Penn State, NC State feature leaders in current NCAA 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.

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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 lead in aggregate time to break a tie with 149-pound teammate Zain Retherford for the lead in Division I falls with 15 each. Hofstra heavyweight Mike Hughes is third with 13, while Penn State 184-pounder Bo Nickal and Cornell 197-pounder Ben Darmstadt have 12.

In Division II, Central Oklahoma 165-pounder Mason Thompson has 12 falls, which is one more than Tiffin 184-pounder Hayden Bronne.

Wesleyan (Connecticut) heavyweight Isaiah Bellamy has expanded sole possession of the lead in Division III with 17 falls, while Michael DiNardo of Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island) and Isaac Odell of Wheaton (Illinois) have 15.

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Jamel Morris of NC State is the first Division I wrestler to reach double digits in tech falls with 10 this season in 38:07 to hold the national lead over three wrestlers with nine.

Five wrestlers in Division II have accumulated six tech falls, but it is Sebastian Vidika of Ashland who holds the tiebreaker with an aggregate time of 19:35, which is more than eight minutes faster than the next best mark set by Nick Vandermeer of Lake Erie.

Messiah 197-pounder Kyle Koser leads all divisions with 14 tech falls this season, while three wrestlers are jockeying for position behind him with 12.

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 - TECH FALLS
Division I
Rank	Name	School	Weight	TechFalls	Time
1	Jamel Morris	NC State	133	10	38:07
2	Cam Sykora	North Dakota St.	133	9	35:50
3	Kyle Shoop	Lock Haven	141	9	40:54
4	Myles Martin	Ohio St.	184	9	46:15
5	Ke-Shawn Hayes	Ohio St.	149	8	30:41
6	Chance Marsteller	Lock Haven	165	8	39:41
7	Austin DeSanto	Drexel	133	7	25:47
8	Nick Lee	Penn St.	141	7	35:06
9	Branson Ashworth	Wyoming	165	7	39:15
10	Zahid Valencia	Arizona St.	174	7	40:08
Division II
Rank	Name	School	Weight	TechFalls	Time
1	Sebastian Vidika	Ashland	125	6	19:35
2	Nick Vandermeer	Lake Erie	165	6	28:07
3	Cody Law	Pitt.-Johnstown	157	6	33:16
4	George McGuire	Gannon	157	6	35:10
5	Connor Craig	Wheeling Jesuit	157	6	38:06
6	Nate Vandermeer	Findlay	174	5	21:08
7	Nate Trepanier	Lindenwood (MO)	157	5	25:19
8	Ryan Appleby	Kutztown	285	5	27:24
9	Donald Negus	Colorado Mesa	174	4	15:14
10	Nick Becker	Wis.-Parkside	174	4	19:07
DivisionIII
Rank	Name	School	Weight	TechFalls	Time
1	Kyle Koser	Messiah	197	14	56:56
2	Jimmy Davis	Loras	149	12	49:06
3	Cross Cannone	Wartburg	149	12	49:26
4	Jay Albis	Johnson & Wales (RI)	133	12	56:35
5	Kyle Fank	Wartburg	197	11	43:17
6	Bradan Birt	Millikin	149	11	47:41
7	Stephen Maloney	Messiah	149	10	39:52
8	Ben Swarr	Messiah	174	10	40:51
9	Adrian Gonzalez	Johnson & Wales (RI)	165	8	34:30
10	Nick Mancini	Mount Union	125	8	35:45

NCAA STAT LEADERS - FALLS
Division I
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Jason Nolf	Penn St.	157	15	41:53
2	Zain Retherford	Penn St.	149	15	46:26
3	Mike Hughes	Hofstra	285	13	24:22
4	Bo Nickal	Penn St.	184	12	19:57
5	Ben Darmstadt	Cornell	197	12	21:22
6	Shakur Rasheed	Penn St.	197	10	11:36
7	Matt Stencel	Central Mich.	285	10	13:46
8	Seth Gross	South Dakota St.	133	9	21:21
9	Bryce Meredith	Wyoming	141	8	13:44
10	Chandler Rogers	Oklahoma St.	165	8	14:15
DivisionII
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Mason Thompson	Central Okla.	165	12	30:40
2	Hayden Bronne	Tiffin	184	11	17:12
3	Lawrence Phillips	St. Cloud St.	285	9	16:47
4	Jarrod Hinrichs	Neb.-Kearney	285	9	37:46
5	Trenton Piatt	Western St.	125	9	39:15
6	Phillip Springsteen	Mary	165	8	23:55
7	Nicholas Mason	Tiffin	197	8	27:15
8	Colton Looper	Central Okla.	197	7	15:34
9	Jacob Robb	Mercyhurst	285	7	18:13
10	Justin Haneke	Southwest Minnesota St.	157	7	18:39
DivisionIII
Rank	Name	School	Weight	Falls	Time
1	Isaiah Bellamy	Wesleyan (CT)	285	17	37:05
2	Michael DiNardo	Johnson & Wales (RI)	197	15	35:35
3	Isaac Odell	Wheaton (IL)	184	15	46:56
4	Devon Carrillo	Wesleyan (CT)	197	14	22:08
5	DC Scott	Simpson	197	14	57:48
6	Dante Ginnetti	Baldwin Wallace	133	14	65:41
7	Cameron Altobelli	Johnson & Wales (RI)	165	13	35:59
8	Joe Fusco	Springfield	285	13	45:29
9	Justin Cochran	Roger Williams	149	12	19:02
10	Gennaro Cerminara	Muhlenberg	197	12	20:21