Parker Kropman, Michael O’Malley Reach Semis, Four Dragons Still Alive at EIWA Championships

Friday, March 6

Bethlehem, Pa.

All Day

Drexel University

EIWA Championships

Photo by: Gavin Baker

Parker Kropman, Michael O’Malley Reach Semis, Four Dragons Still Alive at EIWA Championships

3/6/2020 11:22:00 PM | Wrestling

Brackets Championship Central

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – Parker Kropman and Michael O'Malley reached the semifinals of their respective brackets, and Antonio Mininno and Bryan McLaughlin remain alive in the consolation brackets following the first day of the EIWA Championships at Stabler Arena on the campus of Lehigh. All four have positioned themselves well to receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament and all have locked in podium finishes.

Parker Kropman
Thirtieth-ranked Kropman, the No. 4 seed at 157 pounds, won twice on Friday to reach the semifinals. He turned it on late in his round of 16 match against No. 13-seeded Dominick Demarco, scoring all four points of the 4-0 decision in the third period, before registering an emphatic victory in the quarterfinals. The redshirt-junior from Rochester, N.Y. pinned 12^th-seeded Adam Santoro of Cornell with 43 seconds remaining to reach the semifinals.

Kropman and top-seeded Quincy Monday of Princeton meet in the semifinals on Saturday. Monday ranks second in the weight class in the Ratings Percentage Index. With only three allotted slots at 157 pounds, Kropman still has some work to do become an automatic qualifier. He must either top Monday in the semifinals or win twice in the consolation bracket.

Michael O'Malley
Fifth-seeded and 27^th-ranked O'Malley rode a pair of two-point decisions into the semifinals at 174 pounds. A first-period takedown and third-period reversal proved enough in a 4-2 win over 12^th-seeded Neil Antrassian from Penn in the round of 16.

In the quarterfinals, O'Malley struck first in a 5-3 decision against fourth-seeded Brandon Womack. The redshirt-freshman from Hasbrouck Heights, N.J. scored a takedown against Womack inside the first minute then reversed the 16^th-ranked Cornell grappler to finish the opening period with a 4-2 edge. O'Malley tacked on an escape point in the second and limited Womack to just an escape in the final period.

A stern test in top-seeded Jordan Kutler awaits in Saturday's semifinals. Kutler ranks first at 174 pounds in the RPI. A win against Kutler will guarantee O'Malley a spot in the NCAA Championships. If he loses, then O'Malley must win in the consolation semifinals to finish in the top-four and automatically qualify for the national tournament.

Antonio Mininno
Mininno, the No. 14 seed, sent early shockwaves through the 125-pound bracket after pinning third-seeded and fifth-ranked Michael Colaiocco of Penn in the round of 16. Mininno halted a Colaiocco shot with a gut wrench then flipped the Quaker grappler to his back to finish the bout in the second period.

Mininno met another underdog in Cornell's Dominic LaJoie in the quarterfinals. A victory brought not only a berth in the semifinals but also a guaranteed spot in the NCAA Championships, and the two wrestled to the occasion. Mininno entered the third period in a 1-0 hole, but went ahead on a reversal at the 1:46 mark. That 2-1 lead lasted only four seconds as 11^th-seeded LaJoie escaped to knot the score and send the bout to overtime. The one-minute sudden victory period did nothing to produce a winner, but a penalty point in the first tie breaker gave Lajoie the advantage. He went ahead 4-2 with an escape in the second tie breaker period then survived a one-point call for stalling and a late Mininno push to win the match.

The West Deptford, N.J. native never trailed in a close, 5-3 decision over 16^th-seeded Tommaso Frezza of Binghamton to reach the consolation quarterfinals, where he will face second-seeded and third-ranked Brandon Paetzell from Lehigh on Saturday. One win from Mininno, either in the consolation quarterfinals or in the seventh-place match, will send the sophomore to the national championships as one of seven automatic qualifiers at 125 pounds.

Bryan McLaughlin
Eighth-seeded McLaughlin sandwiched a pair of victories around a quarterfinal loss to top-seeded Patrick Brucki at 197 pounds on Friday. He started the day by pinning ninth-seeded Trey Rogers of Hofstra 59 seconds into the second period in the round of 16. McLaughlin then lost by major decision to third-ranked Brucki to drop into the consolation bracket.

The redshirt-sophomore native of Woodbridge, N.J. kept his tournament run alive with a 4-2 decision over 11^th-seeded Nino Bastianelli of Brown. McLaughlin did his scoring early with a takedown and two back points inside the first minute of action and limited his opponent to a pair of escapes.

McLaughlin faces fourth-seeded and 24^th-ranked Jake Koser from Navy in the consolation quarterfinals. A win in that match guarantees a top-five finish for McLaughlin. With six allotments at 197 pounds, a loss to Koser takes McLaughlin out of contention to be an automatic qualifier to the NCAA Tournament.

As a team, the Dragons sit in 11^th place with 32.5 points. Hosts Lehigh pace the field with 87.5 points. Army (73.5), Cornell (68.5) Navy (61.5) and Princeton (56.0) round out the top five.

