YORK (Pa.) -- Sophomore Ryan Arndt won the 133-pound MAC Champion title and sophomore Dan Eckley earned runner-up at 197 pounds to lead the Delaware Valley University men's wrestling team to a fifth place showing at the 2023 Middle Atlantic Conference (MAC) Championship tournament.
Stevens Institute of Technology won its third-straight team title with 152 points. Alvernia was runner-up with 138 points, and Messiah finished third with 97.5 points. The Aggies finished fifth with 92.5 team points, one spot behind Wilkes.
Arndt entered the tournament as the number one seed in the 133-pound bracket, and he dominated his way to the semi-finals. The sophomore defeated his first three opponents by a combined score of 47-2 with two tech. falls and one major decision. In the semi's, Arndt faced junior Anthony Portillo of Alvernia and battled his way to a 4-2 decision to advance to the finals against second-seed Asa Brunk of Messiah.
Brunk scored first with a hard-fought back points and a takedown midway through the first period to take an early 4-0 advantage. Arndt quickly escaped, fought off a shot by Brunk, and earned a creative takedown to pull within one, 4-3. Arndt gave up a reversal right before the end of the period and Brunk took a 6-3 lead into the second.
They started the second neutral and Arndt earned an early takedown to cut it back to a one-point match. Arndt controlled the rest of the period but went into the third still trailing by one, 6-5. DelVal started the third on the bottom and got a quick escape to tie the match at six apiece. Arndt quickly shot the ankle of Brunk and got a two-point takedown to take his first lead of the match, 8-6. Arndt rode Brunk and earned another four near fall points to put the match out of reach en route to the 13-6 final and the MAC Championship title!
Arndt is the first DelVal men's wrestler to earn a MAC Championship title since 2018.
Sophomore Dan Eckley, who finished as runner-up in the heavyweight division at last year's conference tournament, needed just one win to punch his ticket to the semi-finals. Eckley was the four-seed, and after a first round bye, he met Mauro Pellot-Vazquez in the quarterfinals.
After a scoreless first period, Pellot-Vazquez took a 3-0 lead early in the second. Eckley used an escape and a late first period takedown to tie the bout at 3-3 going into the third. Pellot-Vazquez broke the tie with a takedown, but Eckley quickly escaped and finished a takedown of his own to take the 6-5 lead. He held on the rest of the way and advanced to the semis.
Eckley faced a tough task in the semi-finals with a matchup against returning All-American and top-seed Cam Farrow of York. Eckley was more than equal to the task as he took down Farrow early and finished off the pin in less than a minute to complete the upset victory and punch his ticket to the finals.
The Aggie sophomore from Doylestown met three-seed Cameron Butka of Wilkes and fell behind 2-1 after one period. Butka earned the first takedown and Eckley escaped. Eckley started the second on top and Butka escaped to regain the two-point lead. Butka shot and again got a takedown to make it 5-2. Eckley escaped before the end of the period and it was a two-point match going into the third. Eckley started the third on the bottom and quickly got to his feet for the escape. He battled for shots and takedowns the rest of the way, but was unable to connect as Butka held on for the 5-3 win.
Sophomore Adam Coleman was one of four Aggies in the 165 pound bracket and earned his way to a fourth place finish with four-straight wins after dropping his first match, 4-1. Two of Coleman's wins came against his own teammates, and another was a first period pin of Hunter Charles from Lycoming. He advanced to the conference semis with a 4-0 decision over Frankie Theroux of King's, and a medical forfeit advanced Coleman to the third-place match. Coleman drew James Snyder of Stevens and fell into a 7-1 hole before losing by tech. fall. Coleman's fourth place finish was the third best showing for the Aggies on the day.
Isaiah Johnson, DelVal's second 197 pounder, dropped his first match to second-seeded Gable Crebs of Lycoming, but bounced-back with two-straight wins in the consolation bracket. He defeated Sawyer Dereszynski of Messiah, 5-2, and then earned a medical forfeit to make his way to the consolation semifinals against Joe Embleton of Messiah. Johnson bowed out with a medical forfeit but scored points for the Aggies with a sixth place showing.
In the heavyweight bracket, senior Austin Williams won his first bout with a first period pin, but dropped the next to fifth-seed Caleb Burkhart of Wilkes'. It was a close bout against Burkhart, but Williams was called for a controversial stall with three seconds left in regulation. Williams cruised to the consolation semis with a first period fall and a 12-4 major decision. In the semis, the fourth-seeded Williams met third-seed Michael Dooley of Stevens. Williams suffered a hard fought, narrow, 3-1 decision to finish in sixth place.
At 125, first-year Jacob Blair, the third-seed, needed just 24 seconds to earn his first-career match at the conference tournament by way of fall. In the quarterfinals he suffered a 7-4 defeat to Keito Shaw of Alvernia to fall to the consolation bracket. Shaw used three takedowns to get by Blair. The Aggie rookie bounced-back in his next match with a convincing 10-3 win over Jacob Delvecchio of York, and followed that with his second pin of the day. This pin took 2:26 and punched his ticket to the consolation semi-finals. Blair met Austin Fashouer of Wilkes in what was a rematch of an early bout this season where Blair got the best of Fashouer. In this one, Fashouer took a 3-2 lead into the second period and used an escape to take a two-point lead into the third. Blair was unable to score the rest of the way and with riding time, Fashouer took the 5-2 decision. Blair fell to the fourth-place match.
At 174 pounds, first-year Luke Moore dominated each of his first two matches to advance to the quarterfinals. In the opening bout, he built a 15-3 lead before pinning Wilkes' Ryan Winn early in the second. He earned another fall to advance to the quarterfinals where he met Jared Townsend of York. The two wrestled to a 2-2 tie after two, and battled to a scoreless third period, but Townsend earned the decision by way of riding time. Moore met second-seed Joel Martsinovsky in his next bout and dropped a major decision to end his day.
