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| 125 |
Five ranked wrestlers here at 125 lbs, three of them in the top five and only three of them will be heading to the NCAA DIII wrestling tournament. We often like to talk about "tough" and while it can be subjective, I think it's pretty objective when evaluating just how difficult it is to call yourself an NCAA D3 qualifier.
22-0 on the year, Alex Diaz is having an outstanding sophomore season for the Violets. A New York States champ, he scored a vital 8-6 victory over Matt Griffin earlier this year.
Malik Asfour, looking to make history in the Eagles first appearance at Regionals, returns an NCAA D3 qualifier from last year having placed 3rd at Regionals. He has four wins in total against Matt Griffin, some rather decisive & he also owns a major over Ethan Liptzen. On the Year he won the Middle Atlantic Conference & John Summa, placing 3rd at the New Standard. 22-4 record.
Griffin is a three-time NCAA D3 qualifier looking to become a rare four-timer. Thus far his Regional finishes include two bronzes & a silver. Owns a 12-7 decision over Asfour among those four losses mentioned & a 2:35 fall over Liptzen.
Liptzen a qualifier from 2024, was the Middle Atlantic Conference runner-up & owns a 10-7 decision over Griffin. Horvath was 6th at last year's Regional, champion of the Centennial Collegiate Conference.
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| 133 |
Garrett Totten returns to defend the Regional title he won a year ago. 6th in the D3 nation last season, '25-'26 is currently standing on a 24-4 record with an 8-2 win over Jacob Blair & both a 19-4 tech & 2:47 fall over Jake Venezia. Runner-up of the New Standard.
Jacob Blair, a three-time NCAA D3 qualifier for Delaware Valley, looks to become a rare four-time qualifier & make history by becoming Arcadia's first ever D3 qualifier. Thus far he has been 2nd-2nd-3rd at the Regional. Carrying a 24-2 record, he won Messiah, while placing 6th at Pete Willson. Does have a 4-1 win over Totten, and very recently nearly tech'd Venezia 16-2.
24-5 on the year, Venezia looks to be our bronze medalist this season, although I wouldn't put it past him to pull off an upset. I mean he did last year, sticking Blair at the 5:00 mark. Doesn't seem real likely, considering Blair did beat him 16-2, but this is collegiate wrestling. Stranger things have happened. Venezia was the Regional runner-up last year.
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| #5 Vinnie Santaniello TCNJ 141 |
Vinnie Santaniello is another example of a DI wrestler now in D3 wrestling, that if still in D1, would be a top 33 wrestler. As I've said about other D1 to D3 guys, some are those that couldn't cut the mustard up at the D1 level. Some however, could have & Santaniello is one of them. Nic Bouzakis, Tyler Ferrera, Tony Madrigal, Gable Strickland...recognize any of those names? Yeah, they're all wrestlers that Santaniello has beaten. I point this out so that wrestling fans have a clear understanding of how deep the talent can be at the D3 level. Ignorance says things like, "he's just a D3 guy." Paying attention knows how stupid of a comment that can be to make.
Santaniello is 17-1 on the year & pretty much a shoe-in for the gold this weekend. The rest of the weight class is a pure mess of parity. Could pretty much throw in about any name among the bracket, and over half are eligible for silver and/or bronze.
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| 149 |
*NOTE* - We all know that teams in D3 can only send one wrestler per weight to the Regional. However, I'm not sold that the one guy Messiah sends is Levi Snyder. Very well could be, but it also wouldn't surprise me if it is Dalton Monger. Either way, Messiah has someone contending for NCAA D3 qualification. Monger, 5th at last year's Regional, won the Racich Rumble & he is a three-time Pete Willson place-winner with finishes of 6th-3rd-5th. Not to mention, he owns three wins over Mikey Williams, two of which are first period pins! For whatever it is worth, in the many matches he has had with Snyder, an 8-2 victory.
Onward to the rest of the weight....
35-0 on the season, Thomas Monn has had one hell of a career & has certainly been the highlight of McDaniel wrestling in recent years. 35-0 on the year, he's already accomplished an assortment of credentials. Three-time Messiah champ, three-time Centennial Collegiate conference champ, two-time Blue Jay Classic Champ & he also won the Wilkes Invite. 1st-4th-1st at Regionals, he's a two-time All-American with 6th & 5th place finishes.
23-6 on the year, Mikey Williams has impressed by turning a series of very ugly losses into wins. Including an 8-4 decision over Levi Snyder & a 4-2 decision over Chance Babb. 6th in the Regional last year, he was recently 2nd at the Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC).
Two-time NCAA D3 qualifier Chance Babb is 21-5 on the year. 12-3 & 13-2 majors over Williams, he owns a 7-4 decision over Caden Frost. A Racich Rumble runner-up, he was 3rd at Petrofes.
Snyder, 3rd at the MAC, owns both a 4-2 decision over Williams & a 6-5 tiebreaker over J.J. Giordano. Giordano has 18 wins on the year.
Am I completely bananas for including unranked Caden Frost in a group that already has five ranked wrestlers? No. It took a while to adjust to the 149 lbs weight class having moved up from 133 lbs, but let's keep in mind that Frost was an NCAA D3 qualifier last season. 21-9 on the season, he gave Babb a very good 7-4 match as mentioned earlier & he has majored Williams before. His name belongs in the list of potential NCAA D3 qualifiers, and that's why I included it.
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| 157 |
Here's something you don't see every day. Over 100 wins & a national qualifier in his NCAA Division II career, Trent Mahoney has decided to spend his final season of collegiate eligibility in the world of D3. So far, so good. 28-1 on the season we're talking titles at Wilkes, the Blue Jay Classic & the Middle Atlantic Conference. It's very likely he's our gold medalist.
