There are pros and cons to everything in life. One of the cons to the Middle Atlantic Conference is that out of 16 schools, only 7 of them provide wrestling programs. The pro here, is that all 7 programs are good quality programs that provide some good wrestlers. I say to people all the time that going strictly off the rankings & dismissing anything else as not worthy of your time is NOT the way to approach NCAA DIII wrestling. At most you'll see 25 ranked wrestlers per weight, but there are around 125 programs, so trust me there's a lot more to watch than just the 25 ranked per weight. Besides, there's always a lot of room for upsets to occur. Matter of fact, I'd almost bank on seeing some ranked guys getting knocked off here in York, Pennsylvania.
Do note that while Alvernia, York (PA), Stevens Tech, Wilkes, King's, Delaware Valley & Messiah are all still a part of the MAC, Lycoming is no longer in the conference.
Also note that teams can have more than one wrestler compete per weight class.
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| 125 lbs |
The war for a title here at 125 lbs will most likely be between Jared Kuhns of York (PA) & Austin Fashouer of Wilkes. Kuhns is one of the best seniors at 125 lbs yet to make the NCAA DIII tournament & he won a MAC title in 2022, finishing in 2nd place last year. Fashouer of Wilkes an NCAA DIII qualifier in 2022 finished 3rd at last year's MAC championships. Between the two, Fashouer owns both a 6-5 decision as well as a 6:13 fall. Kuhns owns a 6-3 decision.
Both Kuhns & Fashouer have defeated Keito Shaw every time they have wrestled him, so regardless of seeding, it's not a likely upset to occur. Kuhns owns 6-3, 4-2 s.v., 15-3, 9-1 & 18-3 victories over Shaw, whereas Fashouer owns both a 5-2 decision as well as a 6:51 fall. With this stated, Shaw who thus far has MAC finishes of 3rd & 6th, ought to be a strong candidate for bronze yet again.
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| 133 lbs |
Here's a tough, competitive weight class. The MAC recognizes the top 6 in each weight class, so one of these fine gentlemen will be the odd man out when place-winners are announced. One match from NCAA DIII All American honors last season & an MAC runner-up, Luke Hoerle is now up at 133 lbs looking to turn silver to gold. Stevens Tech leaves little to the imagination of anyone other than the Ducks winning the team title here & of course they want as many individual titles as possible. Thus far Hoerle owns a 19-4 tech over Ryan Arndt of Delaware Valley.
As to Delaware Valley, either Arndt or teammate Ryan Kelly are candidates to meet Hoerle in the finals. While Arndt has the ranking, it was Kelly who won a MAC title here last season. As we continue discussing plausible finalist, another candidate is Alvernia's Anthony Portillo. 3rd here last season, he owns a 9-4 decision over Arndt, as well as a 5-1 decision over Wilfred Jimenez & both a 5-2 as well as a 7-4 decision over Cole Anderson. Jimenez (4th last season) is likely to find himself on the award stand as he owns both a 4-3 decision over Michael Richardson & a 7-1 decision over Anderson. The battle for who gets a spot in the top 6 and who doesn't, will most likely be between Anderson (5th here last year) & Richardson (6th here last year).
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| 141 lbs |
Sophomore Nico Diaz gives the Ducks yet another MAC champion hopeful, although make no mistake about it, Jack Bauer of Wilkes wants a title every bit as bad as he does. The last the two met, Diaz needed overtime to secure a 5-1 decision. As to Bauer, after finishing 6th as a freshman, he made the MAC finals as a sophomore. Unfortunately injuries got the best of him last year & he had to once again settle for 6th place in a series of medical forfeits. He wants to more than make up for the disappointing conference showing. It'd also be nice to see Bryan Diaz of York (PA) have a nice tournament. A 19-18 record last season, placing 3rd here, thus far '23-'24 has not been good to the Spartan. He carries a 2-11 record (at the time this was written) & could really use a positive turn around. Perhaps the MAC championships will be that positive turn around. With that said, I'd also look for Hugh Bittenbender to maybe sneak in a top three finish. The sophomore has 10 wins thus far on the season.
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| 149 lbs |
I think this could turn out to be a really fun weight class. Thus far Pasquale Vizzoni has been 3rd & 2nd in the MAC as he looks to add gold to his collection. Amongst the competition he owns a 10-3 decision over Noah Rice. The route to a title will be anything but an easy one, as Shane Kibler already owns a 3-2 title over Vizzoni & he'll want to stand atop the award stand every bit as much as he does. Kibler also owns two wins over both Quinn Tobin (5-3 & 15-11) & Noah Rice (13-4 & via fall 3:54).
Who I am excited to see here is freshman Ryan Santiago who currently carries a 13-5 record. He recently pulled off a very impressive 11-2 major decision over Justin Ciliotta. It'll be fun to see what he can do against Vizzoni & Kibler. As we round out the rest of the weight class, Rice owns a 3-1 victory over Tobin.
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| 157 lbs |
There's a strong possibility that our MAC final here could very well be between an NCAA DIII All American from last season & a wrestler who fell just a hair short of All American. Stevens Tech's Ryan Smith was 8th in the D3 nation last season & runner-up at these championships. He owns a 6-3 decision over likely finals opponent, Jason Rezac who finished 4th here a year ago. While Smith owns a 6:48 fall over Brian Murphy, Rezac has defeated Murphy by scores of 16-0 & 13-6.
