WAYNESBURG (Pa.) – The Delaware Valley University men's wrestling team captured its first team tournament title since 2017 behind four individual first place finishers at the Waynesburg Invitational on Saturday. The Aggies finished with 153 team points, ahead of second place Heidelberg with 120.

First-years Ryan Kelly and Greg Croce, and juniors Rashad Stratton and Mike Rubino, earned top honors in their respective brackets, while senior Youseff Ait-Boulahri, first-year Gio Luciano, and sophomore Dan Eckley each took home third place. In total, DelVal placed 11 different wrestlers inside the top-5.

Kelly dominated the 125-pound bracket with four wins and no losses, including three wins by technical fall and a pin. Kelly improved his tournament record this year to include five top-3 finishes, two runner-ups, and two individual titles and moved to 23-4 overall.

Luciano, a fellow first-year competing at 125 pounds, dropped his first match of the day by a narrow 4-3 decision, but battled back in the consolation bracket with four-straight victories to earn third place. Luciano won a wild match by 17-13 decision and then needed just 14 seconds to pin William Wilson of host Waynesburg. An 8-5 decision advanced Luciano to the consolation finals where he won another thriller by way of 13-11 decision. It was the first top-3 finish of the season for Luciano who improved to 6-7 on the year.  

At 133 pounds, Stratton made his tournament run look easy with a 4-0 record including three major decisions and one win by fall. He took his first match by 8-0 decision before pinning Matthew Gariano of Washington and Jefferson in just over a minute. After another major decision he faced Hunter Swedish, also from W&J and cruised to an 18-7 major decision to take the tournament title. Stratton improved to 16-8 overall and earned his first tournament title and second top-3 finish.

Rubino posted another flawless day for the Aggies in the 141-pound bracket. He went 4-0 as he started his day with two wins by fall and ended it with a pair of major decisions. He needed just 55 seconds to earn the pin in his opening bout and won the title with a 13-4 major over Carter Hankins of ALMA. Rubino improved to 19-8 overall and claimed his first tournament title of the season.

Croce, in his first-year of collegiate wrestling claimed his first-career tournament title with a hard-fought 4-0 record and four close wins by decision. He began his day with an 8-3 decision over Ryan Weaver of Cleary then took a 5-3 decision to advance to the semi's. He took on Mitchell Arch of Case Western and used an 8-4 decision to advance to the finals where he met Jacob Horsch of Hedielberg. Croce came away with the 7-5 decision to earn the Aggies their fourth first place finish of the day. Croce improved to 21-10 overall this season.

At 157 pounds, first-year Adam Coleman won his first two matches of the day by narrow decisions, including a 2-1 win over Seth Evans of Waynesburg. After dropping his third bout to the eventual champion from Alderson Broaddus, Coleman went 1-1 in the consolation bracket to earn a fourth place finish.

At 165, Chris Richardson made a strong showing in his first action of the season. After dropping his first match, Richardson ripped off four straight wins to advance to the consolation finals where he met Montavious Yearby of Heidelberg. Yearby won by major decision, but Richardson's 4-2 day earned him fourth place.

Ait-Boulahri started his day with two first period pins to advance to the semi-finals where he met Joe Paul of Johns Hopkins, a national honorable mention at 174 pounds. Paul got the better of Ait-Boulahri with a 5-2 decision. The senior bounced-back in consolations with his third win by fall and a 20-4 tech. fall to take third place. Ait-Boulahri improved to 16-3 overall.

At 197 pounds, Isaiah Johnson went 3-2 overall to earn a top-5 finish for the Aggies. Johnson earned two major decisions and one win by fall.

DelVal's dueling heavyweight's, Dan Eckley and Austin Williams, each reached the consolation semi-finals and earned top-4 finishes. Eckley dropped his first match of the day as he was pinned by Jace Grossman of Heidelberg, but then ripped off five-straight victories, including three consecutive pins. Williams also posted five wins with three wins by fall and another by 6-0 decision.

The Aggies will look to carry the team momentum into the next Saturday when it heads to Messiah College for the 2022 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship tournament.