. With short time, DelVecchio scored a takedown and brought the score to 6-5. But with only 12 seconds remaining, Morris held him off for the win.
Gravina (12-3) went 4-2 to place at Midlands for the second consecutive year. The Allendale, New Jersey, native took eighth place at last year's event.
Ashnault and Gravina both advanced to the semifinals and lost in close bouts. Controversy ensued to conclude No. 3-seeded Ashnault versus No. 2-seeded Kevin Jack (NC State). Ashnault was down 2-1 but had riding time secured as time expired in the third period. The redshirt junior swiped at the Wolfpack wrestler just before the period ended, earning an unsportsmanlike penalty point against him.
After reviewing the call, it stood, giving Jack a 3-2 win before the two were set to wrestle in sudden victory.
Gravina lost a marathon, double overtime match against seventh-seeded Jack Dechow (Old Dominion) in his semifinal. Both wrestlers escaped in tiebreakers after a scoreless overtime period, but Dechow got to a single and dropped Gravina to the mat 23 seconds into SV-2 to end his title hopes.
DelVecchio began the day by outlasting Lehigh's Luke Karam, 4-2, to secure a spot on the podium. Against Wisconsin's Eli Stickley, the South Plainfield, New Jersey, product got to a cradle and won by fall in the third period (5:43). Overall, DelVecchio went 5-3 in the tournament and placed for the first time in his career.
Earlier in the day, three Scarlet Knights secured their spots on the podium with gutsy wrestle back performances.
149-pounder Anthony Giraldo and 174-pounder Jordan Pagano both won their seventh-place matches to go out on top after impressive outings. Giraldo (15-5) defeated Maryland's third-seeded and No. 12-ranked Alfred Bannister for the second time of the tournament in the seventh-place match, and went a collective 5-2 in the tournament. He placed at Midlands for the second-straight season.
Pagano (16-6) defeated No. 5-seeded David Kocer (South Dakota State), 5-2, in the round of 12, eventually earning a seventh place rematch against Harvard's Josef Johnson. Pagano left nothing to sudden victory this time around, coasting to a 15-2 major decision for his first Midlands placewinner performance.
157-pounder John Van Brill (14-6) compiled an impressive tournament and finished eighth with a 4-3 record. Two of his wins along the way came against Intermat ranked competition, including No. 7 Clayton Ream (North Dakota State) and No. 8 DaWaylon Barnes (Oklahoma).
133-pounder Tyson Dippery and 149-pounder Ken Theobold advanced to the second day of the Midlands Championships, but lost in the round of 12 to finish just shy of placing. Dippery (12-3) wrestled all the way back from a first round loss with four wins to come close to the podium, while Theobold (12-4) fell in his final two bouts of the tournament.
"The Midlands Championships is a tough tournament that ultimately prepares us for the Big Ten season. We wrestled well enough in a lot of spots to gain some valuable match experience up and down the lineup. We are excited that we placed six guys but we felt we left some points out there out of our scorers. But again, I love our fight in a lot of spots."
RU returns to the Rutgers Athletic Center next Friday, Jan. 6 to face No. 12 Illinois at 7 p.m. The dual will stream live on BTN Plus. Tickets are still available by calling the RU Ticket Office at 1-866-445-GORU (4678) or by clicking here.
Brandon Paetzell | Freshman | 125 Pounds | 1-2
| Dalton Duffield (Oklahoma) | W-F, 3:54 |
| No. 3 Shakur Laney (Ohio) | L-D, 5-3 (SV) |
| No. 9 Anthony Rubinetti (Northwestern) | L-MD, 19-10 |
No. 11 Scott DelVecchio | Redshirt Junior | 133 Pounds | 5-3 | Sixth Place
| Dylan Duncan (Illinois) | W-D, 9-7 |
| Billy Rappo (Maryland) | L-D, 8-3 |
| No. 15 Ian Parker (Iowa State) | W-D, 12-6 |
| Phillip Laux (Iowa) | W-D, 8-6 |
