Joey Davis wins fourth title, St. Cloud State goes back-to-back at NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships

Four-time, undefeated NCAA DII Champion Joey Davis of Notre Dame College. Photo: NCAA.com.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. – Joey Davis made history on Saturday night.


The Notre Dame College senior 184-pounder beat Pittsburgh-Johnstown’s Travis McKillop, 3-1, to become the fifth wrestler in Division II history to win four NCAA titles. More importantly, Davis, a native of Compton, Calif., become the first in DII to go undefeated at 130-0.


Inside the Denny Sanford Premier Center, Davis won a strategic bout with McKillop, himself a four-time All-American and NCAA finalist in 2014. After a scoreless five minutes, McKillop opened the third period with an escape, but the athletic Californian quickly scored off a low-level attack and rode out the rest of the match for his date with history.


“I was stressed out this whole process. I’m really at a loss for words,” Davis said. “I worked tremendously hard. The coaches worked me so hard, but it has all been worth it.

“It was a tough process (going from California to Ohio). I know a lot of guys get homesick, but for me I was trying to get the hell out of Compton. I have family in Cleveland that I hadn’t met. My brother lives in Dayton (Ohio), just two hours away in the Air Force. It was kind of meant to be, going to (Notre Dame).”


Davis never intended to go undefeated for four years and win four national titles. He was named outstanding wrestler of the tournament.


“I never thought about something like this, about going undefeated in college,” Davis said. “To be able to have my names mentioned with some of the greats, it’s an amazing accomplishment for me. I have some options, but for me it’s about graduating first.”


NDC had a chance to catch St. Cloud State entering the finals. The Huskies led by eight points, but when 125-pounder Brent Velasquez beat Mercyhurst’s Willie Bohince it made things difficult for the Falcons. When Nebraska-Kearney’s Destin McCauley beat NDC’s Isaac Dulgarian in the 149-pound title contest, SCSU had its second straight team title in the bag. In the end, the Huskies outdistanced second place Notre Dame College by eight points, 90-82. Nebraska-Kearney ended third, 4 ½ points behind the Falcons.


Pittsburgh-Johnstown was fourth, crowing two champions, with Maryville rounding out the top five. California Baptist was sixth and Wisconsin-Parkside, after finishing well outside the top 20 in 2015, was seventh.


Velasquez, a redshirt-freshman, used a second-period reversal and a decisive third-period takedown to beat Bohince, 5-0, to open the evening. The victory for Velasquez (25-2), who won a late-season wrestle-off against 2015 NCAA champ Tim Prescott, a senior for SCSU in 2015-16, gave the Huskies at least a share of the 2016 team title. The win meant Notre Dame College, 12 points back with two finalists, needed two pins to forge a tie.


Prescott was in Velasquez’s corner for the finals.


“I wouldn’t be here without Tim Prescott and all the 125 and 133 pounders in our room,” said Velasquez, a native of Bennington, Neb. “It is a surreal feeling. I felt bad for Tim, I couldn’t really celebrate in the moment. But he has really supported me this week and without him the last couple of years I wouldn’t be here. Everybody in our room works so hard, our depth is why we are where we are every year.”


McCauley has won a lot of wrestling matches. But Saturday night might have topped them all. Down 4-3 in the final 10 seconds, the junior went double-overhook and tripped Dulgarian, a talented true freshman from Olathe, Kan., to his back for six and a dramatic 9-4 win in the 149-pound final.


“I knew there was a short time and I was hoping to open him up. (Dulgarian) was really backing out, so I felt like I had to go upper body,” said McCauley (22-6) a five-time Minnesota high school state champion. “It’s exciting, especially since coming in third last year.


“This is up there with all my wins. I don’t know if I have ever been down like that and done something like that to win a match. Getting one of those under my belt, it feels amazing.”


An emotional UNK head coach was as happy as anybody.


“Destin has been through so much, the highs and lows,” said boss, mentor, friend and Loper head coach Marc Bauer. “He has fought through a lot of adversity the last couple of years and now he is back where he was at; it’s all about confidence and believing in himself and having others believe in him.


“To end that way, that’s awesome for him. Coming up with a big throw at the end. It’s something we are going to remember for a long time.”


McCauley’s teammate, senior Romero Cotton, ended his career with a third national title, beating Northern State’s Joe Gomez, 3-1, at 197 pounds. The two-sport athlete for UNK – Cotton (24-2) played football for the Lopers for four seasons – had perhaps the best post-match interview and may have been the happiest of the 10 champions.


Pittsburgh-Johnstown sophomore Tyler Reinhart had a dramatic finish similar to McCauley, although Reinhart’s win was in the opening three minutes. Reinhart (28-6) went 0-2 at the 2015 NCAAs, but on Saturday night, after nearly finishing off Wisconsin-Parkside’s Nick Fishback with a cradle, saw the official slap the mat during a scramble to give the Mountain Cats their second title of the night.


Fishback finishes his senior campaign 34-5 and with a second straight All-America medal.


A riding time point was the difference for UPJ’s Nick Roberts, who beat Indianapolis’ Nick Crume, 4-3, for the 133-pound title. Crume (23-7) scored a takedown in the final seconds, but Roberts (18-1), a junior transfer from Ohio State who qualified for the DI Championships in 2014, had built over a minute of riding time. Roberts beat Nebraska-Kearney’s Daniel DeShazer, winner of the last two NCAA titles at 133 pounds, in the semifinals earlier in the day.


After watching his teammate’s season end, Wisconsin-Parkside sophomore Nick Becker completed a 42-0 campaign with a solid 9-3 win over North Carolina-Pembroke’s Blaze Shade. Becker, who started his career at DI Central Michigan, used a big second period takedown and near-fall to pull away. Brad Becker was a national champion in 2006 and Craig Becker an NCAA king in 2010, both suiting up for the Rangers. Shade finished a solid junior season at 40-5.


McKendree’s Darren Wynn was a little too quick for Seton Hill redshirt-freshman Joseph Alessandro in the 141-pound final, scoring two first-period takedowns to go with a reversal and a 4-point near-fall to lead 10-4 after three minutes. The sophomore, who finishes 37-10, won 12-8 and becomes the first national champion for the Bearcats since joining DII.


Lindenwood’s Terrel Wilbourn finished a 25-0 senior season with a 6-4 victory over California Baptist senior Brady Bersano in the 157-pound finale. Wilbourn lost in the 2015 NCAA final and became the Missouri program’s first DII national champion.


Minnesota State-Mankato senior Malcolm Allen, a native of New Rochelle, N.Y., outweighed California Baptist’s Joe Fagiano by some 60 pounds, a throwback to the old days of the unlimited weight class where a few 300-pounders roamed the mats.


Fagiano, at around 225 pounds, tossed Allen to his back for a 6-2 lead in the second period and went on to win 6-3 to give the Lancers and head coach Lennie Zalesky a first NCAA title in DII.


“You have to use a lot more strategy, you cannot get stuck underneath the bigger guys,” said Fagiano, a Chicago native who finishes 29-5.“You can’t make any stupid mistakes. When you are giving up 60 pounds sometimes you can’t take as many risks, and you have to be ready to capitalize on the few opportunities you get.”


The 2017 NCAA Division II Championships are set for Birmingham, Ala.