Watch the championship match here - the 285-pound finals begin at the 1:56.00 mark
LA CROSSE (WI) –Delaware Valley University senior heavyweight
Zach Roseberry completed one of the top careers in Aggie wrestling history as he captured his second straight NCAA Division III championship and won his 60
th match in a row (41 this season) with a 3-2 triumph over Donnie Longendyke of Augsburg College in the finals..
As a team, DelVal finished tied for 13
th place with 30.5 points (Wartburg College ran away with its sixth consecutive team title. Fellow senior
Ben Schweiger finished in sixth place at 174 pounds for his first All-America honor while juniors
Tim Ambacher and
Brenden Velez also competed for the DelVal at 141 and 125 pounds respectively, but were eliminated from the tournament on Friday.
Roseberry finished his career with a 134-12 record (most wins in school history), two NCAA championships, four All-American awards (fourth as a freshman, third as a sophomore, and the two titles), four East Regional championships and three Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) titles.
Roseberry became just the third wrestler in Aggie history to win multiple national championships, joining current assistant coach
Shaun Smith (1985-86-89) and former head coach Brandon Totten (1995-96) on the exclusive list and upped the total of DelVal wrestling individual national championships to 11. He is also just one of three four-time All-Americans (Smith and Mark Ambrose the others) in school history.
The 60-match winning streak (longest in school history) began in November of 2015 after a loss to a Division I wrestler from the University of Wisconsin in the Navy Classic finals. He did not lose to a Division III wrestler since the first round of the 2015 NCAA Championships and wound up never trailing in a single match this season.
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The title contest was rematch from last season when Roseberry, as the number two seed, defeated Longendyke, the defending champion, 5-4. This time as the top seed, Roseberry went low inside on Longendyke (29-3) midway through the first period and had him trouble near the edge of the mat. However. Longendyke fought out of it and the two went out of bounds with no points awarded. It remained scoreless for the rest of the first.
Longendyke deferred the choice to start the second period and Roseberry took the bottom position. He escaped from Longendyke's grasp 27 seconds in for the 1-0 lead. It was the long point of the frame as Longendyke received a stalling warning with 52 ticks left.
Longendyke took the bottom to begin the third and needed just seven ticks to get the escape and tie the match at 1-1. For about a minute, the two tied each other up with few shots being taken. Then, Roseberry exploded inside and caught Longendyke by one leg and brought him down for the takedown with 46 seconds remaining on the clock. He kept Longendyke on the mat until about seven seconds were left as the escape made it 3-2. Roseberry then stayed away as the final ticks went off the clock and he went down to the mat in celebration of his 60
th win in a row, a perfect 41-0 season and his second national championship.
"I just had to keep the pace up and keep firing," Roseberry said. "The last shot was there so I went for it and got the takedown and was able to ride him out for almost the rest of the way.
"I can't believe it's over. Just the way it ended was perfect. I couldn't have asked for anything else."
For head coach
Steve Cantrell, Roseberry's impact on the program is more than just about championships.
"I couldn't ask for a better student-athlete," Cantrell said. "He is easy to coach, and everything the right way with the way he acts, his respect toward his coaches and teammates, his work ethic and his positive attitude. And of course he talent on the mat speaks for itself."
"He deserved to win and he did. He earned it in every way."
Roseberry advanced to the championship thanks to a 4-1 triumph over fourth-seeded James Bethel of SUNY Oneonta (41-2). Roseberry made a quick move inside for a takedown with 37 seconds left in the first period, the lone points of the stanza. Choosing bottom to start the second, Roseberry escaped 32 seconds in for a 3-0 advantage. It stayed that way until midway through the third when Bethel got his lone point on an escape. Roseberry had riding time on his side for, in essence, a three-point lead and that's how the match ended.
Roseberry reached Saturday's action with a pair of wins on Friday. He began with an 18-1 technical fall victory over unseeded Sam Weinger (RIT) and followed with an 8-2 decision over No. 8 seed Austin Belle (Milwaukee School of Engineering) in the quarterfinals.
