NCAA Division III Upper Midwest Regional Website
Brackets

Eau Claire, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse wrestling team finished third at the 2022 National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division III Upper Midwest Regional Saturday in McPhee Physical Education Center at UW-Eau Claire.  Augsburg University (Minn.) took the team title with 163.5 points with UW-Eau Claire second with 143.0 and UWL third with 133.5.  A total of 18 teams competed.

The Eagles had three wrestlers advance to the NCAA Division III Championships scheduled for March 11-12 at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapida, Iowa. Thirty wrestlers, the top-three finishers in each of the 10 weight classes from the regional advance to the national championships. 

Nolan Hertel and Seth Brossard captured individual titles Saturday while Ben Kawczynski placed third. Hertel advanced to the NCAA III Championships at 157-pounds, finishing 4-0 in the regional. He won by fall (2:31) over Max Sanderfoot of Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wis.) in his opening match Friday and by major decision (11-2) over Nate Stokhaug of UW-Oshkosh in the quarterfinals.  Hertel won by decision (4-2) over Luke Smiley of UW-Stevens Point in Saturday's semifinals and took the regional crown with a decision (2-0) over Darian Estevez of the University of Chicago (Ill.).

Brossard automatically qualified for the NCAA III Championships with a 4-0 record at 165-pounds. He won both of his matches Friday by fall, defeating Shane Piper (1:57) of UW-Whitewater and Caele Manley (3:00) from Wheaton College (Ill.).  Brossard won by decision (4-0) over Matt Rogge of Augsburg (Minn.) in Saturday's semifinals and won by decision (6-4) over Chase Schmidt of UW-Eau Claire for the title. 

Kawczynski went 4-1 in placing third at 285-pounds to qualify for the national meet. He defeated Elijah Olson of the University of Chicago (Ill.) by fall (4:25) and Brett Shoenherr of UW-Platteville by major decision (8-0) Friday. After losing by fall (3:26) to Tyler Kim of Augsburg (Minn.) in the semifinals, Kawczynski won by fall (6:05) over David Ortiz of Elmhurst College (Ill.) in the consolation semifinals. He advanced to the NCAA III Championships with a sudden victory (3-1) over Mason Hawkins of UW-Eau Claire in the third-place match. 

Brandon Murphy placed fourth at 125-pounds for UWL. He advanced in the first round with a technical fall (18-3, 3:14) over Brody Piercy of Pacific University (Ore.) and defeated (4-1) Luc Valdez of UW-Oshkosh in the quarterfinals. Murphy lost (5-3) to Derek Steele of Augsburg (Minn.) in the semifinals, but won by decision (5-4) over Luca Paladino of UW-Stevens Point in the consolation semifinals. He lost by fall (6:52) to Isaac Weigel of UW-Platteville in the third-place match.
 

Sawyer Sarbacker (133) and Kalyn Jahn (184) each finished fifth on Saturday. Sarbacker went 4-2 overall, including 2-1 on Friday. He won his first match by fall (4:31) over Skyler Pike of Aurora University (Ill.) before falling to Ty Bisek of Concordia College, Moorhead (Minn.) by decision (1-0) in the quarterfinals. Sarbacker earned his second fall (1:45) of the day with a win over Sebastian Rosales of Carthage College (Wis.) to advance to the third round of the consolation bracket. He won by fall (3:14) over Ethan Pogorzelski of UW-Whitewater in the third round of consolations Saturday before a loss by decision (3-2) to Zach Thompson of UW-Platteville in the consolation semifinals. He came back to earn fifth with a win by decision (4-3) over Ethan Harsted of Wheaton (Ill.).

Jahn went 3-2 at 184-pounds in the two-day regional. He went 2-0 Friday, winning by technical fall (17-0, 2:10) over Isaac Urbina of Pacific (Ore.) in the first round and by fall (2:21) over Christian Komitas of Aurora (Ill.) in the quarterfinals.  Jahn lost by decision (9-2) to Nick Rogge of Augsburg (Minn.) in Saturday's semifinals and lost by fall (4:16) to Evan Lawrence of UW-Eau Claire in the consolation semifinals. He received a medical forfeit over Christian Kimitas of Aurora (Ill.) in the fifth-place match.

UWL's Jake Mandt (149) and Isaac Gust (174) each placed sixth with 3-3 records. Mandt won his first match by fall (4:07) over K'den McMullin of Pacific (Ore.) on Friday. he dropped his quarterfinal match by decision (6-0) to UW-Eau Claire's Jake Drexler before coming back to defeat Lucas Regnier of Concordia University Wisconsin by major decision (12-3) in the consolation third round. He won by decision (7-1) over Kellen Schauer of Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.) in the third round of the consolation bracket Saturday before dropping his consolation semifinal by decision (6-1) to Brock Porter of UW-Platteville. Mandt lost by decision (6-3) to Charlie Stuhl of Augsburg (Minn.) in the fifth-place match. 

After going 2-1 on Friday, Gust went 1-2 Saturday.  He opened the tournament with a fall (4:25) over Kobe Gilbert (4:25) from Carthage (Wis.) before losing by decision (12-5) to Solomon Nielsen of Augsburg (Minn.) in the quarterfinals. Gust came back to win by fall (3:40) over Stephen Watson of Wheaton (Ill.) in the second round of consolations. In his first match Saturday in the consolation third round, Gust won by fall (6:28) over Luke Silva of Aurora (Ill.), but lost by decision (5-2) to Ryan Vedner of UW-Whitewater in the consolation semifinals and by sudden victory (3-1) to Nick Dado of UW-Platteville for fifth-place.

Tyler Shackle (141) and Marcus Orlandoni (197) each went 1-2 on Friday with Shackle earning his win by fall.