Our plausible darkhorse champion here, is Messiah's Garrett Cornell. A dangerous pinner, he stuck Murphy twice in the first period at times of 2:13 & 1:05. He also owns a 3:21 fall over Jaryn Hartranft & he kept All American Smith to a 3-1 decision the last they met.
Rounding out the rest of the weight class, I would say there is a good possibility that Jaryn Hartranft & Brandon Flores duke it out for 4th place honors. The last the two met it was a tight 5-3 decision in favor of Hartranft. Both have wins over Nick DeLorenzo. Flores with a 10-5 decision, & Hartranft with both 15-8 & 13-5 victories. Look for DeLorenzo & Murphy to perhaps battle it out for the final spot in the placings.
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| 165 lbs |
Is anyone gonna stop two time All American & two time MAC champion Matt Lackman from winning his third title this weekend? I seriously doubt it. In fact, of the few guarantees we have in this great sport, this is one of them. 20-0 so far on the season, the #1 ranked wrestler in the D3 nation at 165 lbs has 11 falls and 4 technical falls. He'll mow through the competition here. A 6:16 fall over Harrison Hinojosa & four dominant wins over Zach Needles (15-2, 16-1, 16-0 & 1:26 fall) say that we're probably looking at our outstanding wrestler.
The question here is, who will be our other finalist? Zach Needles is the strongest candidate. He was 3rd in the MAC in 2022 but unfortunately had to medical forfeit to 6th place last season. He has defeated Harrison Hinojosa twice by tight scores of 4-3 & 4-1. He'll need to defeat the Duck again if he is to make the MAC finals. Whoever doesn't win this match, should easily come back to take 3rd.
Look for Chris Stathopoulos & Joe McCullough to both earn a top 6 placing.
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| 174 lbs |
Here's another sure shot thing you can bank on this MAC tournament. No one is stopping three time MAC finalist & two time MAC champion Stefan Major from making his fourth final & winning his third title. The two time All American will make it look easy as he picks up MAC gold this weekend. 15-3, 3:57 & 1:39 he's taken it to Jared Townsend. 10-5 & 1:54, he's taken it to Luke Moore too.
I'd say that Townsend is likely to be our other finalist. 7-0 & 3-2 victories over Moore provide substance to that prediction. Moore & Frankie Theroux I say battle it out for bronze.
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| 184 lbs |
Seven talented wrestlers and only six spots available on the award stand. If you're looking for unpredictability & a weight class that is difficult to predict, look no further than 184 lbs. Now Isaac Kassis, MAC runner-up last season is the favorite. However he's had some close calls with more than one of the wrestlers in this bracket. Despite owning four victories over Ryder Slayton, the Falcon has taken him into overtime twice. Connor Wrobleski wrestled him to a 4-1 decision & Jaden Roberts wrestled him to an 8-5 decision. The two time NCAA DIII qualifier will have his work cut out for him if he indeed wins a conference title this weekend.
Slayton who has finished in 3rd place the past two seasons, is looking to challenge Kassis in the finals. Despite a 2-1 loss to Wrobleski, he's otherwise shut out the Lion in 11-0, 7-0, 6-0 & 4-0 decisions. He also owns a 6-1 victory over Brendan Newbury.
Wrobleski, Martsinovsky & Roberts will all be in contention for a sport in the top three, as could be Chris Nuss of Wilkes. Wrobleski, 4th here a year ago, has a 4-3 tiebreaker over Roberts, as Roberts has a 3-2 victory over Nuss. Martinovsky who already has 3rd & 4th place MAC finishes to his name, owns a 2:30 fall over Nuss.
Newbury, 5th here a year ago, has both a 4:17 LBF & a 13-6 loss to Wrobleski.
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| 197 lbs |
In terms of walking out of here MAC champion, 197 lbs is our most competitive weight class. This is where the matter of ranking vs head to head really comes into question. Cameron Butka is currently ranked #8 to Mauro Pellot's #10, but it is the Golden Wolf has both a 10-6 as well as an 8-7 decision over the Colonel. Pellot is has also made two trips to the NCAA DIII championships, whereas Butka has made none. I would think that Pellot gets the nod for the *1 seed, but I don't know for sure. What I do know is that Butka or Pellot, whoever doesn't get the *1 seed, will end up getting the *2 seed. Getting the *2 seed means having to face the likely *3 seed, Dan Eckley. Eckley has earned back to back MAC runner-up honors the past two seasons & I guarantee he's coming into conference with the plan on being in the finals, as in the finals, not the consolation finals.
Against Eckley, Butka owns both a 10-7 & a 5-3 victory. Pellot on the other hand has split with the Aggie owning a 4-3 decision & having dropped an 8-6 sudden victory.
I say the top three spots, in whatever order they finish are already spoken for. As to who takes 4th here & more or less rules the rest of the bracket? I think Blaise Wagner of Stevens Tech is a fine candidate.
(At the time this was written) Butka currently stands at 12-0, Pellot at 11-0 & Eckley at 7-0. Only one will end in 0 after this weekend.
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| HWT |
Very confident that our champ here will be Caleb Burkhart of Wilkes. I don't see anyone challenging him for the MAC title. The question is, who will be his finals opponent? Analyzing the weight class, my best guess is Hayden Benner of Messiah. 14 wins on the season, I do not see him challenging Burkhart, but I do see him being the man to face him for the title.
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