ITHACA, N.Y. — The New Jersey City University men's wrestling team had a stellar day of competition on Friday, Feb. 24, on day one of the NCAA Division III Mideast Wrestling Championships, which are being hosted by #13 Ithaca College over two days. The Gothic Knights scored 28.5 points and sit in 14th out of 21 teams in the overall standings. Additionally, eight of the 10 NJCU grapplers that competed on the day collected at least one victory, led by senior captain 149-pounder Jeff Johnson (Middlesex, N.J./Middlesex) and freshman 165-pounder Jazz Bull (New Brunswick, N.J./New Brunswick). Both will compete on day two of the regional championships for a chance to qualify for Nationals.

Leading in the standings after day one is #14-ranked The College of New Jersey (80.0 points), followed in second place by the hosting Bombers (78.5) and #15/24 Rochester Institute of Technology (70.0) in third.

Johnson, ranked #4 by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA) in the Mideast Region at 149 pounds, started off in the first round against Konstantin Mavrikidis of the University of Scranton and dispatched the Royal via a 12-0 major decision. He then advanced to the quarterfinal round where he picked up another major decision (14-6) over Angelo Centrone — ranked sixth in the region — of SUNY Cortland. Johnson, now 18-1 on the year, advances to the semifinal round on Saturday, Feb. 25, and needs just one victory to secure his second consecutive trip to the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships. He will square off with Matt Beyer of Ithaca, who is ranked #15 nationally by the NWCA and #2 in the region.

Bull, ranked #6 by the NWCA at 165 pounds in the Mideast Region, opened up his first round with a 16-0 technical fall over Steven Felice of SUNY Oswego. Bull then squared off against the #3 ranked 165-pounder in the all of Division III, Austin Lamb of RIT, pushing him to the limit in a 3-2 decision loss. Now competing on the backdraw for a chance at third place — which would qualify him for Nationals — Bull faced off with Jaden Datz of SUNY Oneonta in the consolation second round and won via an 11-4 decision. He advances to tomorrow's consolation quarterfinals and will compete against Travis Jones of Ithaca.

Some other highlights include freshman 125-pounder Lucas Torre (Point Pleasant, N.J./Brick Memorial), junior 133-pounder George Rivera (Teaneck, N.J./Teaneck), freshman 141-pounder Andy Beras (Bergenfield, N.J./Bergenfield), junior 174-pounder Farhan Khan (Carteret, N.J./Carteret), rookie 184-pounder Marcus Hebron (Middle Township, N.J./) and junior 197-pounder Deren Cercioglu (Totowa, N.J./Paramus Catholic).

Torre started off his day in the preliminaries and won arguably the largest match of his young career, defeating the #8-ranked wrestling in Division III, Ryan Rosenthal of TCNJ, 7-3, to avenge his loss to the latter from earlier this season. Torre then took a 5-2 decision over Justin Schiffter of Scranton in the first round for his second win of the day to advance to the quarterfinals. There he faced Danny Poggi of Oneonta, but fell via a tight 3-1 decision. Torre's season then came to a conclusion in the consolation second round via a 9-3 decision loss to Ryan Berstler of Penn College. Rivera opened up with a loss by fall in the first round to the #5-ranked Mideast 133-pounder, Patrick Snoke of Penn College. He then advanced past the consolation first round via a win by forfeit before loss via tech fall to Zach Levy, ranked #3 in the region, of Alfred State College to close out his shortened third season with NJCU. Beras opened with a 5-1 decision loss to Romeo Rodriguez of Ursinus College in the first round before pinning Michael Palinkas of Keystone College at 4:38. Beras' rookie season came to a close in the second round of the consolation bracket via fall to the #5-ranked 141-pounder in the region, Noah Hunt of Penn College.

Khan started off strong with a first round 20-7 major decision win over Zach Miller of Penn College, but subsequently was pinned in the quarterfinal by the #3-ranked 174-pounder in the region, Anson Dewar of Muhlenberg College. Khan's season unfortunately came to an end via medical forfeit in the second round of the consolation bracket. Hebron opened up his day in the prelims, but fell via fall to Isaac Cory of Penn College. In his second preliminary match, the Gothic Knight rookie won by fall at 2:26 over Jack Lestrange of St. John Fisher College. Khan's season finished out in the first round of consolation competition via a 6-3 decision loss to Will Davis of Elizabethtown College.  Cercioglu dropped his first preliminary bout to the #3-ranked 197-pounder in all of Division III, Eze Chukwuezi of Ithaca via fall before bouncing back in his second preliminary match to top Noah Kennedy of Oneonta via a 6-4 decision. He faced off with Nathan Powley of the University of Pittsburgh-Bradford in the consolation first round and won via an 11-5 decision. Cercioglu's first NJCU season came to a close in the second round after falling via tech fall to the #4-ranked wrestler in the region, Jaedyn Harris of McDaniel College.

Up Next:
Action continues tomorrow with the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals at 11:00 a.m. Both Johnson and Jazz will be in action, hoping to earn the second and third NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship berths in NJCU's brief program history.