Championship Central Page
Wilkes Championship Notes

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. (Wrestling) – The 2015 Middle Atlantic Conference Wrestling Championship is set for Saturday, Jan. 24 at 10:30 a.m. at Henry Gymnasium on the campus of Wilkes University.

Admission at the gate is $6 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, $2 for students and children under the age of six are free. There will be long-sleeved MAC Championship t-shirts for sale for $15 while supplies last. Directions to the championship site can be found on the championship central page.

Live results will be available on the championship central page, and live video will also be available for only the championship bouts.

Five institutions will be competing for the MAC Wrestling Championship, including Delaware Valley College, King’s College, Lycoming College, Messiah College and Wilkes University.

Four of the five teams enter the conference championship ranked nationally. In the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) national poll the following teams are ranked: No. 8 Messiah, No. 10 Delaware Valley, No. 13 Wilkes and No. 22 Lycoming. The D3Wrestle.com poll has Messiah ranked No. 3, Delaware Valley ranked No. 4 and Wilkes ranked No. 29.

Messiah won the 2014 title with a total of 102.5 points. Wilkes finished runner-up with 94.5 points, and Delaware Valley was a close third with 93.5 points.

Returning individual champions are 125: Lucas Malmberg (Messiah), 184: Josh Thomson (Messiah) and 197: Aaron Karns (Delaware Valley). Thompson, however, is currently the top-seed in the 174 weight class at this year’s championship. Karns and Malmberg enter the championship as the top-seed in the same weight class they earned their 2014 title.

Returning individual runner-up wrestlers are 125: Guesseppe Rea (Wilkes), 133: Connor Kirkegard (Delaware Valley), 149: Vince Fava (Delaware Valley), 174: Kyle Diesel (Wilkes) and 285: Zach Rosenberry (Delaware Valley). Kirkegard is seeded second in the 125 weight class this year behind Malmberg, while Rea is seeded third. Fava and Rosenberg are the top-seeds in their respective weight class. Diesel is seeded second in the 174 weight class behind Messiah’s Josh Thomson.

Messiah’s Kaleb Loht, who did not compete at the MAC Championships last season due to injury, won the NCAA Division III National Championship at the 141 weight class in 2014. He will be the top seed in this year’s 141 weight class.


History
Last year, the Falcons won their first conference title after the MAC did not sponsor wrestling for seven years (2007-13). However, the conference did sponsor wrestling for 70 years (1936-2006) prior to the seven-year absence. The 2015 champion will be crowned the 69th MAC wrestling champion (1944-46 did not have a championship due to World War II).

Lycoming leads all current and former conference members with 15 wrestling titles. Wilkes is second with 14, and Delaware Valley holds 13 titles. The Aggies won five-straight (2002-06) titles before the conference stopped sponsoring the sport. Since 1977, Lycoming and Delaware Valley have combined for 27 or the 30 titles. From 1966-75, Wilkes won seven-straight titles. The only other team to claim that many consecutive titles was former MAC member Gettysburg College from 1949-55.

Further Notes
Messiah College will host the 2015 NCAA Mideast Regional on Saturday, February 28. The Falcons captured the 2014 Mideast Region hosted by York (Pa.) College with 109 points, topping second place by 33 points.

Former MAC member Elizabethtown College will serve as the host for the 2015 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship at the Giant Center in Hershey, Pa. from March 13-14.