La CROSSE, Wisc. – All season long, something special has been surrounding the Johnson & Wales University wrestling team. The Wildcats wrote the final chapter of their magical season with a program-best fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships on Saturday.
Johnson & Wales finished fourth with 61.5 points, coming in just one point behind of Wabash. Wartburg won the national championship with 129.5 points and Augsburg was second at 79 points. The fourth-place finish is the best in school history and the highest ever for a New England region school. The previous best finish was eighth by the 2014 squad that featured three All-Americans.
Senior Stephen Jarrell (165 pounds) and sophomore Jay Albis (133 pounds) equaled the best individual finish in school history as they both placed second. Brennan Ward was the first Wildcat to finish as the national runner-up when he did it at 184 pounds in 2010.
In addition, the Wildcats had three other wrestlers earn All-America honors. Junior Bobby Jordan finished seventh at 125 pounds, sophomore Joe Ferinde took sixth at 133 pounds and senior Mike Labell placed seventh at 174 pounds.
Head coach Lonnie Morris was honored with National Wrestling Coaches Association Coach of the Year. Associate head coach Brian Allen was named NWCA Assistant Coach of the Year.
The takedown has been Jarrell's (East Greenwich, RI) signature move as he set the JWU single-season school record. All that practice came in handy as he took down Anthony Arroyo of Baldwin Wallace in the final 10 seconds for the 8-7 win in the semifinals. He nearly came away with the championship but was defeated 4-2 in overtime by the top seed, Logan Hermsen of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Prior to the NCAA Championships, Stevens' Troy Stanich was the only wrestler in the country to beat Albis (Fishkill, NY). Albis won the most important match of the season as he beat the top-seeded Stanich, 7-6, to advance to the finals. His run was ended in the championship match when he was pinned by NYU's Nathan Pike at the 4:48 mark.
Jordan (Woodbridge, NJ) wrestled a pair of matches that could have gone either way. He dropped a 3-2 decision to Brockport's Jonathan Hass, but rallied to beat Augsburg's Victor Gliva, 4-3, in the seventh-place match.
Riding time gave Ferinde (Nutley, NJ) a victory in his first bout as he beat Williams' Brendon Seyfried, 1-0. Unfortunately, he lost his final two matches to Devin Broukal of Wabash and Loras' Clint Lembeck. He is the second member of his family to earn All-America honors as his brother Michael was a two-time All-American for the Wildcats.
On the final day of his collegiate career, Labell (Stanhope, NY) made sure he went out a winner as he posted an 11-2 major decision against TCNJ's Dan Kilroy. Labell lost his opening match, 8-1, to Cortland's Colin Barber.
Johnson & Wales should have another deep run at next year's NCAA Championships as Jarrell and Labell are the only seniors of the 10 wrestlers that went to the NCAA regionals. JWU had all 10 of its wrestlers earn All-Region accolades.
