DEKALB, IL –
Jesse Dellavecchia (Great River, NY/East Islip [Binghamton]) became Rider Wrestling's first-ever Mid-American Conference Champion at 157 lbs. and was joined by
Ethan Laird (Waterford, PA/General McLane),
Ryan Cloud (Brookville, OH/Northmont) and
Dean Sherry (Brick, NJ/Brick Township) as NCAA Qualifiers as the Broncs finished fourth Sunday. In all, Rider placed six in the top four of their weight classes, including the four NCAA Qualifiers, as well as
George Walton (Franklin, NJ/Bound Brook) and
Jonathan Tropea (Harrington Park, NJ/Saint Joseph (Montvale)), who both finished fourth at 184 and 125 lbs., respectively.
Dellavecchia earned a 3-0 decision over Missouri's Jarrett Jacques to earn the MAC Title at 157 lbs. Laird also entered the day having reached the finals, but had to take a medical forfeit in his championship bout against Greg Bulsak at 197 lbs.
Cloud, Sherry, Tropea and Walton all finished fourth. Cloud earned his NCAA Qualification with a win over Max Ihry of Northern Illinois in the consolation semifinals, before falling to Jordan Earnest of Ohio in the Third Place Match. After falling in the consolation semifinals, Sherry battled back with a major decision in the Fifth Place Match over Jake Lowell of Central Michigan, before pinning Kenny Moore of Northern Illinois in the True Fourth Place Match at 4:14.
Tropea battled all the way to the Third Place Match with four-straight wins after falling in his first match yesterday to Lock Haven's Luke Werner. With three allocations at 125 lbs., he was wrestling for an automatic qualifier, but fell again to Werner by a 9-7 decision. Similarly, the MAC received three allocations at 184 lbs., where Walton reached the Third Place Match, but fell to Old Dominion's Antonio Agee, 7-6, in TB-2. Walton had earned a 4-3 decision in TB-1 over Agee yesterday.
Missouri took the overall team crown for the eighth-straight year with 142 points, while Central Michigan was second with 121 points. Northern Illinois finished third at 90.5 points, ahead of the Broncs with 84.5 points. Rider was the top-finishing former EWL team, ahead of Lock Haven in fifth with 82.0 points.
Quotes & Notes
"We are pleased to have earned four automatic NCAA qualifiers in our first-ever MAC Championship tournament. We are looking to bring home some hardware from the NCAA Championships with the group of guys. We are also hoping for a couple more At-Large bids to add to that list but won't know until the beginning of next week." –
Rider Head Coach John Hangey
- Dellavecchia became Rider's first-ever MAC Champion, winning the conference title after falling in the EWL Championship Match last season at 165 lbs. to Lock Haven All-American Chance Marsteller.
- Dellavecchia, Laird and Sherry will all be making their returns to the NCAA Championships on March 19-21 in Minneapolis, MN. Sherry will be making his third appearance at NCAA's, while it's the second-straight year for Dellavecchia and Laird.
- The remainder of Rider's line-up will await potential at-large selections, to be announced by the NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee on Tuesday. Brackets and seeding will be announced on NCAA.com on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
- Dellavecchia earned his team-leading 30
th win of the season to just two losses. He's now won 13-straight matches, including 17-of-18 since the calendar turned to 2020. His lone loss came to nationally-ranked No. 2 Hayden Hidlay of NC State at the Southern Scuffle.
