BRISTOL, RI – Through the first day of the NCAA Northeast Regional, hosted by Roger Williams University, the Johnson & Wales University wrestling team is in a good position. All 10 of the Wildcats' wrestlers still have a shot at qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
Johnson & Wales leads the team competition with 89 points while Ithaca College is next at 78.5 points. JWU has six wrestlers in Sunday's semifinals with four others still alive in the consolation brackets.
The competition wraps up on Sunday with the semifinal matches and consolation quarterfinals starting at 10 a.m.
The national leader in technical falls, No. 7 Stephen Jarrell (East Greenwich, RI) went the pin route as he recorded a trio of pins on his way to the semifinals. He pinned Zach Zupan at the 4:27 mark of their quarterfinal match. Fourth-ranked Jay Albis (Fishkill, NY) only needed 2:26 to post a tech fall in his opening-round bout. A 10-5 decision over Trinity's Ian Moritz helped him reach the semifinals.
No. 9 Bobby Jordan (Nutley, NJ) opened with a 9-0 major decision at 125 pounds then took down Roger Williams' Nick Barbaria to reach the semis. #6 Khamri Thomas (Windsor Locks, Conn.) had to go into overtime to advance to the semifinals. He recorded a major decision in his opening match then defeated Coast Guard's Phil Azzari 2-1 thanks to an escape in overtime.
The fastest pin of the day came from Mike Labell (Stanhope, NJ) as he took down Norwich's Zach Gibson in just 77 seconds. A 9-0 major decision against Lucas Muntz from WPI sent him into the semifinals. Sophomore Joe Ferinde (Nutley, NJ) bowled over Andrew Ellis of WPI in just 1:30 for the pin then pinned Cortland's Da'man Burns in just three minutes to advance to the semis.
Sophomore Thomas Grippi (Bedford Hills, NY) won his first two matches at 149 pounds before being stopped in the quarterfinals by third-ranked Sam Schneider of Ithaca. He pinned Cortland's Matt Caputo to move on to Sunday.
A narrow 7-3 loss in the quarterfinals sent Daniel McBrinn (Ramsey, NJ) to the wrestle backs, but he came out victorious over Bridgewater State's Eric Kerr. McBrinn pinned him at the 4:48 mark of their 157-pound bout.
An injury kept freshman Michael DiNardo (Mahopac, NY) out of the 184-pound quarterfinals. He worked his way back to Sunday by recording back-to-back pins, including an 80-second victory against Plymouth State's Christop Perreault.
At 285 pounds, junior Jonah Aurelio (Riverside, RI) made it to the quarterfinals before he was narrowly beaten by the top seed. Aurelio pinned Southern Maine's Mike Risti just three minutes into their match to advance.
