Final 2019 NCAA Division III Southeast Regional Championship Brackets & Team Scoring 

WILLIAMSPORT, PA – The Johns Hopkins wrestling team closed out competition at the 2019 NCAA Division III Southeast Regional Championships on Saturday with a fifth-place finish in the 20-team field.  The Blue Jays finished with 85 points to earn their fifth-place finish – the second-highest in school history – and senior Ricky Cavallo earned his second straight trip to the NCAA Championships with a runner-up finish at 133 pounds.
 
Messiah claimed the team title with 121 points, while Ferrum and Lycoming tied for second with 114.5 points.  Wilkes (106) and Johns Hopkins rounded out the top five in the final team standings. 
 
Cavallo Earns Silver at 133
Cavallo opened the second day with a semifinal matchup against Russell Benson of Delaware Valley.  He jumped to a quick 6-0 lead with a takedown and four-point near fall in the first period, led 8-3 after the second and cruised to a 10-4 win.
 
In the final, Cavallo drew second-seeded Levi Englman of Ferrum.  Cavallo led 3-2 after the first period and 4-3 after the second, but Englman worked an escape early in the third, added a takedown in the final minute and held on for a 6-5 win.  The runner-up finish does qualify Cavallo for the NCAA Championships in two weeks as the top three finishers in each weight class advance to the NCAAs.
 
Reyes, Morales Place Fourth
197 – Senior Isaac Morales went 1-2 on the day and placed fourth to narrowly miss out on a second straight trip to the NCAAs.  He opened the day with a tight 3-1 loss to Messiah's Victor DeFrance in the semifinals to slip into the consolation bracket.  DeFrance used a second-period takedown and a third-period escape to fuel the victory.
 
After edging Lycoming Bradley Viccio, 3-2, in the consolation semifinals, Morales dropped an 11-2 decision to Jake Paulson of Penn St. Behrend in the third-place match to finish fourth.
 
157 – Like Morales, sophomore Dominick Reyes went 1-2 on the day to finish fourth and miss out on a second consecutive appearance at the NCAAs.  Reyes nearly upset top-seeded Trevor Corl of Lycoming in the semifinals as Corl used a takedown with 12 seconds remaining in the third period to grab a 3-1 lead and then withstood a Reyes escape and late push for a 3-2 win.
 
Reyes eased to a 13-4 win over Conan Wilson of Greensboro in the consolation semifinals on the strength of three takedowns and two sets of back points to move into the third-place match.  There, he drew second-seeded Hunter Neely of Washington & Jefferson and dropped a 7-5 decision.  Reyes led 4-3 entering the final period, but Neely sandwiched a pair of late takedowns around a Reyes escape to account for the 7-5 final score.
 
Morgan, Wertheimer, Gilliam Place
In addition to Cavallo, Morales and Reyes, the Blue Jays also had three other top-seven finishers in seniors Dane Morgan (165) and Miles Gilliam (197) and junior Nathan Wertheimer (174).
 
Morgan went 2-1 on the day to earn a career-best fifth-place finish.  He topped Thiel's Austin Bonacci, 3-2, in his first match of the day before being bounced to the fifth-place match by Washington & Lee's Shane Conncrs.  In the final match of his career, he topped Penn College's Daniel Bergeron, 11-7, to earn his fifth-place finish.  Morgan built a 10-5 lead after two periods against Bergeron and then held him off in the third to pick up the win.
 
Wertheimer dropped a tough 3-1 overtime decision to Tyron Dudley of Greensboro to move into the seventh-place match, where he won by medical forfeit over Waynesburg's Anthony Welsh.
 
Gilliam fell to eventual third-place finisher Gage Gladysz, 3-1, in the consolation quarterfinal to slip to the seventh-place match.  There, he topped Ferrum's Antavian's Leary, 7-1, to close his career. Gilliam used a pair of takedowns, a reversal and a point of riding time to lock up the win.
 
Up Next
Cavallo will compete at the upcoming NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships in Roanoke, Virginia on March 8-9.
 
- 30 -