Team Scores and Brackets

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - For the third-straight year, Messiah wrestling has claimed the MAC Championships, earning five individual champions and scoring 152.5 total points.
 
The Falcons' five champions were Stephen Maloney (149), Jeff Hojnacki (165), Ben Swarr (174), Victor DeFrance (184), and Kyle Koser (197). Kevin Edwards (157) came in second-place, while Sean Redington (125) and Lee Cassel (149) finished in third. Those eight wrestlers each received All-Conference honors, with placings on each team corresponding with their finish in the championships.
 
Delaware Valley came in second-place as a team with a score of 130, followed by Wilkes at 121.5, Lycoming at 114.5, and King's rounded out the scoring with 45 points on the afternoon.
 
Sean Redington was the lone Messiah wrestler at 125, and he performed very well, only losing one match in the semifinal to d3wrestle.com contender and eventual MAC Champion Kordell Rush of Delaware Valley. Redington wrestled back through the consolation bracket and finished with a fall in 5:26 over Cameron Terry of Lycoming to earn third-place.
 
At 133, Ka'au Estrella dropped his quarterfinal match by a tough 10-8 decision, but managed to fight back in the consolation rounds to secure fifth-place with a 9-3 decision over Jacob Chamberlin of Lycoming. Bryton Stidfole also wrestled in the 133 class, but was eliminated after having to wrestle teammate Estrella in the first consolation round.
 
Messiah had three wrestlers in the 141 weight class – Brooks Robinson, Nick Nunez, and Matt Darok. Robinson and Nunez both fought hard but were eliminated after two consecutive defeats. Darok won his first match but fell in the the quarterfinals before coming back up through the consolation bracket to place fifth with a 14-4 major decision over Ezra Neff of Wilkes.
 
Stephen Maloney and Lee Cassel were impressive in the 149 weight class, finishing first and third, respectively. Maloney pinned his first opponent in just 37 seconds, before advancing via an 18-0 tech fall in the semifinal and defeating Josh Evans of Wilkes by a 5-3 decision in the final. Cassel won his first match before losing to Evans in the semifinal, but Cassel then pinned his next opponent in 60 seconds and defeated Bilal Bici of Wilkes 9-0 to earn third-place.
 
Matt Pangle, Dan Swarr, and Kevin Edwards all placed in the top six of the 157 weight class. Pangle lost his first match before winning two in a row to reach the consolation semifinals, but was injured and could not finish that match and would forfeit the fifth-place bout to earn sixth-place. Swarr won his first match but could not overcome two-time MAC Champion Hadyn Swartwood of Lycoming in the semifinal. Swarr fell to the fifth-place match, which he won via Pangle's injury forfet. Edwards had a great day on the mats, reaching the final after two fairly easy victories, but he also fell to Swartwood and received second-place.
 
At 165, Kevin Diehl was eliminated in the consolation bracket by teammate Brian Shermeyer, who shook off an opening round loss to make it all the way back to the third-place match. However, Shermeyer fell to Justin Morel of Wilkes via a fall in 1:13 and received fourth-place. Jeff Hojnacki (No. 5 d3wrestle, No. 8 NWCA) had a much easier time with the 165 bracket, pinning his first two opponents before earning a 6-2 decision over Ashton Gyenizs of Wilkes to take the championship.
 
In the 174 bracket, Ben Swarr (No. 2 NWCA, No. 2 d3wrestle) only had to face two opponents to claim his third MAC championship, winning by a combined score of 29-0 in his two bouts, including an 11-0 victory over Lycoming's Brandon Conrad (No. 8 NWCA, No. 9 d3wrestle) in the final. David Stevens also wrestled in the 174 bracket and finished in sixth-place.
 
Victor DeFrance had his way with the 184 bracket after finishing in third last year, taking down his first opponent in a 17-0 tech fall before pinning his next two opponents to take the title. Seth Patterson dropped his first match, but wrestled back through the consolation bracket to receive sixth-place.
 
At 197, Roman Wagner and Malachi Thompson were each eliminated with two losses, but Kyle Koser (No. 4 NWCA, No. 4 d3wrestle) continued his dominating season with three-straight tech falls (combined 52-0 scores) to claim his third-straight MAC Championship.
 
Finally, at 285, Dan Kiser won one match in the consolation but could not fight his way back to place. Jared Schell dropped his quarterfinal match to Ralph Bernardo of King's before winning three-straight to reach the third-place bout, but he fell to Bernardo again and finished in fourth-place.
 
Messiah is back in action next weekend when they travel to the Wheaton Invitational in Wheaton, Ill. for a two-day tournament on Friday and Saturday.
 

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