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JW's Desilets, RIC's Nicholl are top wrestlers in NEWA

New England Wrestling Association

CO-NEWA Wrestler of Week: Everet Desilets, sophomore, Johnson and Wales, 157 pounder (Cranston, RI). Desilets improved his record to a remarkable 13-0 (7 falls) on the season, defeating defending All-American and third-ranked Jorge Lopez of Williams 6-3 in the finals to win the York Invitational. Everet went 4-0 on the day with 2 pins. Everet is currently unranked in the latest NWCA poll. Desilets help lead JWU to the Team Championship in a very tough field at York.

CO-NEWA Wrestler of Week: Brian Nicholl, senior, Rhode Island College, 285 pounder, (Plaistow, NH). Nicoll is having another great season and over the weekend he knocked off previously undefeated Jamison Sacco. Sacco was ranked No. 7 in the country and had pinned all 12 of his opponents he had faced this year. Nicoll beat Sacco and helped lead the Anchormen to a win over Western New England 39-6.

NEWA Rookie Wrestler of Week: Khali Newbill, freshman, University of Southern Maine, 125 pounder, (Wilton, ME). Newbill posted a 4-0 record this past week. Newbill won the 125-pound bracket at the Ted Reese Invitational, posting a win by fall over NWCA opponent Dylan Harrington of UMaine in 2:24 and downing Ken Kiriga of Plymouth State by major decision 8-0 in the championship bout. Newbill also had a win by forfeit and an 8-7 decision over Stephen Pace of AIC in dual meets with the Yellowjackets and SUNY-Sullivan. Newbill is 11-2 overall this season with a 7-0 mark in dual meets. He has four wins by fall.

Roger Williams University went 2-0 in duals this week. The Hawks beat Coast Guard earlier in the week, 42-6, and beat Norwich University over the weekend, 33-10. Freshman standout Daniel Downes at 149 went 2-0 with a pin over another talented freshman Matt Vieira of Coast Guard in just 17 seconds. Vieira would go on to take 2nd place over the weekend at the York Invitational as the only Bear to place for the Academy. Downes also paced RWU with a techfall against Norwich. In the Norwich/RWU dual there were back-to-back great matches at 165 and 174. At 165 Collin Crowell of RWU beat Dave Pinto of Norwich 5-4 and 174 Dan Ressler of RWU beat Will Burns of Norwich 4-3. ... Rhode Island College defeated Western New England, 39-6. RIC bumped up three 133 pounders to cover injuries in the middle of the lineup and the move paid off as it kept the dual close and the Anchormen in position to get a good conference win. Nicoll had the big win for RIC beating Sacco and they also got a pin from Freshman John Georges at 197 in 53 seconds over Carl Newman.

There were a few tournaments where NEWA teams competed at over the weekend. The York Invitational was a very tough tournament with some great teams competing. Johnson & Wales University ended No. 7 Ithaca's four-year run of championships as the Wildcats edged the Bombers 119½-117½. No. 9 Delaware Valley finished third with 99 points. Senior All-American Colin Lenhardt (Hayes, Va.), currently ranked No. 9 at 184 pounds, recorded a 3-0 record to win his weight class and is 13-1 with 7 falls on the season. Junior Michael Ferinde (Nutley, N.J.) also went a perfect 4-0 on the day at 141 pounds giving the Wildcats 3 champs in Lenhardt, Ferinde, and Desilets (NEWA Wrestler of the week). Sophomore Stephen Jarrell (East Greenwich, R.I.) had a third-place finish at 165 pounds while sophomore Joey Gaccione (High Point, N.J.) recorded a fourth place finish at 149 pounds with a 4-2 mark for the Wildcats. Dylen Seybolt at 197, Jared Mesiti at 184, Mike Labell at 174 all placed 5th helping lead JWU to the team championship. ... Williams College also competed at the York Invitational. Carson Brooks took 4th at 141 going 3-2 and his brother Anthony Brooks took 6th at 197 going 4-2 on the day with 1 pin. Williams Standout Jorge Lopez took 2nd, losing to Desilites in the finals at 157 by the score of 6-3. Lopez won his first 3 matches to reach the finals with 2 major decisions. 157 is going to be a monster weight class at the regional tournament as the conference could have 4 wrestlers ranked in the top 10 in the country.

