2022 EIWA Championship
Saturday-Sunday, March 5-6  |  Newman Arena at Bartels Hall  |  Ithaca, N.Y.

Saturday, March 5
11:00 am // Championship First Round
11:20 am // Round of 16, First Rd Consolations
4:00 pm // Quarterfinals, Second Rd Consolations
6:30 pm // Third Rd Consolations

Sunday, March 6
9:50 am // Semifinals, Quarterfinal Consolations
12:00 pm // Consolation Semifinals
2:40 pm // EIWA Hall of Fame Presentations
3:00 pm // Championship Finals - 1st / 3rd / 5th / 7th
5:30 pm // Team and Special Awards

Navy's Lineup                                                                                            
                                                                                                                     EIWA       Coaches 285    Ryan Catka              Fr      Brookhaven, Pa.         22-6        22-6           ---              ---         33           ---


• Inside the Championship: The Navy wrestling team (6-5, 3-4 EIWA) travels to Ithaca, N.Y. this weekend in its quest to win the 2022 Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) Championship. In addition to the team title and the 10 EIWA individual crowns, 42 automatic berths to the NCAA Championship (March 17-19 at Little Caesars Arena / Detroit) are on the line.

• Schedule Details: Hosted by Cornell, Newman Arena at Bartels Hall will serve as the venue for the two-day, 17-team tournament which is set to begin on Saturday with preliminaries starting at 11:00 am. The tournament will proceed through the completion of the quarterfinals and third round of consolations Saturday evening. Sunday's competition will feature the championship semifinals and the consolation quarterfinals and semifinals beginning at 9:50 am and the championship finals (1st / 3rd / 5th / 7th) at roughly 3:00 pm. In addition to Navy, those teams competing this weekend include American, Army, Binghamton, Brown, Bucknell, Columbia, #10 Cornell, Drexel, Franklin & Marshall, Harvard, Hofstra, (RV) Lehigh, LIU, #18 Penn, #22 Princeton and Sacred Heart. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Columbia and Penn were the only teams to have appeared in every EIWA Championship (117) which dates back to 1905. The Ivy League - Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Penn, Princeton - and Centennial Conference - Franklin & Marshall - teams did not partake in last year's championship.

• Spectator Policy: Please check the Cornell Athletics website (www.cornellbigred.com) prior to arrival this weekend. Policies are changing daily. There will be a COVID Checkpoint at this weekend's EIWA Championship and ALL spectators will be required to show proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test. Spectators must bring a photo ID and provide one of the following when arriving at the event: 1) proof of being fully vaccinated for COVID-19 with an FDA- or WHO-authorized vaccine, 2) results of a negative FDA- or DOH-authorized PCR, rapid PCR, or nucleic acid amplification test (NAAT) COVID-19 test collected within 72 hours of the event start or 3) an FDA-authorized antigen test performed on a specimen collected within six hours of the event start. Additionally, all spectators – regardless of vaccination status – must comply with the university's masking policy, utilizing high quality masks, worn correctly. Evolving guidance recommends N95/KN95 as the most effective, while surgical masks are acceptable for entry. Cloth masks on their own no longer meet Cornell standards for protection.

• Follow the Action: 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.

• What's at Stake: The EIWA will have 42 automatic bids to the NCAA Championship - 10 individual champions along with 32 pre-allocated spots - 4 at 125 / 2 at 133 / 4 at 141 / 4 at 149 / 5 at 157 / 7 at 165 / 4 at 174 / 3 at 184 / 5 at 197 and 4 at 285. Each qualifying tournament was awarded pre-allocations to the national tournament based on regular-season performance by conference wrestlers through February 20. The pre-allocations are determined using a sliding scale of a .700 winning percentage, top 30 coaches' rank and top 30 ratings percentage index (RPI) with a maximum of 29 pre-allocations per weight class. Wrestlers who fail to qualify via the EIWA Championship will be eligible for an at-large berth (43). The at-large announcement will be made on March 8, while brackets and seeding will be announced at 6:00 pm on March 9 via ncaa.com(.) All weight classes will consist of 33 wrestlers.

• Navy at the EIWA Championship: The Midshipmen, who joined the conference in 1941, are making their 82nd 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 462 wrestlers in past EIWA competitions, including 108 champions, 96 runners-up. Navy is one of four teams to win the team title at least 10 times with Lehigh winning it the most - 37 times. Cornell and Lehigh have combined to win 21 of the last 22 team titles, including each of the last 20. Lehigh has claimed the crown in each of the last four tournaments.

• Navy's Lineup: Just four of Navy's 10 wrestlers set to wrestle at this weekend's EIWA Championship have made at least one previous appearance at the NCAA Championship - Jacob Allen (Sr / 125 / 2-3 EIWA Championship record), Andrew Cerniglia (So / 157 / 3-1), David Key (So / 184 / 2-1) and Jacob Koser (Jr / 197 / 5-4). Meanwhile, Josh Koderhandt (Fr / 133), Tyler Hunt (So / 141), Jonathan Miranda (Sr / 149), Val Park (Jr / 165), Cael Crebs (Fr / 174) and Ryan Catka (Fr / 285) will make their EIWA Championship debut. Allen, Cerniglia, Key and Koser qualified for the NCAA Tournament a year ago by way of their EIWA Championship finish. Four Navy wrestlers appear in the NCAA Coaches Panel Rankings (#20 Josh Koderhandt, #21 Andrew Cerniglia, #27 David Key and #23 Jacob Koser), seven acquired RPI rankings (#33 Jacob Allen, #8 Josh Koderhandt, #20 Andrew Cerniglia, #27 Val Park, #32 David Key, #12 Jacob Koser and #33 Ryan Catka), while four head into the weekend ranked by Intermat (#17 Josh Koderhandt, #23 Andrew Cerniglia, #30 David Key and #25 Jacob Koser).

• NCAA Coaches Panel Rankings: Forty-eight wrestlers from the EIWA appear in the latest NCAA Coaches Panel Rankings in what promises to be one of the most competitive tournaments in recent memory. The coaches' rankings are determined by a vote of 14 coaches in each weight class with two head coaches from each of the seven conference. For ranking purposes, coaches may only consider a wrestler that has been designated as a starter at a respective weight class. Wrestlers must have five Division I matches in the weight class to be considered with at least one within the last 30 days. There are eight wrestlers who appear among the top 10 in their respective weight classes in the Coaches Panel Rankings - #1 Yianni Diakomihalis, Cornell (149), #2 Patrick Glory, Princeton (125), #3 Vitali Arujau, Cornell (125), #6 Quincy Monday, Princeton (157), #7 Josh Humphreys, Lehigh (157), #7 Jordan Wood, Lehigh (285), #9 Julian Ramirez, Cornell (165) and #10 Michael O'Malley, Drexel (174). Of the 17 teams competing this weekend, 12 programs have at least one wrestler ranked among the NCAA Coaches' Panel top 33 (9 Penn / 8 Cornell / 7 Lehigh / 4 Navy, Princeton / 3 Army, Binghamton, Columbia, Hofstra / 2 Drexel / 1 Bucknell, Harvard.