| Luke Karam (Lehigh) | W-D, 4-2 |
| Eli Stickley (Wisconsin) | W-F, 5:43 |
| No. 3 Seth Gross (South Dakota St.) | L-TF, 19-3 |
| No. 12 Jamal Morris (NC State) | L-D, 7-5 |
No. 6 Tyson Dippery | Redshirt Junior | 133 Pounds | 4-2
| Billy Rappo (Maryland) | L-F, 4:17 |
| No. 5 Emilio Saavedra (Old Dominion) | W-F, 6:18 |
| Dylan Duncan (Illinois) | W-D, 12-8 |
| No. 16 Jacob Colon (Grand View) | W-TF, 16-0 |
| John Muldoon (SIU-Edwardsville) | W-F, 0:13 |
| No. 7 Cameron Kelly (Ohio) | L-F, 1:47 |
No. 3 Anthony Ashnault | Redshirt Junior | 141 Pounds | 6-1 | Third Place
| Jordan Reich (Princeton) | W-F, 4:33 |
| John Meeks (Iowa State) | W-TF, 17-0 |
| Nick Zanetta (Pittsburgh) | W-MD, 14-5 |
| No. 6 Russell Rohlfing (CSU Bakersfield) | W-TF, 18-1 |
| No. 2 Kevin Jack (NC State) | L-D, 3-2 |
| Kanen Storr (Iowa State) | W-D, 2-1 |
| No. 12 Chad Red (Nebraska) | W-TF, 17-0 |
No. 7 Ken Theobold | Redshirt Senior | 149 Pounds | 3-2
| Jerren Glosser (Iowa) | W-D, 4-0 |
| Chase Straw (Iowa State) | W-D, 8-2 |
| John Fahy (SIU-Edwardsville) | W-D, 9-2 |
| No. 2 Justin Oliver (Central Michigan) | L-F, 6:00 |
| No. 16 Davion Jeffries (Oklahoma) | L-TF, 16-0 |
No. 14 Anthony Giraldo | Redshirt Sophomore | 149 Pounds | 5-2 | Seventh Place
| Gene Oliver Pierce (Arizona State) | W-D, 6-2 |
| Eric Yang (Northwestern) | W-MD, 17-4 |
| No. 3 Alfred Bannister (Maryland) | W-D, 2-1 (TB-1) |
| No. 6 Joey Delgado (Oregon State) | L-D, 3-2 (TB-1) |
| Joshua Maruca (Arizona State) | W-D, 4-3 |
| No. 16 Davion Jeffries (Oklahoma) | L-F, 0:51 |
| No. 3 Alfred Bannister (Maryland) | W-D, 4-3 |
Eleazar DeLuca | Senior | 157 Pounds | 1-2
| Fred Green (Boise State) | W-D, 7-3 |
| No. 3 Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) | L-D, 7-4 |
| Jared Scharenbrock (Wisconsin) | L-Inj. Def. |
No. 13 John Van Brill | Redshirt Sophomore | 157 Pounds | 4-3 | Eighth Place
| Andrew Fierro (Boise State) | W-TF, 19-4 |
| Tyler Ponte (Columbia) | W-F, 3:54 |
| No. 4 Clayton Ream (North Dakota St.) | W-F, 5:34 |
| No. 5 Colin Heffernan (Central Michigan) | L-D, 4-3 |
| No. 6 Dawaylon Barnes (Oklahoma) | W-D, 4-2 |
| No. 8 Joshua Shields (Arizona State) | L-D, 7-2 |
| No. 10 Alex Griffin (Purdue) | L-D, 5-1 |
Anthony Pafumi | Redshirt Senior | 165 Pounds | 1-2
| No. 16 Luke Zilverberg (South Dakota St.) | L-D, 4-0 |
| Daniel Bullard (NC State) | W-D, 3-0 |
| Abner Romero (Old Dominion) | L-D, 7-5 |
Willie Scott | Redshirt Freshman | 165 Pounds | 1-2
| Devan Marry (Eastern Michigan) | W-MD, 9-0 |
| No. 10 Grant Henderson (Grand View) | L-D, 7-6 |
| No. 7 Joseph Gunther (Iowa) | L-MD, 10-0 |
Jordan Pagano | Redshirt Sophomore | 174 Pounds | 5-2 | Seventh Place
| No. 7 Ryan Christensen (Wisconsin) | W-D, 4-0 |
| No. 10 Josef Johnson (Harvard) | L-D, 4-2 (SV) |
| Garrett Sutton (Michigan) | W-D, 3-1 |
| Jacob Morrrissey (Purdue) | W-D, 10-3 |
| No. 5 David Kocer (South Dakota St.) | W-D, 5-2 |
| Devin Skatzka (Indiana) | L-D, 7-2 |
| No. 10 Josef Johnson (Harvard) | W-MD, 15-2 |
No. 6 Nicholas Gravina | Redshirt Junior | 184 Pounds | 4-2 | Sixth Place
| Michael Aldrich (Northern Illinois) | W-TF, 19-2 |
| Jake Godinez (SIU Edwardsville) | W-F, 3:28 |
| No. 11 Ian Baker (Princeton) | W-MD, 12-2 |
| No. 3 Pete Renda (NC State) | W-D, 8-2 |
| No. 7 Jack Dechow (Old Dominion) | L-D, 4-2 (SV-2) |
| No. 4 Samuel Brooks (Iowa) | L-D, 8-4 |
| *No. 3 Pete Renda (NC State) | L-Med. Forf.* |
Kevin Mulligian | Freshman | 197 Pounds | 2-2
| Lance Dixon (Oklahoma) | L-D, 9-2 |
| Anthony Messner (Rutgers) | W-D, 9-2 |
| Devin King (Ohio) | W-D, 4-1 |
| No. 15 Cash Wilcke (Iowa) | L-D, 6-2 |
Anthony Messner | Redshirt junior | 197 Pounds | 0-2
| No. 5 Kevin Beazley (Old Dominion) | L-TF, 16-0 |
| Kevin Mulligan (Rutgers) | L-D, 9-2 |
*does not count toward career record
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