The Ted Reese Tournament took place over the weekend at the University of Southern Maine. Plymouth State University was 2nd with 99 points, Trinity College was 3rd with 89 points, and Southern Maine was 4th with 81.5 points. ... Plymouth State finished second to Division II AIC by 4 points. The Panthers were paced by individual champion Ray Welch at 157. Welch went 2-0 with 2 pins. They also got three 2nd place finishes from Kyle Kiriga at 125, Taylor Lozier at 149, and Chris Perreault at 184. ... Trinity College placed 7 wrestlers in the top 4. Kyle Lundberg at 174, Petros Hologitas at 197, and Kyle McGuire at 285 all won titles for the Bantams. Lundberg went 4-0 with 4 falls looking very dominant at 174. Hologitas looked back to his all conference form beating returning 4th place finisher at last year's region Sean Fagan of USM in the finals, 5-2. The win should put Hologitas back into the discussion at 197. McGuire fresh out of football season looks very good for only having a few matches under his belt going 3-0 and winning his first tournament of the year. The Bantams got 3rd place finishes from Jeremy Rees at 149, John Williams at 157, and Evan Robinson at 165. ... Southern Maine was led by 184 pound standout Jon Deupree and NEWA Rookie of the week Newbill. Deupree was 4-0, claiming the 184-pound bracket at the Ted Reese Invitational. Deupree pinned UNH's Paul Gesel in 0:23 and then earned a 7-4 decision to Plymouth State's Perreault in the championship bout. Perreault had just gotten ranked in the country for his 2nd place showing at the Doug Parker two weeks ago.

WPI and Wesleyan travelled out to the RIT tournament in Rochester, NY this past weekend. Wesleyan University finished 5th with 102½ points and WPI was 7th with 81 points in the 11-team field. ... Wesleyan University placed 8 wrestlers top 6. James Hamilton led the way for the Cardinals going 3-1 and taking 2nd place at 133. Hamilton had two major decision wins and a tech fall to reach the finals. They also got strong performances from Simon Levin at 174 who went 5-1 to take 3rd and Josh Koshakow and Mike Baratz at 157 who both went 4-1 to take 3rd. Levin had 4 first period pins of his 5 wins on the day. He also lost to the eventual champ 6-4 in the quarters before coming back for 3rd. ... WPI had 5 wrestlers place top 6. Tyler Tilbe at 141 took 1st place for the Engineers. Tilbe went 4-0 on the day with two major decision wins. He beat Matt Pelton of Wesleyan in the semifinals, 6-4. Pelton had beaten Tilbe earlier in the season. Tilbe beat Ben Mikac in the finals by a score of 3-1 in OT. Mikac was a region placer last year. Brian Jennings was 3rd at 133 and Mike Perruccio took 5th at 149. Perruccio beat Chris Siracusa of Wesleyan 3-2 for 5th place in a very tough 149-pound weight class.

Springfield College finished fourth with 122½ points and Bridgewater State University was 7th with 64.5 out of nine teams at the Messiah Petrofes Invitational. ... Springfield placed 9 wrestlers in the top 8. They were led by their returning national champ Devin Biscaha at 157 who went 5-0 on his way to winning a title. Biscaha had a first period pin, a MD, and tech fall to reach the semifinals where he ended the day with two close victories by decision. Biscaha remains undefeated on the season and has two tournament titles and is still ranked No. 1 in the country. Springfield had three wrestlers take 3rd place. Tommy Casper at 125, Dylan Foley at 165, and Hunter Ayen at 197 all wrestled back for 3rd. Foley continues to wrestle well up two weights from last season placing in every tournament he has wrestled in this fall. After losing in the semifinals, Ayen came back for third finishing 4-1 on the day with 3 pins. ... Bridgewater State placed 5 wrestlers top 8 and are continued to be led by 285 pound standout Ricky Caruso and Freshman Paul Sughrue. Caruso went 4-0 to win the title and had 3 pins. In the finals he beat Will Fletcher of Wilkes 6-2. Sughrue won his first two matches at 133 to make the semis before dropping a tough match to Jeremy Border of Mount Union 15-13. Sughrue would then MFF to 6th place.