Silver & bronze? Those are more up for grabs, and perhaps more than just the names I have mentioned. 16-2 on the year, Gavin Pascoe was an NCAA D3 qualifier last year with a Regional finish of 3rd. A Petrofes runner-up, he defeated Clay Gainer 4-1 s.v.
Kmak has wrestled very well this season, having already racked up 35 victories, among only 6 losses.
One of those losses to Clay Gainer, the Racich Rumble champ. Now Gainer has lost some ugly matches this year, but the thing about it is, he usually shows up and wrestles pretty tough come Regionals. Thus far the Falcon has been 6th & 5th the past two seasons.
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| 165 |
41-1 on the year, Keegan DeMarest has racked up a series of majors, techs & pins into a very dominant season. Titles won at Messiah, the Racich Rumble, & the Middle Atlantic Conference, he was 2nd at the Pete Willson. Hard to believe he was one match shy of qualification a year ago.
While positive DeMarest is gold, I believe silver & bronze are more open. Ethan Composto is 17-3 on the year whereas Justice Hockenberry-Folk carries a 31-5 record, champion at the Blue Jay Classic. He was 6th here a year ago.
Still, two unranked wrestlers stick out as plausible NCAA D3 qualifiers for 2026. Viviano Gutierrez 15-6 on the year, took Composto into sudden victory. Nick DeLorenzo wrestled Folk to a one takedown match. The MAC runner-up, he stands 23-9.
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| 174 |
This almost seems unfair. With talent like Hunter Mays & Ty Finn in the bracket, it doesn't leave much room for anyone else. 19-0 on the year, Hunter Mays was the Regional champion last year & 5th in the D3 Nation. Against the competition owns a 12-1 major over Tony Cerulli & a 9-4 decision over Zach Needles.
Ty Finn makes yet another D1 to D3 transfer, with notable DI credentials. Placed at both Keystone & the Southern Scuffle while competing for Virginia Tech. 22-0 on the year, with a 16-0 tech over Cerulli & an 11-0 major over Needles. Does own a 5-2 decision over Mays.
So baring the biggest upset of Regional 3 should the highly unlikely happen, gold & silver are spoken for.
Bronze I see being a war between Needles and Cerulli. A Centennial Conference champ, Cerulli took runner-up honors at Messiah, Racich Rumble & New Standard. Needles, an NCAA D3 qualifier in 2023, 18-5 on the year. A Messiah champion & 7th at the prestigious Pete Willson. The two have met twice, with Needles securing two pins, 4:30 & 4:23.
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| 184 |
Gold? We'll talk about gold.
Ganon Smith, a three-time NCAA D3 qualifier, with a 2025 4th place All-American honor is currently standing at 32-0 on the year. Titles won at Wikes & the Blue Jay Classic, I can't see anyone stopping him in a quest for Regional gold this weekend.
Silver & Bronze? We're looking at a war between four talents.
Hayden McLellan 8th at last year's Regional has shown tremendous stride. 37-4 on the year owns a 5-2 decision over Justin Mayes & a 21-5 tech over Abdoul Akala.
Akala, a very talented freshman stands at 25-4.
Mayes, a former Cornell Big Red, stands at 24-2, a New York States champion.
Austin Brass an NCAA D3 qualifier last season, is 23-5 with a title won at the Racich Rumble.
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| 197 |
It should be illegal for this much talent to be in one Regional. I mean seriously. There is a ton of talent at this weight class. Far more than I have listed here. It's simply that my job in this preview is to provide you who I think will contend for NCAA D3 qualification. Yet I left a lot of names out, of some very good wrestlers. James Lledo, 6th at Pete Willson. Tucker Seidel who won the Racich Rumble & placed 8th at Pete Willson. Sean Cowan, runner-up at both Racich Rumble & New Standard. You place top 8 at 197 in Regional 3, you have my respect.
Which is why I think Josh Stahl's story is so inspirational. A two-time Pennsylvania state qualifier in high school, he never placed. Then he was a backup his first two seasons at York (PA). Had a good year last year at 174, but he's just been something else this year at 197. It's clear that he spent a lot of long, hard hours in the weight room & the 23 lbs he put on was all muscle. 28-0 on the year, 16 techs, 7 falls & 4 major decisions. He'll have super tough competition this weekend though.
D.J. Henry is currently 21-3 on the year, a Regional champion last season & one match shy of D3 All-American honors.
Iranian Mo Talebi, whose first year of American folkstyle was a season of CCCAA at Mt. San Antonio, has only wrestled 6 matches this year, but that's all he's needed to establish himself as the #4 wrestler in the D3 nation.
Tyler Withers is the returning Regional champion & he was 6th in the D3 nation last season. He hasn't wrestled all that much this year either, currently standing at 10-1, a Centennial Conference champion.
Will Davis, yet another returning NCAA D3 qualifier, 2nd in the Regional last year. 29-3 on the year, he won the Blue Jay Classic & finished 2nd at the Wilkes Invitational.
I asked Ron Simmons what he thought of that talent in Regional 3, 197 lbs. He replied, "Damn!!"
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| HWT |
Along with Jacob Blair & Caden Frost, I'm sure that Logan Flynn is excited about the opportunity to be a first on many levels for Arcadia. A first qualifier, a first Regional champion. 3rd in the Regional last year, standing at 27-0, that looks like a very real possibility. Winning the prestigious Pete Willson Invitational, Flynn has defeated likely finals opponent Mo Abdelatty twice by scores of 7-3 & 9-2. He's also defeated my pick for bronze, Matt Coon 8-1, 7-3 & via fall 4:00.
Abdelatty is currently 23-1 this season & he's pinned Coon at the 4:13 mark.
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