Cornell, Lehigh, Princeton and Army send six to semifinals of EIWA Championships

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. – Four schools—Cornell, Lehigh, Princeton and Army—advanced six wrestlers to the semifinals of the 2019 EIWA Championships on Friday evening in Binghamton, N.Y.

Holding the first-place spot in the team race after day-one action is Lehigh, which is led by defending EIWA champion and All-American Jordan Kutler at 174 pounds.

In addition to Kutler, Lehigh sends Brandon Paetzell at 133 pounds, Cortlandt Schuyler at 149 pounds, Josh Humphreysat 157 pounds, Ryan Preisch at 184 pounds and Jordan Wood at heavyweight to the semifinals.

Presich, the 2018 EIWA champion at 184 pounds, has strung together a fall and a major decision in the first day of the tournament. In the semis, he will face 2018 Junior World Team member and Binghamton freshman Lou DePrez.

For the Princeton Tigers, 2018 Junior Pan American champion Lenny Merkin, the No. 10-seed, picked up a big upset over second-seeded Jonathan Viruet of Brown with a 9-7 sudden-victory win at 165 pounds.

Helping Princeton to a second-place team standing after day one was two-time All-American and two-time EIWA champion Matt Kolodzik, who tallied a first-period fall over Holden Heller from Hofstra, meanwhile No. 2 Pat Glory (125), No. 3 Quincy Monday (157), No. 5 Travis Stefanik (174) and No. 1  Patrick Brucki (197) all secured spots in the semis for Princeton.

Tied for second with Princeton is Cornell, led by 2018 NCAA champion Yianni Diakomihalis, who advanced to the semis at 141 pounds. Diakomihalis dominated his way to the semifinals with an 18-3 tech fall against Wil Gil of Franklin & Marshall.

Three other No. 1 seeds for the Big Red will battle for spots in the finals tomorrow, including 2016 Cadet World silver medalist Vitali Arujau at 125 pounds, junior Chas Tucker at 133 pounds and All-American Max Dean at 184 pounds.

Also in the semis for Cornell is 2017 EIWA champion Brandon Womack at 174 pounds and Ben Honis at 197 pounds.

No. 2-seed Womack is on track to a finals showdown with top seed Kutler.

Army’s six semifinalists include Corey Shie at 141 pounds, who picked off third-seeded Ryan Pomrinca of Lehigh in a nail-biting 4-3 quarterfinal match. Shie took the bout in TB2 with 25 seconds of riding time.

Others representing the Black Knights tomorrow morning are No. 4 seeds Trey Chalifoux at 125 pounds, Lucas Wieland at 157 pounds, Cael McCormick at 165 pounds and Ben Sullivan at heavyweight as well as No. 5 Lane Peters at 133 pounds.

With the tight team race, there are several head-to-head matches between the four schools.

There were a couple of other exciting upsets in quarterfinal action, including the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds going down at heavyweight.

Two-time NCAA qualifier and No. 3 Jeramy Sweany of Cornell dropped a 6-4 bout to Ian Butterbrodt of Brown just before two-time EIWA placer Antonio Pelusi from Franklin & Marshall defeated No. 2 Joey Goodhart of Drexel in the second sudden victory period, 3-2.

Butterbrodt and Pelusi will face off in the semis.

The 2019 EIWA semifinals are set for Saturday at 10 a.m. ET live on FloWrestling.org.

2019 EIWA CHAMPIONSHIPS

at Binghamton, N.Y., March 8-9

Team standings (top 10)
1. Lehigh – 85
2. Princeton – 82
3. Cornell – 82
4. Army – 78
5. Navy – 54
6. Binghamton – 45.5
7. American – 42
8. Brown – 37
9. Columbia – 33.5
10. Drexel – 27.5

Semifinal matchups
125 pounds
Vitali Arujau (Cornell) vs. Trey Chalifoux (Army)
Carmen Ferrante (Penn) vs. Patrick Glory (Princeton)

133 pounds
Chas Tucker (Cornell) vs. Lane Peters (Army)
Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh) vs. Josh Terao (American)

141 pounds
Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) vs. Anthony Sparacio (Binghamton)
Corey Shie (Army) vs. Nicholas Gil (Navy)

149 pounds
Matt Kolodzik (Princeton) vs. Jared Prince (Navy)
Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh) vs. Anthony Artalona (Penn)

157 pounds
Zach Hartman (Bucknell) vs. Lucas Weiland (Army)
Quincy Monday (Princeton) vs. Josh Humphreys (Lehigh)

