Richard Rippy of Central Florida (in black) came from behind to beat Southern Illinois-Edwardsville's Robert Cooney 3-2 in the quarterfinals of the 197-pound bracket at the NCWA Championships in Macon, Ga. Tabitha Wilson photo

MACON, Ga. – California Baptist took the quarterfinals by storm at the National Collegiate Wrestling Association Championships Friday afternoon as the Lancers won seven of their nine matches in the round to leap from third place into the lead as the second day came to a close.

The Lancers, the top-ranked team entering the tournament, more than doubled their previous point total heading into the round, and left Mercer’s University Center with a 5.5-point lead on Grand Valley State, the tournament leader to that point. A few bonus points in consolations gave California Baptist 99.5 points, just ahead of Grand Valley’s 94. California Baptist has more semifinalists than any other team, while Grand Valley missed an opportunity with only a 4-3 run through the quarterfinals.

The Lancers’ Jimmy Martinez opened the run with a 5-0 win at 125 pounds, and CBU enjoyed a run of four-straight quarterfinal wins from Dylan Cataline (149), top-seeded Chris Santana (157), second-seeded Bronson Gerl (165) and third-seeded Kenneth Tribble (174) that gave it the lead. Caleb Gerl, the second-seed at 197, and heavyweight fourth-seed Alex Evers edged out wins to end the afternoon romp.

Grand Valley State’s Adam Bastow reached semifinals at 141 and won four matches in consolations in the middle weights. Frank Bastien, the third seed at 197, would later reach the semifinals ahead of other semifinalists Carl Worthy (235) and returning All-American Corey Melinn (285). 

Both California Baptist and Grand Valley State have nine wrestlers alive heading into the final day. Marion Military Institute (Ala.) is well back in third with 70 points, edging Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (69.5) in the final matches of the day. The Apprentice School (Va.), the 2009 champion, is fifth with 63.5 points, and defending champion Central Florida is sixth at 62.5.

The NCWA semifinals begin at 9 a.m. Saturday, with the finals at 4 p.m. back at the University Center. 

Apprentice is teetering in fifth with only three wrestlers still alive, but within that trio are returning All-American and 133 semifinalist Marcus Chevres and second-seeded Willy Crawford in the 184 semifinals. Chevres and Crawford gave the Builders a 2-1 record in the quarterfinals, while Ricky Anderson is alive in the 157 consolations. Apprentice saw six wrestlers eliminated in the third or fourth consolation rounds.

SIU-Edwardsville gave the tournament one of its biggest surprises when unseeded Deshoun White reached the 174 semifinals. White, the non-scoring wrestler for the Cougars, gave SIUE two of the semifinalists in that bracket as top-seeded Mike Dace also reach the semi’s. White took out second-seeded Daniel Hiller of the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School in the second round, and will face third-seeded Kenneth Tribble of California Baptist in the semi’s. SIUE’s other semifinalists are fifth-seeded John Petrov at 133 and returning All-American David Devine at heavyweight. 

There were three undefeated wrestlers coming into the NCWA Championships. Only two remain. Hermon Gillum of Mott Community College is now 30-0 after reaching the 125-pound semifinals and will face the U.S. Military Academy’s Zachary Cottle, who has surprised as Army’s non-scoring semifinalist. Douglas College’s Daniel Swain, who made the trip from British Columbia with a 5-0 record, is now 8-0 in the 149 semifinals.

Travis Dickinson of Amherst, a returning All-American who was also undefeated coming in, reached the quarterfinals but fell for the first time there. Florida’s Mark Koski, another returning All-American, beat Dickinson 7-5 to drop Dickinson to 14-1 as he wrestles in the consolation quarterfinals. 

There are 22 wrestlers who will repeat as All-Americans as the final eight wrestlers in each bracket have been determined: Alexander Chiricosta of Central Florida (125), Frankie Miller of Georgia (125), Stephen DeAugustino of Central Florida (133), Marcus Chevres of Apprentice (133), Brandon Westerman of Marion Military (141), Adam Bastow of Grand Valley State (141), Kendall Albert of Kennesaw State (141), Thomas Griffin of Central Florida (149), Ryan Madson of MIT (157), Steve Ross of SIU-Edwardsville (165), Dustin Tancredi of West Chester (165), Derek Marshall of Grand Valley State (184), Ben Brummel of South Carolina (184), Kevin Bacci of West Chester (184), Richard Rippy of Central Florida (197), Nathan Behrendt of Florida Gulf Coast (197), Carl Worthy of Grand Valley State (235), Joe DiSalvo of Northeastern (235), Travis Dickinson of Amherst (235), Mark Koski of Florida (235), Corey Melinn of Grand Valley State (285) and David Devine of SIU-Edwardsville (285). 

