March 9, 2012

LA CROSSE, WI - Freshman Paul Bewak (125) and junior Reid Mosquera (197) highlighted the efforts of the Johns Hopkins wrestling team on the first day of the 2012 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships on Friday as both have advanced to the consolation quarterfinals and assured themselves of earning All-America honors with top eight finishes. Both will continue wrestling on Saturday, the final day of this year's championships. Johns Hopkins is currently in 22nd place with 11.0 points after the first day of competition.

The Blue Jays had a school-record five participants with junior Paul Marcello (141) and sophomores Henry Stauber (149) and Matt Fusaro (157) also competing.

Bewak opened his first trip to the NCAAs with a 5-3 upset of seventh-seeded Timothy Hood of Cornell College before dropping to the consolation bracket with a loss to second-seeded Kenneth Anderson of Wartburg. In the consolation bracket he scored a 9-0 major decision over Sam Ambrocio of Concordia (WI) to secure his All-America accolades. Bewak jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first period with a takedown and two-point nearfall, pushed the lead to 6-0 by the end of the second period and added another two points and riding time to account for the major decision.

Bewak will take on third-seeded Jimmy Gotto of Coe College in Saturday's consolation quarterfinals.

Junior Reid Mosquera's two wins on Friday secured All-America honors for the junior 197-pounder.

Mosquera, who is making his second appearance at the NCAAs, drew sixth-seeded Nathan Schmitz in the opening round and fell 5-2 to fall to the consolation bracket. There, he topped Dubuque's Sam Johnson 7-4 after erasing an early 3-0 deficit. His win over Johnson set up a match with eighth-seeded Adam Latella of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Aggressive from the opening whistle, Mosquera grabbed an early 4-0 lead, but led just 5-3 entering the final period. In a wild final two minutes, he scored on a quick reversal to open the period and added three takedowns to take a 14-9 decision and secure his spot as an All-American.

The road doesn't get any easier for Mosquera as he will face his third seeded opponent of the tournament when he takes on fifth-seeded Trent Flegel of Luther in Saturday's consolation quarterfinals.

Marcello, a three-time Centennial Conference champion making his third trip to the NCAAs, was the hard-luck Blue Jay on the day as he dropped a pair of matches by a single point. He fell to fourth-seeded Will Keeter of Augsburg, 2-1 in overtime, in his opening-round match and dropped an equally-tough 3-2 decision to Williams' Ces Antista in the first round of the consolations.

Stauber fell to fifth-seeded James Locke of Coe, 12-0, in his first match before dropping an entertaining 11-8 decision to Wartburg's Drew Wagenhoffer in the consolation bracket.

Fusaro drew the toughest first-round assignment of JHU's five entries as he was matched with third-seeded Elias Larson of Trine and fell 18-2. Michael Letcher of Ohio Northern then topped Fusaro, 4-2, in a hard-fought match in the first round of the consolation bracket.