Navy seniors Cody Trybus (141 / Elkton, Md.) and Tanner Skidgel (165 / Tulsa, Okla.) were awarded top-16 seeds at their respective weight class when the brackets for the 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship were unveiled Wednesday evening. Sophomore Jacob Koser (197 / Dillsburg, Pa.), who was selected as an alternate at 197 pounds a year ago, just missed out on the top-16 cut, earning a #18 seed.

First-year Navy head coach Cary Kolat directed Navy to a second-place finish at the 2021 EIWA Championship on Feb. 26 and saw seven Midshipmen earn automatic berths to the NCAA Championship. Meanwhile senior Casey Cobb (149 / Kuna, Idaho) and sophomore John Birchmeier (285 / Ashburn, Va.) received at-large bids Tuesday afternoon. This will be just the third time in school history that Navy has sent nine or more wrestlers to compete at the NCAA Wrestling Championship and the first since 1969. Navy qualified 11 wrestlers in 1968 (11 weight classes that year) and nine in 1969.

First-time qualifiers include Logan Treaster (125 / Sr / Newton, Kan.), Jacob Allen (133 / Jr / Poway, Calif.), Andrew Cerniglia (157 / Fr / Nazareth, Pa.), David Key (184 / Fr / Norcross, Ga.), Koser and Birchmeier, while Cobb and Trybus are two-time qualifiers and Skidgel a three-time qualifier. The breakdown by class includes four seniors (Treaster, Trybus, Cobb, Skidgel), one junior (Allen), two sophomores (Koser, Birchmeier) and two freshmen (Cerniglia, Key).

The ESPN family of networks will once again televise the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championship which is slated for March 18-20 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Mo. Broadcast details will be forthcoming.

Navy's First-Round NCAA Matchups (# indicates tournament seed)
125 - #25 Logan Treaster vs. #8 RayVon Foley (Michigan State)
133 - #27 Jacob Allen vs. #6 Matt Schmitt (Missouri)
141 - #11 Cody Trybus vs. #22 Anthony Brito (Appalachian State)
149 - #19 Casey Cobb vs. #14 Michael Blockhus (Minnesota)
157 - #21 Andrew Cerniglia vs. #12 Brady Berge (Penn State)
165 - #13 Tanner Skidgel vs. #20 Cole Moody (Wyoming)
184 - #20 David Key vs. #13 Christopher Weiler (Wisconsin)
197 - #18 Jacob Koser vs. #15 Michael Beard (Penn State)
285 - #25 John Birchmeier vs. #8 Jordan Wood (Lehigh)

### Go Navy ###