LA CROSSE, Wis. – The JWU (Providence) wrestling team placed fourth at the 2024 NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championship Saturday night at the La Crosse Center in Wisconsin.

The Wildcats finished the event with 76 points, which was behind national champion Augsburg (91.0 points), Wartburg (87.5), and Wis.-La Crosse (82.5). As a result, they will bring home a trophy for the third time in program history (2017 – fourth place; 2019 – third-place) and remain the only program in New England to have carried home hardware from a national championship.

Complete Results

Two JWU student-athletes – graduate student Ryan DeVivo (184 lbs.) and junior Joziah Fry (125 lbs.) – advanced to the finals of their respective bracket. Fry left 'The Badger State' with his second-consecutive national championship following an 18-8 major decision win while DeVivo fell 19-2 in his match.

Fry open the national semifinals with a 19-4 tech fall win over James Day (Wabash) to advance to the finals, where he took on No. 2 seed Christian Guzman (North Central (IL)). The Coventry, Rhode Island native registered two take downs in the first to grab an 11-5 lead and another in the second to extend his cushion to 14-7. A reversal and two stalling points in the third helped Fry secure his second-straight national championship.

DeVivo, meanwhile, nearly completed a historic run through the 184 lb. bracket as an unseeded student-athlete, opening the day with a 4-2 decision over Niall Schoenfelder (Wis.-Eau Claire) to advance to the finals against No. 1 seed and four-time All-America Bentley Schwanebeck-Ostermann (Augsburg). The Berlin, Connecticut native fell behind 6-1 after one and trailed 10-1 after two before succumbing to Schwanebeck-Ostermann for the second time this season.

Having secured his second-straight All-America honor last night, junior Dylan Harr (197 lbs.) defeated No. 4 seed Ben Kawczynski (Wis.-La Crosse) with a fall at 3:23 in the blood round on Saturday. He finished the championship in fifth-place with a 3-1 decision over No. 2 seed Coy Spooner (Coast Guard).

Graduate student Victor Perlleshi (141 lbs.) upended Ethan Pogorzelski (Wis.-Whitewater) with a 17-2 tech fall win in the blood round. He dropped his next two matches and finished his collegiate career with a sixth-place finish.

Fresh off locking up his first All-America honor last night, junior Patrick Wisniewski (165 lbs.) was defeated by Dustin Bohren (Loras) by a 9-6 decision in the seventh-place bout and placed eighth.