ESU Wrestling Results (Day One)

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Redshirt senior Dylan Nace and redshirt junior Mike Raccioppi both returned to the mat on Friday for the East Stroudsburg University wrestling team at the 2019 NCAA DII Wrestling Championships as Raccioppi earned All-American status for the first time after being guaranteed at-least an eighth-place finish at 174 pounds. Sessions three and four of the tournament will take place on Saturday at the Wolstein Center.
 
The Warriors sent a pair of wrestlers to the national tournament for the first time since 2017 as Nace, who wrestled at 141 pounds both times, dropped his first-round consolation matchup after recording a victory in his second preliminary bout.
 
The top-eight wrestlers from each weight class will be recognized as All-Americans following tomorrow night's first-place matches that begin at 7 p.m. The Warriors now have five All-Americans - Shane Mallory (2nd at 184) in 2010, Ed Ebewo (3rd at 197) in 2012, Braden Turner (6th at 157) in 2012, Brendan McKeown (6th at 174) in 2013, and Mike Raccioppi (174) in 2019 - since reclassifying to DII in 2010.
 
Nace battled through the consolation bracket to get to the third-place match at the regional tournament on Feb. 23 and would have to do the same on Friday as he entered the tournament unseeded. He started his day paired against Brandon Ball from Fort Hays St., who entered with an undefeated record and ranked No. 1 at 141 pounds.
 
Ball would ultimately record a victory with a 9-2 decision over Nace to move into the winner's bracket. Nace battled back in his next preliminary matchup against Troy Gregor from Belmont Abbey. The bout went back-and-forth between the two until Nace gained some momentum and pinned Gregor at the 3:32 mark to advance into the consolation bracket.
 
Nace found himself paired against Eduardo Pena from Colorado Mesa in the second session of the tournament. Penha would get out to a quick lead before Nace found his positioning and tightened the scoring. Penha pulled-away late in the bout to record a 7-4 decision over Nace and advance to the consolation second round.
 
Raccioppi entered the national tournament ranked seventh in the nation at 174 pounds with a 25-4 overall record after placing second at regionals on Feb. 23. Making his first appearance at the national tournament, he tallied a victory via tech fall (17-2, 7:00) over Ashland's Christian Price in a first-round championship matchup. In the quarterfinals, Raccioppi would be paired with Wheeling Jesuit's Connor Craig. Raccioppi saw his chances of potentially winning a national championship get dashed as Craig recorded a 7-3 decision to advance to the semifinals and send Raccioppi into the consolation bracket.
 
Moving into the second round of the consolation bracket, Raccioppi faced Gino Sita from Alderson Broaddus. He would show plenty of intensity in the bout against Sita and eventually put Sita into a position that allowed Raccioppi to pin him at the 2:03 mark and secure at-least an eighth-place finish in his first national tournament appearance.
 
Session three of the national tournament will begin at the Wolstein Center on Saturday morning at 10 a.m. Raccioppi will face Phillip Springsteen from the University of Mary and will need to win twice for a chance to wrestle for third place. A win for Raccioppi against Springsteen followed by a loss in the consolation semifinals would put him into the fifth-place matchup.
 
Links for live results provided by www.trackwrestling.com along with live video courtesy of www.ncaa.com will be available on the wrestling schedule page at www.esuwarriors.com.