GRANTHAM, Pa. - Four members of the Messiah College wrestling team will travel to Roanoke, Va. for the 2019 NCAA National Championships on Friday and Saturday. Josiah Gehr (125 lbs.), Stephen Maloney (149 lbs.), Brian Shermeyer (174 lbs.), and Victor DeFrance (184 lbs.) are all heading to Roanoke this weekend after punching their ticket to the National Championships two weeks ago at the Southeast Regionals by finishing in the top-three of the region.
 
Wrestling begins at 10:00 a.m. on Friday morning with pigtail matches, followed by the opening round during the morning session.
 
Including this year, Messiah has qualified at least four wrestlers to Nationals in each of the last seven seasons. The Falcons have finished in the top-20 in each of the last seven seasons and earned a top-10 spot five-straight times entering the weekend.
 
See below for a quick preview of the weekend and how to follow the Falcons.
 
Location and Viewing
The 2019 National Championships will be held at the Berglund Center in Roanoke, Va. and hosted by Ferrum College. The Championships will get underway on Friday morning with pigtails and the opening rounds taking place at 10:00 a.m. Both Friday and Saturday will feature a morning and evening session.
 
For live results, updated brackets, and video throughout the weekend visit the Tournament's trackwrestling.com page that can be found here.
 
How They Got Here and What's Up First
Josiah Gehr (125 lbs.) - Fr. - 35-5 (11 falls) 2019 record
Gehr has turned in a stellar freshman campaign for the Falcons, advancing to the National Championship after winning the Southeast regional in convincing fashion. Gehr went 4-0 at the regional two weeks ago, winning the 125 lbs. title with a pair of major decisions and a fall before earning a 25-10 technical fall in the Championship bout over Samuel Braswell (Averett).
 
Gehr is one of two Falcons selected for a pigtail bracket along with Brian Shermeyer at 174 lbs. Gehr will square off with Wisconsin La Crosse's Sawyer Sarbacker for a chance to take on eighth-seeded Ferdinand Mase from Ithaca in the First Round. Gehr and Sarbacker faced each other earlier this season in the fifth-place match of the Wheaton Invitational, a bout that Gehr won 8-5 after falling into an early 4-0 hole.
 
No. 3 Stephen Maloney (149 lbs.) - Jr. - 32-4 (5)
Maloney earned his second-straight trip to the National Championships with a runner-up finish at the Southeast Regional two weeks ago. After winning his first two matches of the regional by dominating technical falls with scores of 18-2 and 16-0, Maloney needed to grind out a sudden victory decision over Gettysburg's Colin Deviln in the regional semifinals. Maloney did just that and punched his ticket to nationals for the second-straight season.
 
Maloney enters the weekend as the No. 3 seed at 149 lbs. and will square off with Westminster's (Mo.) Sean Sax. The Westminster freshman is relatively unknown as the Blue Jays are in just their second year as a program. Sax is the first Westminster wrestler to qualify for Nationals.
 
Brian Shermeyer (174 lbs.) - So. - 32-11 (8)
Brian Shermeyer took a very difficult approach to his bid at 174 lbs. After losing his first match of the Southeast Regional, Shermeyer won six-straight bouts to earn his first trip to Nationals. Shermeyer capped off his regional weekend in dramatic fashion by taking third-place with a pin of Greensboro's Tyron Dudley in the final minute of the first-period. With an overall record of 32-11 on the season, Shermeyer enters Nationals unranked and in a pigtail match to start the weekend.
 
His pigtail match is against Johnson and Wales' (Providence) Michael Gargano with the winner earning a spot in the opening round against the eighth-seeded Jake Voss from Coe. Voss is a familiar foe for the Falcons, as Ben Swarr saw the Kohawk in the Second Round of Nationals last year. Swarr won that match 7-5.
 
Victor DeFrance (184 lbs.) - Sr. - 27-11 (8)
Victor DeFrance earned his first trip to Nationals in his senior season thanks to a Runner-Up finish at Regionals two weeks ago. Like Maloney, DeFrance won his first three Regional matches to earn a spot in the Championship bout at 184 lbs. DeFrance had battled injuries through the end of the season and sat out the Championship bout with a medical forfeit.
 
DeFrance faces a tall test in the First Round of the National Championships after drawing No. 1 seed and undefeated Dylan Roth from Heidelberg University. The Heidelberg junior, missed the 2017-18 season due to injury, but has rattled off 38-straight victories and holds the top seed at 184 lbs. as he makes his first trip to Nationals.
 
Messiah's NCAA History
Last year the Falcons sent a program-record, eight wrestlers to the National Championships, resulting in three All-Americans and a fifth-straight top-10 team finish in the country. After winning the Southeast Region two weeks ago, Messiah has claimed six-straight NCAA Regional titles and in their history have developed five individual National Championships, 36 All-Americans, and 70 National Qualifiers.

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