PROVIDENCE, R.I. – JWU (Providence) head coach Lonnie Morris and junior Joziah Fry headline the list of New England Wrestling Association (NEWA) Postseason honorees. Morris was named Head Coach of the Year while Fry was named Wrestler of the Year, and Associate Head Coach Brian Allen and assistants James Gilbert, Steven Keith, Da'mani Burns, and Nick Avery were named Staff of the Year.

2024 NEWA Postseason Awards

Morris and his staff guided the Wildcats to a second-place finish at the NCAA Northeast Regionals and a fourth-place finish at the NCAA Championships. The Wildcats finished the nationals 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 brought 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.

Graduate students Ryan DeVivo and Victor Perlleshi, along with Fry and classmates Patrick Wisniewski and Dylan Harr, were all named to the NEWA First Team. Fry was his second-consecutive national championship at 125 lbs. with an 18-8 win in the finals in Wisconsin while DeVivo earned All-America honors with a second-place finish at 184 lbs. Harr (fifth place at 197 lbs.), Perlleshi (sixth place at 141 lbs.), and Wisniewski (eighth place at 165 lbs.) each garnered All-America honors.

Second Team honorees included junior Gabriel Leo-Esparinelli and sophomore Adolfo Betancur. Leo-Esparinelli placed second at the NCAA Northeast Regional and won his first match at nationals against the No. 6 seed before he was eliminated. Betancur, meanwhile, finished third at regionals and then went 2-2 in his first trip to nationals.

Junior Jordan Suarez and freshman Jack Richardson were each named to the NEWA Honorable Mention Team. Suarez knocked off nationally-ranked No. 6 Matthew Beyer (Ithaca) at the Chocolate Duals in December at 141 lbs. while Richardson – who was also named to the NEWA All-Rookie Team – was twice named NEWA Rookie of the Week and finished fourth at the northeast regionals.

All-Academic Team members included Betancur (business administration), Wisniewski (entrepreneurship), Suarez (psychology), and Richardson (exercise and sports science); senior Thomas DiResta (business administration); juniors Chris Gomez (health science), Christian Murphy (business administration), and Dominic Pugliese (international business); sophomores Gabriel Case (business administration), Harrison Gordon (business administration), Jake Eckerle (business administration), and Nathan Ickes (culinary arts); and freshmen Johan Aguilar (business administration), Vincent Faldetta (computer science), Mark Lattimore (accounting), and Luke Montefusco (finance).