• Inside the Championship: The 17th-ranked Navy wrestling team (5-1, 2-0 EIWA) travels to Manheim, Pa. on Friday in its quest to win the 2021 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championship. In addition to the team title and the 10 EIWA individual crowns, 45 automatic berths to the NCAA Championship (March 18-20 at Enterprise Center / St. Louis) are on the line.
• Schedule Details: For the first time in the history of the tournament, the EIWA Championship will be held off-campus, as Spooky Nook Sports Complex will serve as the venue for this year's championship. Meanwhile, for the first time since 1909, the tournament will be a one-day event. Tournament action kicks off at 10:00 am on Friday with the opening round matches, along with quarterfinals and first round consolations. At 2:00 pm, the semifinals will begin followed by consolation quarters and consolation semis. Rounding out the evening will be the medal round at approximately 5:30 pm.
• Follow the Action: No spectators or outside media will be permitted to attend the championship. The EIWA has partnered with Flowrestling to provide streaming video coverage via its subscription-based service, while free live results/brackets will also be available on FloArena.
• The Field: Ten schools - American, Army, Binghamton, Bucknell, Drexel, Hofstra, Lehigh, Long Island U., Navy and Sacred Heart - will compete in this year's tournament and it will feature five of the top-seven teams from the 2020 championship. Absent from this year's event will be the Ivy League - Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton - and Centennial Conference - Franklin & Marshall - teams. Columbia and Penn are the only teams to have appeared in every EIWA Championship (115) which dates back to 1905. That streak will be snapped on Friday.
• What's at Stake: The EIWA will have 45 automatic bids to the NCAA Championship - 10 individual champions along with 35 pre-allocated spots - 3 at 125, 3 at 133, 5 at 141, 4 at 149, 5 at 157, 5 at 165, 5 at 174, 6 at 184, 5 at 197 and 4 at 285. Traditionally, pre-allocations have been determined by a formula measuring Div. I winning percentage, ratings percentage index and coaches' ranking. However, due to the decrease in overall matches, and in particular non-conference matches, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA Div. I Wrestling Committee made the transition to using the five-year (2016-20) historical average to determine pre-allocations for this year's tournament. Wrestlers who fail to qualify via the EIWA Championship will be eligible for an at-large berth. The at-large announcement will be made on March 9, while brackets and seeding will be announced at 6:00 pm on March 10 via ncaa.com(.)
• NCAA Panel Rankings: No. 17 Navy is the only team from the EIWA that is nationally ranked, while 35 wrestlers from the conference appear in the latest NCAA Coaches Panel Rankings in what promises to be one of the most competitive tournaments in recent memory. There are four wrestlers who appear among the top 10 in their respective weight classes in the Coaches Panel Rankings - #10 Cody Trybus, Navy (141), #8 Zach Hartman, Bucknell (165), #4 Lou DePrez, Binghamton (184) and #8 Jordan Wood (285). Of the 10 teams competing this weekend, seven programs have at least one wrestler ranked among the NCAA Coaches' Panel top 33 with Navy having the most with eight.
• Navy at the EIWA Championship: The Midshipmen, who joined the conference in 1941, are making their 81st appearance at the EIWA Championship. Navy has won the team title 13 times (1943, '44, '45, '46, '68, '69, '70, '72, '74, '82, '84, '86 and '90) and placed 453 wrestlers in past EIWA competitions, including 107 champions, 92 runners-up. Navy is one of four teams to win the team title at least 10 times with Lehigh winning it the most - 36 times. Cornell and Lehigh have combined to win 20 of the last 21 team titles, including each of the last 19. Lehigh has claimed the crown in each of the last three tournaments.
• Navy's Lineup: Six of Navy's 10 wrestlers set to wrestle on Friday evening have made at least one previous appearance at the NCAA Championship - Logan Treaster (Sr, 125), Jacob Allen (Jr, 133), Cody Trybus (Sr, 141), Casey Cobb (Sr, 149), Tanner Skidgel (Sr, 165) and Jacob Koser (So, 197). Meanwhile Andrew Cerniglia (Fr, 157), Dean Caravela (Sr, 174), David Key (Fr, 184) and John Birchmeier (So, 285) will make their EIWA Championship debut.
• Skidgel Looks to Three-peat: Senior Tanner Skidgel is looking to become just the seventh wrestler in program history to win three EIWA individual titles. After wrestling in just eight matches his rookie year, he reached 20 wins in both his sophomore and junior seasons and won the 165-pound EIWA title in 2019 and '20. He is one of 32 Navy wrestlers to win multiple EIWA titles and the first since Joe Baker won back-to-back 133-pound crowns in 2008 and '09. Navy's three-time EIWA Champions include Malcolm MacDonald (1943-44-45), Gerald Franzen (1963-64-65), Lloyd Keaser (1970-71-72), Tom Schuler (1970-71-72), John Reich (1980-82-83) and Dan Hicks (1992-94-95).