Who is Heading to NJCAA Nationals? See Who Qualified from NY Teams

This article is from 02/18/14

The NJCAA National Championships will be held in Spokane, Washington, beginning February 28.  New York will be well represented by several qualifiers from Niagara, Nassau, SUNY Sullivan and Jamestown.  Here is the list of entrants that we were provided for teams based in the Empire State.

Niagara County Community College won the Region title for the third straight year and will have a full team of 10 wrestlers at the Nationals after earning six individual crowns and two more silver finishes. 149 pounder Kevin Strong earned MOW honors and coach Keith Maute collected Coach of the Year accolades.  The Niagara qualifiers are (with this weekend's placement in parentheses):

125 Eric Velez (Champion)
133 Cody Carbery (Wild Card)
141 Marcus Popp (Champion)
149 Kevin Strong (Champion)
157 Tyler Bruce (Champion)
165 Chris Nevinger (2nd)
174 Shane Currey (2nd)
184 Cedrick Stephens (3rd, Wildcard)
197 Max Antone (Champion)
285 El Shaddai Gilmore-Van Hoesen (Champion)

Jamestown CC competed at the same event and will be sending a group to Spokane as well.  Those wrestlers are:

125 Pat McCarthy (2nd)

133 Jake Nicholson (2nd)

141 Kyle Mulcahy (2nd)

157 Mike Southwick (3rd, Wildcard)

184 Austin Lynn (Wildcard)

Two other New York squads made the trip to Georgia for their qualifier.  It was a worthwhile journey for both Nassau CC and SUNY Sullivan as both left with several wrestlers earning spots in the national tournament.

For Nassau, nine grapplers will compete for All-American honors.  They are:

125: Enriquez DeJesus (2nd)

133: Santiago Valdez (Wildcard)

141: Vinny Turano (3rd)

149: Alexis Blanco (2nd)

157: Kyle Wade (Champion)

165: Adam DeJesus (Champion)

174: Zack Small (3rd)

197: Chris Chambers (2nd)

285: Nick Brennan (3rd)

In the first year of the program, SUNY Sullivan will be represented by three wrestlers in the Pacific Northwest.  It will be great to see so many New York teams at the national championships!

141: Richard Dennison (Wildcard)

184: Deon Edmond (Champion)

197: Josh Bonneau (3rd)

Last year, Nassau's James DeKrone won a national championship.  Who will challenge for a crown this year from New York?