Nov. 21, 2015 Photo Gallery 
Annapolis, Md. - Freshman Nicholas Gil (Crystal Lake, Ill.) was one of seven placewinners for the Mids and led the Navy wrestling team to a fourth-place finish at the 38th annual Navy Classic on Saturday at the Wesley Brown Field House.
"The team wrestled hard today and showed improvement over our previous competition," Navy head coach Joel Sharratt said. "I see the team shaping up and when we get to our dual phase we are going to compete from 125-285 together as one team in one fight, that's what this work is producing in our team culture."
Gil had Navy's best individual finish of the day, grabbing second at 141 pounds. The freshman wrestler took his first two matches by major decision. Gil then took down Wisconsin's Luke Rowh, 4-1, in the semifinals before falling short to Princeton's Jordan Laster, 6-5, in the first-place match.
"Nick Gil is coming into his own and showed today the ability he has at the conference and national level," said Sharratt.
Navy's 197-pound wrestlers had the best finish as a group, placing two athletes. Sophomore Steban Cervantes (Chula Vista, Calif.) won his first three matches by decision before matching up with Princeton's Brett Harner in the semifinals. Harner edged Cervantes, 7-4, to send Cervantes into the consolation bracket, where he met up with teammate senior Michael Woulfe (Oak Park, Ill.).
Woulfe, who took down his first two matches by fall, fell to Kent State's Kyle Conel, 5-3. The senior wrestler then took down his next two matches by fall in the consolation bracket to match up with Cervantes. Woulfe got the best of his teammate in an 8-5 decision, before falling to Princeton's Ian Baker for third place. Cervantes went on to grab fifth place due to Conel medically forfeiting.
"197 is a weight that has had some parity and Woulfe pushed the field today and forced his style," Sharratt said on Woulfe and Cervantes performance.
Junior Ryan Harman (West Linn, Ore.) and sophomore Jadaen Bernstein (Glen Gardner, N.J.) both placed in the 174-pound division, finishing fifth and sixth, respectively. Harman battled his way to placing as he lost his first match in the championship bracket to Ohio's Cody Walters, who is ranked fourth in the country, by fall. The junior wrestler advanced to the consolation bracket's semifinal with three wins, two of which were by major decision. Harman then fell to Bucknell's Rustin Barrick, 6-0, to set up a match with teammate Bernstein.
Bernstein overwhelmed his first two opponents by at least seven points before taking down Kent State's Mike Vollant, 7-4, in the quarterfinals. The sophomore then dropped his next two matches, the first to Princeton's Jonathan Schleifer in the semifinals and the next to Brown's Andrew LaBrie in the consolation semis, to line up with Harman. Harman took fifth by medical forfeit.
Navy's final two placewinners came in the 149-pound and 285-pound division. Sophomore Corey Wilding (Pittsburgh, Pa.) finished fifth in the 149-pound division, going 4-2 on the day. Wilding won two matches by decision, one by forfeit and one by fall. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, native earned fifth place with an 8-4 decision over Wisconsin's Rylan Lubeck. Classmate Nick Mabry (New Braunfels, Texas) was Navy's seventh and final place finisher, grabbing sixth in the 285-pound weight class. Mabry started out with a bang, taking down Delaware Valley's Thomas Tehan by fall. The sophomore wrestler fell to Wisconsin's Brock Horwath to drop to the consolation bracket. Mabry then won back-to-back matches before falling to George Mason's Matt Voss by fall. The New Braunfels, Texas, native lost to Kent State's Stephen Suglio by fall for sixth.
Princeton led the 10-team field with 139 points to capture its first team title at the classic. The Tigers also paced the tournament with four individual champions, which included Abram Ayala, who is ranked 10th in the 184-pound weight class, and Brett Harner, who is ranked 18th in the 197-pound division. Kent State fell nine points short to Princeton with 130 points and three individual champions. 13th-ranked Wisconsin rounded the top three teams with 101.5 points and two individual champions. Navy, who placed fourth with 86.5 points, finished ahead of Brown and 22nd-ranked Ohio, who wrapped up the day with 82.5 and 79.5 points, respectively, for fifth and sixth.
The Midshipmen will have an extra week to prepare before they head West to take part in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in the first weekend of December.