Day two of the EIWA Championships begins at 10 a.m. with the championship semifinals. The consolation semifinals and seventh-place matches start at 11:50 a.m. The championship finals, third- and fifth-place matches are scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m.

Antonio Mininno – 125
Rd. of 16: (14) Antonio Mininno (Drexel) pin (3) #5 Michael Colaiocco (Penn), 4:22
QFs: (11) Dominic LaJoie (Cornell) dec. (14) Antonio Mininno (Drexel), 4-3 (TB-2)
Cons. Rd. of 8 #2: (14) Antonio Mininno (Drexel) dec. (16) Tommaso Frezza (Binghamton), 5-3
Cons. QFs: (2) #3 Brandon Paetzell (Lehigh) vs. (14) Antonio Mininno (Drexel)

Chase Shields – 133
Rd. of 16: (4) #31 Casey Cobb (Navy) major dec. (13) Chase Shields (Drexel), 12-3
Cons. Rd. of 8 #1: (12) Charles Faber (Brown) major dec. (13) Chase Shields (Drexel), 10-2

Tyler Williams – 141
Rd. of 16: (2) #13 Doug Zapf (Penn) major dec. (15) Tyler Williams (Drexel), 16-5
Cons. Rd. of 16 #2: (15) Tyler Williams (Drexel) tech fall (17) Michael Blando (LIU), 15-0 (3:11)
Cons. Rd. of 8 #1: (10) Jimmy Pawelski (Brown) dec. (15) Tyler Williams (Drexel), 7-5

Vincent Foggia – 149
Rd. of 16: (2) #11 Jimmy Hoffman (Lehigh) major dec. (15) Vincent Foggia (Drexel), 17-3
Cons. Rd. of 16 #2: (15) Vincent Foggia (Drexel) dec. (17) Zeth Dean (Harvard), 7-5
Cons. Rd. of 8 #1: (10) Nick Palumbo (Sacred Heart) dec. (15) Vincent Foggia (Drexel), 8-3

Parker Kropman – 157
Rd. of 16: (4) #30 Parker Kropman (Drexel) dec. (13) Dominick Demarco (LIU), 4-0
QFs: (4) #30 Parker Kropman (Drexel) pin (12) Adam Santoro (Cornell), 6:17
SFs: (1) #2 Quincy Monday (Princeton) vs. (4) #30 Parker Kropman (Drexel)

Ebed Jarrell – 167
Rd. of 16: (5) #17 Ebed Jarrell (Drexel) dec. (12) Jacob Nolan (Binghamton), 10-3
QFs: (4) #14 Cael McCormick dec. (5) #17 Ebed Jarrell (Drexel), 2-1
Cons. Rd. of 8 #2: (7) #30 Richard Stamm (Hofstra) dec. (5) #17 Ebed Jarrell (Drexel), 3-1

Michael O'Malley – 174
Rd. of 16: (5) #27 Michael O'Malley (Drexel) dec. (12) Neil Antrassian (Penn), 4-2
QFs: (5) #27 Michael O'Malley (Drexel) dec. (4) #16 Brandon Womack (Cornell), 5-3
SFs: (1) #1 Jordan Kutler (Lehigh) vs. (5) #27 Michael O'Malley (Drexel)

Owen Brooks – 184
Rd. of 16: (2) #7 Chris Weiler (Lehigh) pin (15) Owen Brooks (Drexel), 4:02
Cons. Rd. of 16 #2: (15) Owen Brooks (Drexel) dec. (17) John Stout (Penn), 6-2
Cons. Rd. of 8 #1: (7) Kyle Davis (Sacred Heart) pin (15) Owen Brooks, 6:17

Bryan McLaughlin – 197
Rd. of 16: (8) Bryan McLaughlin (Drexel) pin (9) Trey Rogers (Hofstra), 3:59
QFs: (1) #3 Patrick Brucki (Princeton) major dec. (8) Bryan McLaughlin (Drexel), 16-3
Cons. Rd. of 8 #2: (8) Bryan McLaughlin (Drexel) dec. (11) Nino Bastianelli (Brown), 4-2
Cons. QFs: (4) #24 Jake Koser (Navy) vs. (8) Bryan McLaughlin (Drexel)

Sean O'Malley – 285
Rd. of 16: (8) Sean O'Malley (Drexel) dec. (9) Connor Fredericks (Sacred Heart), 4-1
QFs: (1) #9 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Harvard) dec. (8) Sean O'Malley (Drexel), 4-1
Cons. Rd. of 8 #2: (11) Niko Camacho (American) dec. (8) Sean O'Malley, 3-2
Tournament seeding in parenthesis. National rankings in italics

Team Standings
1. Lehigh – 87.5
2. Army – 73.5
3. Cornell – 68.5
4. Navy – 61.5
5. Princeton – 56.0
6. Binghamton – 45.5
7. Bucknell – 40.0
T8. Penn – 39.0
T8. American – 39.0
10. Hofstra – 33.0
T11. Drexel – 32.5
T11. Columbia – 32.5
13. Harvard – 31.5
14 – Brown – 10.5
15. LIU – 9.5
16. Franklin & Marshall – 6.0
17. Sacred Heart – 5.5