NCAA announces Jan. 15 Pin and Tech Fall Leaders

INDIANAPOLIS – The NCAA has released the initial standings for the 2014 NCAA Wrestling Awards that will be awarded in March at the respective Division I, II and III Wrestling Championships.

The inaugural NCAA Wrestling Awards were presented at the 2012 wrestling championships. The three awards, given at each division, honor the Most Dominant Wrestler as well as the student-athletes that have accumulated the most falls and the most tech falls throughout the course of the regular and postseasons.

Jan 15 Pin leaders

Jan 15 Tech fall leaders

For falls and tech falls to be counted towards a student-athletes total they must come against opponents in the same division. Ties in the two categories are broken based on the aggregate time.

In the initial standings of the 2014 season, Indiana’s Taylor Walsh leads all wrestlers with 19 pins. The 157-pounder holds a seven-pin lead in the Division I standings over Bucknell heavyweight Joe Stolfi who is ranked second with 12 pins this season.

The Division II standings feature a three-way tie for first place between Western State’s Ian Steen (149 pounds), Ashland’s Brent Fickel (149 pounds) and Newberry’s Jeffrey Vesta (125 pounds) with eight each. Steen leads the way with a cumulative time of 30:05, followed by Fickel (33:58) and Vesta (40:14).  Four more student-athletes have accumulated seven pins, led by Upper Iowa 149-pounder Edwin Cooper in 12:14.

Colin Lenhardt of Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island) leads the way in Division III with 14 pins at 184 pounds, followed by Chad Obzud of SUNY Oneonta (197 pounds) with 13 and Rochester Institute of Technology’s Tyler Brent (184 pounds) with 12 pins.  Overall, Division III features eight student-athletes that have compiled 10 or more pins this season.

Topping this week’s tech fall standings in Division I is Oklahoma’s Cody Brewer with seven.  The 133-pounder is trailed by a trio of wrestlers with five tech falls each.

Lake Erie 133-pounder Austin Gillihan leads Division II with six tech falls, followed by Francis Mizia of Mercyhurst (157 pounds) and Seiji Borja of Newberry (149 pounds) with four tech falls.

Division III features a two-way tie in the first edition of standings as Wisconsin-Whitewater 197-pounder Shane Siefert and Wilkes 149-pounder Mark Hartenstine each have six tech falls.  Siefert ranks first with a combined time of 24:10 to 29:04 for Hartenstine.  Three additional wrestlers are right on their heels with five tech falls a piece.

The Most Dominant Wrestler standings are calculated by adding the total number of points awarded through match results and dividing that number by the total number of matches wrestled. Points per match are awarded as follows. A 12-match minimum is required to be eligible for the Most Dominant Award.

* Fall, forfeit, injury default or DQ = 6 points (-6 points for a loss)
* Tech falls = 5 points (-5 points for a loss)
* Major decision = 4 points (-4 points for a loss)
* Decision = 3 points (-3 points for a loss)

The initial Most Dominant Wrestler standings will be released later this season in order to allow wrestlers to achieve the 12-match minimum that is required to be eligible for the standings.