ITHACA, N.Y. -- Senior Brian Schneider and freshman Ganon Smith both punched their tickets to the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Roanoke on Saturday at the Mideast Regional. The Blue Jays put five on the podium as they ended seventh, the program's best regional finish since 2012-13.

Ethan Liptzin took down McDaniel's Alex DuFour 6-0 to put himself in a spot to head to the third-place match at 125.He would come up a win shy of that as Danny Poggi of Oneonta advanced with a 3-0 decision over Liptzin, sending the junior to the fifth-place match with Centenary's Jack Thode. In their second matchup of the regional, Thode bested Liptzin with a 7-2 decision to take fifth. Liptzin finished sixth for the Blue Jays.

Dorian Gonzalez, Schneider, Smith, and Dylan Waller had all reached the semifinals at their weight classes on Friday. Saturday threw a little adversity their way, but the Elizabethtown wrestlers responded to it.

All four saw setbacks in the semifinal matchups, but each wrestled their way back into the third-place matches.

At 157, Gonzalez first had to go through Cameron Bruffy of Centenary. He defeated Bruffy with an 8-6 decision to advance to the third-place match. There, the junior suffered a 5-3 loss by decision to finish fourth in the weight class.

At 285, Waller handled Jake Pine of Oneonta by decision, 9-3, to earn his shot at third. Joe Yanis of Brockport won a low scoring affair, 2-0 decision, as Waller ended his tournament fourth.

At 165, Schneider had to get past Ithaca's Travis Jones in the consolation semifinal, which he did with an 11-3 major decision. Needing a second win on the day to advance to the NCAA Championships, Schneider earned a second period pinfall victory, his third win over Alex LaVeck of McDaniel on the season, to punch his ticket through to NCAAs and take third in the Mideast Regional.

At 174, Smith used a 9-2 decision over RIT's Ben Dougherty in the consi semis to advance to Saturday's third-place match. There he would face Reid Collela of TCNJ for a second time in the tournament. Smith had beaten Colella by decision, 3-1, to advance to the semifinal before bowing out to eventual regional champion Charlie Grygas of Oswego State. Smith shut out Colella this time, 3-0, in the third-place matchup and became the second Blue Jay to qualify for the national meet.

The wrestling team finished seventh out of 21 competing teams at the regional, their best team finish since winning the Mideast in 2012-13.