165 pounds
Ebed Jarrell (Drexel) vs. Cael McCormick (Army)
Tanner Skidgel (Navy) vs. Leonard Merkin (Princeton)

174 pounds
Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) vs. Spencer Carey (Navy)
Travis Stefanik (Princeton) vs. Brandon Womack (Cornell)

184 pounds
Max Dean (Cornell) vs. Christian Lafragola (Brown)
Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) vs. Lou Deprez (Binghamton)

197 pounds
Patrick Brucki (Princeton) vs. Stephen Loiseau (Drexel)
Drew Phipps (Bucknell) vs. Ben Honis (Cornell)

285 pounds
Jordan Wood (Lehigh) vs. Ben Sullivan (Army)
Ian Butterbrodt (Brown) vs. Antonio Pelusi (Franklin & Marshall)

Quarterfinal results
125 pounds
Vitali Arujau (Cornell) TF Jakob Campbell (Bucknell), 19-1
Trey Chalifoux (Army) dec. Audey Ashkar (Binghamton), 8-4
Carmen Ferrante (Penn) dec. Antonio Mininno (Drexel), 6-2
Patrick Glory (Princeton) fall Gage Curry (American), 4:22

133 pounds
Chas Tucker (Cornell) dec. Doug Zapf (Penn), 5-2
Lane Peters (Army) dec. Casey Cobb (Navy), 3-2
Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh) MD Matt Kazimir (Columbia), 12-4
Josh Terao (American) fall Zack Trampe (Binghamton), 4:07

141 pounds
Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) TF Wil Gil (Franklin & Marshall), 18-3
Anthony Sparacio (Binghamton) dec. Jack Mutchnik (American), 3-1
Corey Shie (Army) dec. Ryan Pomrinca (Lehigh), 4-3 TB2
Nicholas Gil (Navy) MD Marshall Keller (Princeton), 10-0

149 pounds
Matt Kolodzik (Princeton) fall Holden Heller (Hofstra), 2:01
Jared Prince (Navy) dec. Pj Ogunsanya (Army), 1-0
Cortlandt Schuyler (Lehigh) dec. Parker Kropman (Drexel), 16-10
Anthony Artalona (Penn) dec. Jonathan Furnas (Cornell), 3-1 SV1

157 pounds
Zach Hartman (Bucknell) dec. Kizhan Clarke (American), 3-0
Lucas Weiland (Army) dec. Christian Labrie (Brown), 10-8 SV
Quincy Monday (Princeton) fall Hunter Ladnier (Harvard), 1:43
Josh Humphreys (Lehigh) fall Joe Oliva (Penn), 2:51

165 pounds
Ebed Jarrell (Drexel) MD Andrew Berreyesa (Cornell), 10-0
Cael McCormick (Army) dec. Gordon Wolf (Lehigh), 16-13
Tanner Skidgel (Navy) dec. Laurence Kosoy (Columbia), 3-0
Leonard Merkin (Princeton) dec. Jonathan Viruet (Brown), 9-7 SV1

174 pounds
Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) dec. Ricky Stamm (Hofstra), 9-4
Spencer Carey (Navy) dec. Vincent Deprez (Binghamton), 7-3
Travis Stefanik (Princeton) dec. Ben Harvey (Army), 11-7
Brandon Womack (Cornell) fall Bryan Mclaughlin (Drexel), 3:45

184 pounds
Max Dean (Cornell) fall Kyle Inlander (Bucknell), 1:10
Christian Lafragola (Brown) dec. Noah Stewart (Army), 2-1 TB2
Ryan Preisch (Lehigh) MD Tanner Harvey (American), 16-5
Lou Deprez (Binghamton) dec. Brian Bonino (Columbia), 6-2

197 pounds
Patrick Brucki (Princeton) dec. Nezar Haddad (Hofstra), 8-3
Stephen Loiseau (Drexel) dec. Josh Roetman (Navy), 4-2
Drew Phipps (Bucknell) dec. Rocco Caywood (Army), 3-1
Ben Honis (Cornell) dec. John Jakobsen (Lehigh, 5-1

285 pounds
Jordan Wood (Lehigh) MD Joe Doyle (Binghamton), 13-2
Ben Sullivan (Army) dec. Niko Camacho (American), 5-1
Ian Butterbrodt (Brown) dec. Jeramy Sweany (Cornell), 6-4
Antonio Pelusi (Franklin & Marshall) dec. Joey Goodhart (Drexel), 3-2