By Emily Leclair
March 2, 2016
The UW-Whitewater wrestling team tied for third place on Feb. 28 at the NCAA Regional Championship at Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Indiana where four members of the team earned spots at the NCAA Division-III Championship on March 11 and 12 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
“Our regional is probably the toughest in the country and some things just didn’t go our way,” assistant coach Justin Wharton said. “We always didn’t stay where we were best and that came back to hurt us in the long run.”
Junior Zac Denny at 125 pounds, senior Tom Gerszewski at 165, sophomore Isaiah Vela at 149 and freshman Brandon Arteaga at 157 all finished in the top three of their respective weight class to advance to the NCAA Championships.
Denny defeated two nationally ranked opponents in his first regional championship. He began with a victory against No. 6-ranked UW-La Crosse’s Ryan Weinmann in the semifinals, and No. 7 Ben Vosters in the final by a decision of 4-3.
“He [Denny] wrestled with a lot of aggressiveness, and it was exciting to watch,” head coach Ned Shuck said.
No. 6-ranked Gerszewski earned his second-consecutive spot to the finals with his second-consecutive regional runner-up finish, falling in the final match to No. 8/10 ranked UW-Steven’s Point Logan Hermsen 3-2.
Vela came back from a semifinals loss to win two-straight matches, including a victory in the third-place match where he defeated UW-Stevens Point’s Joe Crook 9-8.
“I just think with us being in the toughest regional in the country we kind of got the short end of the stick in that part,” Wharton said.
Arteaga also came back from a semifinals loss by defeating two opponents after he lost in overtime to No. 5/7 Wabash College’s Nick Bova.
Sophomores Nick Koch and Connor Price both finished outside of qualifying with a fourth -place finish at 133, and a sixth -place finish at 174, respectively.
“It’s just one of those deals sometimes you’re not going to perform at your best,” Shuck said. “Overall, they fought hard and with some of the late clocks we felt like we could do it.”
The regional tournament was the last match for seniors Matt Adcock, Corey Meyer, Kory Jauch and George Gonzalez who did not advance to the NCAA Championship.
Adcock, who made it to the quarterfinals at last years NCAA Championship tournament lost to Olivet Nazarene University’s Curtis Blackwell at 141 pounds, and again to UW-Stevens Point’s Jared Kust in the wrestleback bracket.
“I’m excited for everybody and a little heartbroken for some of the guys that aren’t going to have that opportunity,” Shuck said. “A lot of guys really put in a lot of time and effort and energy and that’s the cycle of the trade of the sport; it can put you through an emotional rollercoaster of amazingness, where you’re just on top of the world, but also down to the bottom.”
The four Warhawks will compete in the NCAA Champions on March 11 and 12 at U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The brackets have yet to be released by NCAA.com.