Schweiger, the fourth seed, made it to the semifinals thanks to three wins on Friday. He opened with a pin over unseeded Michael LaBell (Johnson & Wales) and followed with a 6-0 shutout over Jake Johnson (Concordia-Moorhead). That put him in the quarterfinals and he advanced to Saturday and assured himself of All-America honors with a 4-1 triumph over fifth-seeded Jon Goetz (Wisconsin-Platteville).
Schweiger's opponent in the semifinals was defending national champion Ben Swarr of fellow MAC school Messiah College. The two did not meet in the conference championships back in January as Swarr did not compete at the event (Schweiger captured the 174-pound title).
On Saturday morning, it was Swarr who got an early 4-0 lead with a takedown and a two-point near fall. Schweiger escaped midway through the first and went into the second period down by three. Swarr picked up another takedown in the middle frame while Schweiger had an escape for a 6-2 score. Swarr added a third-period takedown and riding time for a 9-2 decision that dropped Schweiger into the consolation semifinals.
A wild consolation match with No. 7 seed Sonnieboy Blanco (Washington & Jefferson) saw Schweiger fall behind 4-0 in the first. However, an escape in that period and a four-point near fall in the second gave him a 5-4 advantage. Blanco escaped to tie the match and got a takedown in the third for a 7-5 win. That put Schweiger in the battle for fifth place against third-seeded Richard Carlson (Wisconsin-La Crosse) and it was Carlson who came away with a first-period pin.
Schweiger ended the season with a 35-10 record. He finished 19
th on the Aggie all-time list with 86 wins (86-47) to go along with one All-America honor and two national tournament berths. He is also expected to earn Scholar All-America honors for the third straight year (announced next week).
Ambacher (28-8), the fourth seed, was matched up with unseeded Kody Azarian (Wisconsin-Oshkosh) in his first-ever NCAA championship bout and dropped a 4-2 decision. He was then eliminated with a 5-0 setback to unseeded Gregory Warner.
Velez (23-13), who was an NCAA qualifier last year, suffered an injury 49 seconds into his opening round match with fourth-seeded Victor Gliva (Augsburg). He continued on, but was pinned by Gliva with 12 seconds left in the second (4:48). Unfortunately for Velez, the injury was serious enough that he had to forfeit his consolation round match and it ended his run at the tournament.
DELAWARE VALLEY UNIVERSITY COMPETITORS
285 pounds – Zach Roseberry (Nokesville, VA/Brentsville) – Seeded 1st out of 18 wrestlers
Championship First Round (Fri): Won by technical fall over vs Sam Weinger (RIT), 18-1; 5:42
Championship Quarterfinals (Fri):Won by decision vs #8 Austin Belle (Milwaukee Engineering), 8-2
Championship Semifinals (Sat): Won by decision over #4 James Bethel (SUNY Oneonta), 4-1
Championship Finals (Sat): Won by decision over #3 Donny Longendyke (Augsburg), 3-2
174 pounds – Ben Schweiger (Pittsburgh, PA/North Allegheny) – Seeded 4th out of 18 wrestlers
Championship Preliminaries (Fri): Won by fall over Michael LaBell (Johnson & Wales), 6:38
Championship First Round (Fri): Won by decision over Jake Johnson (Concordia-Moorhead), 6-0
Championship Quarterfinals (Fri): Won by decision over #5 Jon Goetz (Wisconsin –Platteville), 3-1
Championship Semifinals (Sat): Lost by decision to #1 Ben Swarr (Messiah), 9-2
Consolation Semifinals (Sat): Lost by decision to #7 Sonnieboy Blanco (Wash & Jeff), 7-5
Fifth/Sixth Place Match (Sat): Lost by fall to #3 Richard Carlson (Wisconsin-La Crosse), 2:18
141 pounds – Tim Ambacher (Newtown, PA/Council Rock North) – Seeded 4th of 18 wrestlers
Championship First Round (Fri): Lost by decision to Kody Azarian (Wisconsin-Oshkosh), 4-2 SV-1
Consolation Second Round (Fri): Lost by decision to Gregory Warner (York), 5-0
125 pounds – Brenden Velez (Bristow, VA/Brentsville) – Unseeded out of 18 wrestlers
Championship First Round (Fri): Lost by fall to #4 Victor Gliva (Augsburg), 4:48
Consolation Second Round (Fri): Lost by medical forfeit to Travis Jones (Milikin)
