• 2015 EIWA Championship Results

BETHLEHEM, Pa. -- For the first time since 2009, Navy crowned two individual champions at the EIWA Championship as senior 165-pound Peyton Walsh (Glen Allen, Va.) and freshman 174-pound Jadaen Bernstein (Glen Gardner, N.J.) won titles to lead the Navy wrestling team to an eighth-place finish at the 111th EIWA Championship held Friday and Saturday at Lehigh's Stabler Arena in Bethlehem, Pa.

Cornell, who claimed its ninth consecutive team title, led the way with five individual champions (125, 149, 157, 184, 197), while Navy (165, 174), Binghamton (285), Drexel (133) and Lehigh (141) accounted for the remaining five winners. Cornell paced the field with 176 points, while Lehigh followed in second with 146. Bucknell fell in at third with 90 points, followed by Columbia in fourth with 82 points and Penn in fifth with 81 points. Drexel (71.5) placed sixth, followed by Princeton (70), Navy (63), Binghamton (62), Army (55), Brown (42.5), American (38.5), Hofstra (33), Harvard (24), Sacred Heart (11.5) and Franklin & Marshall (4).

"The team really came together this weekend. The 10 athletes who represented the Academy did so with an aggressive, offensive attacking style that gave the fans a great show," said first-year Navy head coach Joel Sharratt.

"Davis, Woulfe, Cervantes and Bernstein all wrestled above their seed and Peyton wrestled to his No. 1 seeding. That was a good team effort and there are a lot of positives to take away as we move forward. Although the point total did not push us as high as we had set our goal for, the youth of the team will give us an opportunity in the future."

After winning seven individual crowns at the conference championship between 2007 and 2009, Navy had won just two in the last five years leading into the weekend. Navy walked away Saturday with a senior winning a title in what was his final EIWA Championship appearance, while a rookie made a statement by being crowned a champion in his first conference tournament and as the No. 4 seed.

Walsh, who just a year ago was forced out of the conference tournament after suffering a knee injury in the dual against Army two weeks prior, stayed true to his No. 1 seed as he cruised through the bracket. On Friday he scored a pair of major decisions over American's Brad Mutchnik (14-1) and Drexel's Nicholas Elmer (8-0) to set up a semifinals matchup against fifth-seeded Jonathan Schleifer of Princeton on Saturday morning. Walsh picked up where he left off and dealt Schleifer a 9-1 loss to punch his ticket into the finals. Walsh claimed his first EIWA title with little more than a step onto the mat Saturday evening, as Cornell's Dylan Palacio, the No. 2 seed, conceded the match by way of a medical forfeit.

"The staff and wrestling family is so proud of Peyton for putting his name on that champions board. He is healthy and hungry for the next step in his Navy wrestling journey which is the NCAA Championship in St. Louis."

Walsh will make his third NCAA Championship appearance in the hopes of closing out his career as an All-American. Navy's team captain has amassed a 39-8 record this season which marks the most wins by a Navy wrestler since the 2008-09 season when all-time winningest wrestler Bryce Saddoris won 43 matches. The 39 wins smashes the program record for most wins at the 165-pound weight class. It was previously 31 set by Frank Edwards in 2002-03 and later tied in 2008-09 by Matt DeMichiel.

Meanwhile, Walsh will attempt to add his name to a short list of Navy wrestlers who have won 40 matches in a single season. Mark Conley (2001-02), Matt Stolpinski (2006-07, 2007-08), Tanner Garrett (2005-06) and Bryce Saddoris (2008-09) are the only wrestlers among that list.

Additionally, Walsh broke into the top 10 on Navy's career wins list, putting together a 107-45 mark over four seasons. He moved past Ed Prendergast, who won 106 matches at heavyweight from 2005-08.

Immediately after Walsh was crowned the champion at 165 pounds, Bernstein stepped onto the mat to face third-seeded Santiago Martinez of Lehigh. The Navy rookie earned his shot at the championship after scoring a major decision over Franklin & Marshall's Gordon Bolig on Friday, as well as a 13-5 victory over Sacred Heart's Conan Schuster. On Saturday, Bernstein, the fourth seed, not only upset top-seeded George Pickett, 3-2, he was also assured an automatic bid to wrestle at the NCAA Championship.

Bernstein's finals foe Santiago Martinez of Lehigh made his way into the EIWA finals after second-seeded Brian Harvey of Army suffered an injury 33 seconds into the match and had to retire.

Bernstein and Martinez were scoreless after the first period before Martinez took a 1-0 advantage with an escape just 15 seconds into the second period. Bernstein evened the match with an escape three seconds into the third period and with 22 seconds left in the match, Bernstein was awarded a takedown only to have it taken away moments later, forcing overtime. The sudden victory period was short-lived as Bernstein scored the match-winning takedown just seconds into the frame to claim the first tournament title of his collegiate career.

"Jadaen's semifinal and finals matches raised the roof today. The team was all in and he gutted out a championship performance on the big stage tonight."

Bernstein, who stands 23-13 this season, took advantage of an opportunity that presented itself at the beginning of the year when 2014 EIWA 174-pound champion Mathew Miller suffered a season-ended knee injury, opening the door for the rookie.

It's the first time Navy has won consecutive titles at a weight class since 2008 and `09 when Joe Baker won back-to-back titles at 133 pounds.

In addition to Walsh and Bernstein, freshman 133-pound Zack Davis (Granger, Ind.), junior 184-pound Michael Woulfe (Oak Park, Ill.) and freshman 197-pound Steban Cervantes (Chula Vista, Calif.) advanced to the second day of action at the EIWA Championship.

Davis, who was unseeded, dropped his opener on Saturday to fifth-seeded Josh Terao of American by a 5-3 count and went on to finish seventh after Penn's Caleb Richardson bowed out via medical forfeit.

Eighth-seeded Woulfe was pinned by by Brown's Ophir Bernstein, the fifth seed, in just under five minutes on Saturday monring. He bounced back, however, and dealt Columbia's Zack Hernandez a 4-2 loss to place seventh.

Cervantes nearly knocked off his second seeded wrestler in as many days, but fell just short on Saturday morning in a 7-6 loss to seventh-seeded Matt Idelson of Columbia. Cervantes went on to place eighth after dropping a 16-5 major decision to Binghamton's Caleb Wallace.

Walsh and Bernstein will use the next week-and-a-half to train for the 2015 NCAA Championship slated for March 19-21 at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo.



### Go Navy ###