State wrestlers qualify for NCAA national tournaments

Danbury native Ryan Jack of North Carolina State has earned a spot into the NCAA Division I tournament for the second straight year.

Eleven Connecticut wrestlers will be wrestling in the respective NCAA national championship tournaments beginning this weekend along with five wrestlers from the Coast Guard, two from Trinity College and one from Wesleyan.

Danbury native Ryan Jack qualified for the NCAA Division I nationals for the second time by finishing second at 141 pounds for North Carolina State in the ACC championships on Sunday. Stratford’s Nico Provo of Stanford University earned an at-large berth on Tuesday at 125 pounds. Provo finished fourth at last weekend’s Pac-12 championship tournament.

Bristol’s Tommy Nichols of American International College and Shippensburg University’s Avery Shay will each be competing in the NCAA Division II tournament for the first time.

In the NCAA Division III tournament, Granby’s Cooper Fleming (165) of Castleton University, Stamford’s Chase Parrott (149) of Springfield, Milford’s Michael Ross (174) of Johnson & Wales, Tolland’s Michael Angers (165) of Castleton, Fairfield’s Peter Kane (157) of Williams, Trumbull’s Jack Ryan (184) of Oneonta State and Milford’s Ryan Luth (157) of Washington and Lee earned spots in the field.

Coast Guard has five wrestlers that qualified for the NCAA Division III tournament with Trinity College sending two wrestlers and Wesleyan sending one.

The NCAA Division I tournament is next weekend in Tulsa, Oklahoma on March 16-18. The Division II and Division III tournaments begin on Friday in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and Roanoke, Virginia, respectively.

Jack (20-3) dropped a 2-1 decision to Pittsburgh’s Cole Matthews on riding time in the ACC Tournament finals on Sunday. Two of Jack’s three losses this season are to Matthews.

Despite the loss in the finals, North Carolina State won the ACC Tournament for the fifth straight season.

Provo (20-9) finished fourth in the Pac-12 tournament with a 7-4 loss to Antonio Lorenzo of Cal in the third place bout. Only the top three in that weight class secured automatic bids from the Pac-12 but Provo was selected to receive a wild card from the NCAA wrestling selection committee.

It is the first NCAA tournament appearance for the freshman from Greens Farms Academy.

AIC’s Nichols (19-8) earned his first NCAA Division II tournament bid by finishing third at the Super Regional I tournament on Feb. 25 at East Stroudsburg at 149 pounds.

Nichols opened the regional event with a 6-2 win over Dominic Williams of Seton Hill and a 3-1 win over Colton Stoneking of Fairmont State, who was the fifth-ranked wrestler in the region. That set up a semifinal against Jacob Ealy, who was ranked No. 1 in the country.

Nichols pushed him to the brink before losing a 4-2 decision. However, Nichols bounced back to pin Kutztown’s Kibwe McNair, setting up a battle with third-ranked Craig Cook of Millersville. Nichols bested Cook, 9-4, to claim third overall and with it a ticket to nationals.

Shay (13-2) finished second at 157 pounds at the Super Regional I tournament. He doesn’t seem himself as an underdog in first nationals appearance. He wrestled three years at Clarion University, a Division I school, from 2018-20.

“I really don’t consider myself an underdog because I am older than most of the individuals that I’ll be wrestling, and I also have if not the same than maybe even a bit more experience them,” Shay said. “I didn’t wrestle very many ranked opponents this season, so in terms of seedings and rankings I understand why I might be considered an underdog. But I don’t consider myself that way, I see myself as just as capable as the No. 1 guy.”

The NCAA Division II tournament begins Friday in Iowa with the NCAA Division III tournament beginning Friday in Virginia.

Fleming (31-8), a senior at Castleton University in Vermont, won the Northeast Division III regional title championship at 174 pounds with Angers (30-10) finishing third at 165.

Parrott (26-3) also earned his first-ever trip to the NCAA championships as he took second at 149 pounds. Kane (34-4), who wrestled at Greens Farms Academy in Westport, was able to string together three consecutive wins to secure third place at 157 pounds, punching his ticket to Virginia.

Luth (19-1) secured a bid to the nationals with a third place finish at 157 pounds in the NCAA Div. III Southeast Regional. Luth fell to Alvernia’s Jason Rezac, 11-3, in the semifinals but won two straight in the consolation bracket with a 9-3 win over York’s Jared Blair in the consolation final.

Ryan (22-5) finished third for Oneonta State at 184 at the NCAA Division III Mideast Regionals to earn a spot at the national tournament. He won three straight bouts before dropping a 9-0 decision to eventual regional champion Colby Giroux of RIT in the semifinals. Ryan, a freshman, won another two bouts including a 7-1 over Ursinus’ Gary Nagle to finish third.

Five Coast Guard wrestlers qualified for the nationals. David McCullough (184) and Coy Spooner (197) won Northeast Region titles for Coast Guard with Carl DiGiorgio (285) and Nate Fitt (141) finishing second. Chase Randall was third at 141.

Trinity freshman Adam Schaeublin (133) won three of four matches to finish second while sophomore tri-captain Chris Perry finished third at 149 pounds. Wesleyan’s Marco Gaita (174) needed a win in overtime to finish third and secure his third berth to the national championships. Gaita landed a takedown in the first overtime session to defeat Jason Geyer of NYU, 6-4.

NCAA Division II tournament
At Cedar Rapids, Iowa
March 10-11
Pre-tournament bracket
Live results and brackets (TrackWrestling.com)

NCAA Division III tournament
At Roanoke, Virginia
March 10-11
Pre-tournament bracket
Live results and brackets (TrackWrestling.com)

NCAA Division I tournament
At Tulsa, Oklahoma
March 16-18
Pre-tournament bracket