One individual champion. Four national qualifiers. A fourth-place team finish. It was a good day for Pennsylvania College of Technology wrestlers on Saturday at the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Mid-East Region championships.
Flashback Wrestling In action at Valley Forge Military Academy, freshman Derek Leiby, of Troy, captured the 149-pound weight class crown and was named the tournament's Outstanding Wrestler.
Also for Penn College, freshman Logan Gresock, of Wadsworth, Ohio, placed second at 174when being forced to medically forfeit after suffering a knee injury in the first period of the title match; sophomore Tyler Myers, of Centre Hall, finished second at 157 and freshman Paul Crutchlow, of Morris Plains, N.J., placed third at 184. Those four qualify for the NCWA Championships March 8-10 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
"Derek Leiby is wrestling really, really well right now. Saturday was probably one of his best. He looked good all day long," coach Schuyler Frey said.
"Tyler came up just a little bit short," the coach continued. "Logan had another great tournament also, but in the final got his knee twisted and, rather than try to push through it, we'll try to make sure that knee is good for Daytona. Paul, from the beginning of the season to now, he has just really improved so much and I'm really happy he was able to qualify for nationals."
Also for Penn College, freshmen Kyle Sunseri, of Athens, placed fourth at 141, and Jasper Ocker, of Burnham, was fifth at 197.
Both could qualify for the national tournament as wild-card entries. They will be determined within the next few days, pending the results of other regional events.
As a team, Penn College placed fourth in the 10-team field with 72.5 points. West Chester University finished first with 124 points, Penn State DuBois was second with 79, Rutgers was third with 75 and the U.S. Military Academy Prep School was fifth with 60 points.
"I was pretty happy with the overall results," Frey said. "We were only seven points from placing second. A couple of matches here or there, a couple of extra bonus points and we definitely could have been in second place. But overall I'm just really happy with how everyone on the whole team is wrestling."
Men's Basketball Eight games into the season, Chris Lemasters was named the team's interim coach. This past week, he was named the team's head coach. "He performed excellently as the interim while bringing a much-needed energy and excitement back to our program," said director of athletics Scott Kennell. "Coach Lemasters' past experiences enabled him to provide excellent leadership and guidance throughout the second half of the season. Because of his efforts, I have decided to elevate him to our next head coach." "I'm extremely excited about getting a full year to work with the guys," Lemasters said. "We started to come on at the end and I'm looking forward to what we can accomplish with a full preseason together. It was a difficult year, for the players especially, but I have a wonderful group of players that supported the team and each other through the ups and downs. By bringing that core group back for another year, I'm really excited to get in the gym next fall." Lemasters grew up in Mansfield. He was a three-year varsity starter at Mansfield High School and captained the team in his junior and senior years. He attended Alfred (N.Y.) University, where he was a four-year letter winner and three-year captain. The Wildcats ended the season 4-20 overall, 4-11 in the Penn State University Athletic Conference, and Lemasters is optimistic as he looks ahead. "My main goal next year is to make the playoffs," he said. "In the second half of the league schedule, we were very competitive against a number of the current PSUAC playoff teams. Hopefully we'll have a deeper team and limit some of the mistakes we made this past year with turnovers and that (reaching the playoffs) will happen."
Schedule/Results/Records Wrestling Overall record: 6-3 PSUAC record: 5-1 March 8-9-10 NCWA National Championships at Daytona Beach, Fla. ArcherySaturday, March 3 Pennsylvania Indoor Championships at Taylor, to be announced BaseballMonday, March 5 Spring Break Tournament at Myrtle Beach, S.C., vs. King's College Jayvees, 9 a.m. Monday, March 5 Spring Break Tournament at Myrtle Beach, S.C., vs. Eastern Kentucky Jayvees, 12:30 p.m. SoftballSunday, March 5 Spring Break Tournament at Myrtle Beach, S.C., vs. Southern Vermont, 9:30 a.m. Sunday, March 5 Spring Break Tournament at Myrtle Beach, S.C., vs. King's College, 11:30 a.m.
Vol. 10, No. 28