Other Tournament Notes:

* Grand Valley State ran into some bad luck in the consolation bracket – twice – when it had to watch its double entries in the 125 and 157 brackets wrestle each other. Andy Brown defeated teammate Joe Westover, 6-3, in the second round of consolations, while Nate Falbe beat teammate Kevin Lee in the consolation third round Friday. NCWA rules allow for a school to qualify two wrestlers within a bracket, but only one wrestler’s score counts for the team standings. The scoring wrestler won each time. Grand Valley did get one surprise when Robert Tymes, the Lakers’ non-scoring wrestler at 165 pounds, reached the quarterfinals. The other 165-pounder, Mike Hoch, was eliminated in the second consolation round.

* MIT qualified two wrestlers into the quarterfinals at 125, but defending national champion Grand Kadokura and Sam Shames both lost there. Now only Shames, the non-scoring wrestler, remains in the consolation quarterfinals after Kadokura was eliminated by Georgia’s Frankie Miller.

* The military prep schools have always been contenders within the NCWA. But there has been only one match pairing a U.S. Military Academy Prep School wrestler against one from the U.S. Naval Academy Prep School. Army’s Scott Filbert defeated Navy’s Patrick Prada, 2-0, in the second round of the 125 bracket. 

Team Scores after Session 4 of 6

Division I Teams
1. California Baptist – 99.5
2. Grand Valley State (Mich.) – 94
3. Marion Military Institute (Ala.) – 70
4. So. Illinois-Edwardsville – 69.5
5. The Apprentice School (Va.) – 63.5
6. Central Florida – 62.5
7. West Chester (Pa.) – 59.5
8. U.S. Naval Academy Prep – 47.5
9. Md.-Baltimore County – 40.5
10. Mercer – 39.5
11. U.S. Military Academy Prep – 37.5
12. Mass. Inst. of Technology – 29.5
13. U.S. Air Force Academy Prep – 29
14. New Hampshire – 28
15. Middle Tennessee State – 20
16t. Mott CC (Mich.) – 19
16t. Penn State – DuBois – 19
18. Douglas College (B.C.) – 18
19. Williamson School of Trade – 14.5
20t. Georgia – 13.5
20t. Amherst – 13.5
22. Dayton – 11
23. Colorado State – 10.5
24t. Texas-Arlington – 10
24t. Wayne State (Neb.) – 5
26. Penn College – 8.5
27. San Jose State – 6
28t. Valley Force Military Acad. – 5.5
28t. East Tennessee State – 5.5
30. Rensselaer Poly. Inst. – 5
31. Florida A&M – 4
32. Blair Academy (N.J.) – 3.5
33. Southern Virginia – 3
34. Northland CC (Wis.) – 2.5
35. Connecticut – 1

Division II Clubs
1. Northwest Missouri State – 36
2. Cincinnati – 28.5
3. South Carolina – 22
4. Northeastern – 21.5
5. Massachusetts – 18.5
6t. Florida – 15
6t. Kennesaw State – 15
8. Hudson Valley CC (N.Y.) – 14.5
9. Illinois State – 13.5
10. North Florida – 13
11. Bowling Green – 11.5
12. Virginia Military – 10.5
13. Texas Tech – 10
14. Colorado – 8.5
15. William and Mary – 8
16. Radford – 7.5
17. Florida State – 7
18. Texas A&M – 6
19t. Texas – 5.5
19t. Texas State – 5.5
19t. Florida Gulf Coast – 5.5
22t. SUNY-Albany – 5
22t. SUNY-Cobleskill – 5
24. Georgia Southern – 4
25t. Texas-San Antonio – 2.5
25t. Georgia Tech – 2.5
27. Delaware – 2
28t. Slippery Rock – 1
28t. Kansas State – 1
30t. Tennessee – 0.5
30t. Penn State – 0.5
30t. Lansing CC (Mich.) – 0.5
33t. Auburn – 0
33t. Michigan – 0
33t. South Florida – 0
33t. Virginia Tech – 0
33t. Winona State – 0