Wrestling 2/25/2018 8:00:00 PM

Ghione secures spot at NCAA Championships after third-place finish at Mideast Regional

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Elizabethtown is headed back to the NCAA Division III Championships! Nationally-ranked 141 lb. senior Joe Ghione placed third at the Mideast Regionals on Sunday to clinch his spot in Cleveland in two weeks.

The Blue Jays finished 10th in the team standings --their first top 10 regional finish since 2013-- and just missed sending multiple wrestlers to the national tournament as Chris Kummerer took fourth at 157 and Rocco Hladney fifth at 197.

Ghione was locked in a tight battle with third-ranked Brett Kaliner of Stevens in the semifinals, before Kaliner hit a takedown and a four-point nearfall to earn a 16-9 victory. Kaliner went on to win the regional title, while Ghione needed to focus on winning a pair of consolation matches to qualify for nationals.

Coming off his first loss of the 2018 calendar year (10-1), Ghione was determined not to let his season end prematurely. Just over midway through the first period of the consolation semis, Ghione pinned Oneonta's Ahken Chu (1:43). In the consolation final, he emerged with a 10-4 decision over nationally-ranked No. 9/8 Maxwell Nauta of Centenary to give Elizabethtown its first representative at the national championships since Luke Fernandez in 2016.

Kummerer didn't come into the weekend on the NWCA or d3wrestle.com national rankings radar, but his inspired effort nearly resulted in a trip to the big show.

The Hamburg, Pa., native whitewashed Oneonta's Daniel Murphy, 9-0, in the consolation quarters for his second major decision of the tournament. Kummerer then knocked off fifth-seeded and d3wrestle.com honorable mention Kieran Duggan (Merchant Marine), 11-10, in a thriller.

Kummerer came up one win shy of moving on with a 6-4 setback against Cortland's Greg Chery in the consolation final, but ended the season 21-13, matching his career-high for victories in a season (21 as a freshman in 2014-15) and finishing with 70 career wins.

Hladney dominated Muhlenberg's Gennaro Cerminara in the consolation quarterfinals, picking up a 16-3 major decision. The Delawarian, who also had no margin for error, unfortunately saw his national prospects dry up with a 7-3 loss to Merchant Marine's Blake Bunce in the consolation semis. Still, Hladney soldiered through to a fifth-place finish with a 6-4 overtime win against Scranton's Daniel D'Agostini.

Elizabethtown's Quinn Ruble also wrestled on day two of the regional championships, but his tournament closed with a 12-4 major decision loss against RIT's Joe Cutugno in the consolation quarterfinals.

Despite winning four weight class titles, tops among this weekend's 17 competing teams, Stevens could not dethrone host Ithaca College, which won the team championship by 29 points with 145. Centenary was third (90.5), followed by The College of New Jersey (88) and Brockport (87.5).

The NCAA Division III Championships will take place at the Cleveland Public Auditorium on March 9-10.

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Players Mentioned

Rocco Hladney: 197; 5' 11"; Senior

Chris Kummerer: 157/165; 5' 7"; Senior

Quinn Ruble: 184/197; 6' 0"; Senior

Joe Ghione: 141/149; 5' 5"; Senior

Players Mentioned

Rocco Hladney
: 5' 11"; Senior
: 197

Chris Kummerer
: 5' 7"; Senior
: 157/165

Quinn Ruble
: 6' 0"; Senior
: 184/197

Joe Ghione
: 5' 5"; Senior
: 141/149