College wrestling: Penn State's Jason Nolf takes over falls lead in Week 3 award standings

INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has released updated standings for the 2018 NCAA Wrestling Awards that will be awarded in March at the respective Division I, II and III Wrestling Championships.

The inaugural NCAA Wrestling Awards were presented at the 2012 wrestling championships. The three awards, given in each division, honor the Most Dominant Wrestler as well as the student-athletes that have accumulated the most falls and the most technical falls throughout the course of the regular and postseasons.

For falls and tech falls to be counted they must come against opponents in the same division. Ties in the two categories are broken based on the aggregate time.

Penn State 157-pounder Jason Nolf holds a five-minute lead in aggregate time to break a tie with 149-pound teammate Zain Retherford for the lead in Division I falls with 14 each. Hofstra heavyweight Mike Hughes is third with 13, while Cornell 197-pounder Ben Darmstadt has 11.

In Division II, Central Oklahoma 165-pounder Mason Thompson has added to his lead with a pair of falls to reach 12, three more than a trio of pursuers from St. Cloud State, Nebraska-Kearney and Western State.

Wesleyan (Connecticut) heavyweight Isaiah Bellamy has taken sole possession of the lead in Division III with 16 falls, while Isaac Odell of Wheaton (Illinois) has 15.

North Dakota State’s Cam Sykora and Lock Haven’s Kyle Shoop lead Division I with eight technical falls. Sykora holds the tiebreaker with an aggregate time of 30:24, three minutes faster than Shoop. An additional six wrestlers are still in good position to win the award with seven tech falls.

Division II features a three-way tie of six for the national lead in tech falls. Lake Erie’s Nick Vandermeer holds the time tiebreaker of 28:07 over Gannon’s George McGuire and Wheeling Jesuit’s Connor Craig.

Messiah 197-pounder Kyle Koser has added three technical falls to his total as he climbed to the national lead in Division III with 13, one more than Loras’ Jimmy Davis and Wartburg’s Cross Cannone.

The initial Most Dominant Wrestler standings will be released later this season to allow wrestlers to achieve the minimum amount of matches that is required to be eligible for the standings.

NCAA Stat Leaders - Falls
Division I
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Jason Nolf	Penn St.	157	14	40:10
2	Zain Retherford	Penn St.	149	14	45:07
3	Mike Hughes	Hofstra	285	13	24:22
4	Ben Darmstadt	Cornell	197	11	20:26
5	Bo Nickal	Penn St.	184	10	11:03
6	Matt Stencel	Central Mich.	285	10	13:46
7	Shakur Rasheed	Penn St.	197	9	10:36
8	Jacob Schwarm	UNI	125	8	14:36
9	Alfred Bannister	Maryland	149	8	17:24
10	Daniel Lewis	Missouri	165	8	17:54
Division II
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Mason Thompson	Central Okla.	165	12	30:40
2	Lawrence Phillips	St. Cloud St.	285	9	16:47
3	Jarrod Hinrichs	Neb.-Kearney	285	9	37:46
4	Trenton Piatt	Western St.	125	9	39:00
5	Phillip Springsteen	Mary	165	8	23:55
6	Colton Looper	Central Okla.	197	7	15:34
7	Justin Haneke	Southwest Minn. St.	157	7	18:39
8	Nolan Krone	Colorado Mesa	184	7	20:54
9	Nate Vandermeer	Findlay	174	7	21:03
10	Jody Sandoval II	Western St.	133	6	12:25
Division III
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Isaiah Bellamy	Wesleyan (CT)	285	16	36:17
2	Isaac Odell	Wheaton (IL)	184	15	46:56
3	Michael DiNardo	Johnson & Wales (RI)	197	14	32:05
4	DC Scott	Simpson	197	14	57:48
5	Devon Carrillo	Wesleyan (CT)	197	13	21:37
6	Gennaro Cerminara	Muhlenberg	197	12	20:21
7	Derek Beitz	Messiah	184	12	25:14
8	Guy Patron	Loras	197	12	31:48
9	Kyle Hatch	Wabash	157	12	32:29
10	Joe Fusco	Springfield	285	12	39:52

NCAA STAT LEADERS - TECH FALLS
Division I
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Tech Falls	Time
1	Cam Sykora	North Dakota St.	133	8	30:24
2	Kyle Shoop	Lock Haven	141	8	33:54
3	Austin DeSanto	Drexel	133	7	25:47
4	Chance Marsteller	Lock Haven	165	7	32:41
5	Nick Lee	Penn St.	141	7	35:06
6	Myles Martin	Ohio St.	184	7	38:57
7	Branson Ashworth	Wyoming	165	7	39:15
8	Nick Suriano	Rutgers	125	7	43:28
9	Jamel Morris	NC State	133	6	19:17
10	Ke-Shawn Hayes	Ohio St.	149	6	21:38
DivisionII
Rank	Name	School	Weight	TechFalls	Time
1	Nick Vandermeer	Lake Erie	165	6	28:07
2	George McGuire	Gannon	157	6	35:10
3	Connor Craig	Wheeling Jesuit	157	6	38:06
4	Nate Vandermeer	Findlay	174	5	21:08
5	Nate Trepanier	Lindenwood (MO)	157	5	25:19
6	Cody Law	Pitt.-Johnstown	157	5	26:39
7	Ryan Appleby	Kutztown	285	5	27:24
8	Donald Negus	Colorado Mesa	174	4	15:14
9	Nick Becker	Wis.-Parkside	174	4	19:07
10	Josh Walker	Upper Iowa	141	4	19:23
DivisionIII
Rank	Name	School	Weight	TechFalls	Time
1	Kyle Koser	Messiah	197	13	52:28
2	Jimmy Davis	Loras	149	12	49:06
3	Cross Cannone	Wartburg	149	12	49:26
4	Kyle Fank	Wartburg	197	11	43:17
5	Stephen Maloney	Messiah	149	9	36:33
6	Ben Swarr	Messiah	174	9	38:44
7	Jay Albis	Johnson & Wales (RI)	133	9	44:26
8	Trevor Corl	Lycoming	149	7	20:30
9	Darden Schurg	Wabash	174	7	36:34
10	Greg Warner	York (PA)	149	6	23:31