March 6, 2015

• 2015 EIWA Championship - Day 1 Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- The opening day of the 111th EIWA Championship held at Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa. came to a close Friday evening with Navy in 10th place (34 pts) in the team standings and five Mids advancing to Saturday's finale, including semifinalists Peyton Walsh (Glen Allen, Va.) and Jadaen Bernstein (Glen Gardner, N.J.).

The day's competition began with three Navy wrestlers seeded in their respective weight classes - Walsh #1 at 165 pounds, Bernstein #4 at 174 pounds and Michael Woulfe (Oak Park, Ill.) #8 at 184 - while fielding a lineup that featured seven wrestlers making their debut at the league championship.

Walsh looked flawless in his two matches of the day, scoring a 14-1 major decision over Brad Mutchnik, who he defeated during the regular season by tech fall, and an 8-0 major decision over Drexel's Nicholas Elmer. Walsh also defeated Elmer in dual action this season via a 7-1 dec. Walsh, ranked 15th nationally, will face fifth-seeded Jonathan Schleifer of Princeton in Saturday's semifinals. The two battled one another in the third-place match at the Navy Classic earlier this year where Walsh edged Schleifer, 11-10.

Walsh has amassed a 37-8 record this season and stands tied for 12th on the Mids' single-season wins list. It's the most victories by a Navy wrestler since all-time wins leader Bryce Saddoris produced 37 wins in 2010-11. Additionally he is ranked 11th on Navy's career wins list with a 105-45 mark, just one shy of tying Ed Prendergast (2005-08) for 10th.

Joining Walsh in the semis will be Jadaen Bernstein, one of six freshmen to represent the Midshipmen at the conference championship. Bernstein opened the tournament with a 10-2 victory over Franklin & Marshall's Gordon Bolig, followed by a 13-5 win over Conan Schuster of Sacred Heart. The Navy newcomer became the third Mid to reach the 20-win milestone this season with his two victories and will put his 21-13 record on the line when he faces top-seeded George Pickett of Cornell in the semifinals.

Woulfe, meanwhile, is one of three Navy grapplers who remain active on the consolation side of the bracket. Woulfe made his debut at the EIWA Championship by dealing Harvard's Josh Popple a 9-2 loss in his opening match before suffering a 20-7 setback against the nation's No. 1-ranked wrestler at 184 pounds, Cornell sophomore Gabe Dean. Woulfe rallied nicely in the wrestlebacks, picking up a 6-2 victory over seventh-seeded Jeric Kasunic of American. Woulfe will face fifth-seeded Ophir Bernstein of Brown Saturday morning in hopes of vying for one of the five automatic qualifying slots at 184 pounds.

Freshman 197-pound Steban Cervantes (Chula Vista, Calif.) and rookie 133-pound Zack Davis (Granger, Ind.) also advanced to the second day of competition at the EIWA Championship. Cervantes, who moved into the starting role in late January following a concussion sustained by 2014 NCAA qualifier Paul Rands, stumbled in his opening-round bout against fourth-seeded Canaan Bethea of Penn, 4-1. The rookie came back to earn an 11-8 win over Sasha Oliinyk of Sacred Heart and went on to knock out sixth-seeded Tyler Lyster of Bucknell, 7-3. Cervantes will face seventh-seeded Matt Idelson on Saturday and would need to finish among the top six to earn and automatic bid to the NCAA Championship.

Davis earned the nod from head coach Joel Sharratt after what has been a solid freshman season. He has put together a 26-15 record this season which includes a pair of wins at Friday's opening day at the EIWA Championship. Davis dropped is opening-round bout to the No. 2 seed, Devin Devoy of Drexel, 9-3 setting up a consolation match against Army's Christian Doyle. It was the third time Davis and Doyle have met on the mat in the last month and Davis made it a clean sweep by way of a 10-4 victory. He went on to post a major decision against Hofstra's Travis Passaro, the No. 8 seed in the tournament. He will face American's Josh Terao, who is seeded fifth.

Meanwhile, the season came to an end for the following Navy wrestlers who bowed out of the competition on Friday: 125-pound Brant Leadbeter (Owings, Md.), 141-pound Patrick Prada (Laurel, Md.), 149-pound Corey Wilding (Pittsburgh, Pa.), 157-pound Drew Daniels (Overland Park, Kan.) and heavyweight Colynn Cook (Murrysville, Pa.).

Defending EIWA Champion Cornell stands atop the leader board with a narrow five-point advantage over Lehigh, 93-88. Both the Big Red and the Mountain Hawks have their entire 10-man lineup still in the competition. The race behind Cornell and Lehigh is tight with Columbia in third (55) with eight wrestlers remaining, Penn is a point behind (54) in fourth with seven wrestlers left and Bucknell rounds out the top five with 52 points and six wrestlers in the competition. Navy (34) trails ninth-place Drexel (36) by two points, while holding a six-point advantage over 11th-place Brown (28).

The 111th EIWA Championship will continue on Saturday beginning at 10:00 am with the championship semifinals, the consolation semifinals and placement matches. The championship finals are slated to begin at 5:30 pm.


### Go Navy ###