Wrestling captures NCAA Central Region Championship
The sixth-ranked Baldwin Wallace wrestling team took 10 participants to the NCAA Central Region Championship and had nine of them qualify for the Division III NCAA Championship. The Yellow Jackets were paced by senior All-OAC 125-pounder Chris Doyle, junior All-American and All-OAC 165-pounder Anthony Arroyo, and senior All-OAC 197-pounder Tyler Maclellan, who all won their respective weight classes.
Others that qualified are Dante Ginnetti, Charlie Nash, Stanley Bleich, Justin Ransom, Zeckary Lehman, and senior Gabe Mahaney. All of the wrestlers that qualified earned All-Central Region honors.
Arroyo, Mahaney, and Doyle are all making their second straight trip to the national championship. Maclellan is also making his second trip to the national championship, his first since 2016. The others qualified for their first national tournament.
Head coach Jamie Gibbs and Assistant Coach Jason Zastrow were tabbed National Wrestling Coaches Association Central Region Head Coach of the Year and Central Region Assistant Coach of the Year, respectively, after capturing the regional championship.
Gibbs said, “It feels good. Anytime there is a coach of the year honor it is a reflection of the entire coaching staff, support staff, and administration. I am blessed to have hard working, talented folks in all of these areas,” about his coach of the year award.
The team is very happy with their performance, but also focused on the new task at hand which is the national tournament. Gibbs mentioned this as well.
“I am super proud of our guys. Their hard work and dedication showed up and it paid off. The team is focused on what lies ahead.”
Senior Regional Champion Maclellan also commented on the team.
“Here at BW everyone is a leader on the wrestling team, but being a senior leader, it is easy for me to lead such a dedicated and motivated group of guys… BW wrestling has never won a regional championship as a team and to be a part of that is something special! We have a special group of guys on this team and to have nine out of ten guys make the national tournament really speaks to the amount of work and time we put into this season. We have two more weeks to get better and bring a trophy home from the national tournament.”
BW and the Greater Cleveland Sports Commission will host the tournament at Cleveland’s historic Public Auditorium on March 9-10.
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