INDIANAPOLIS — The NCAA has released updated standings for the 2018 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 in each division, honor the Most Dominant Wrestler as well as the student-athletes that have accumulated the most falls and the most technical falls throughout the course of the regular and postseasons.
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For falls and tech falls to be counted they must come against opponents in the same division. Ties in the two categories are broken based on the aggregate time.
Penn State 157-pounder Jason Nolf holds a lead in aggregate time to break a tie with 149-pound teammate Zain Retherford for the lead in Division I falls with 15 each. Hofstra heavyweight Mike Hughes is third with 13, while Penn State 184-pounder Bo Nickal and Cornell 197-pounder Ben Darmstadt have 12.
In Division II, Central Oklahoma 165-pounder Mason Thompson has 12 falls, which is one more than Tiffin 184-pounder Hayden Bronne.
Wesleyan (Connecticut) heavyweight Isaiah Bellamy has expanded sole possession of the lead in Division III with 17 falls, while Michael DiNardo of Johnson & Wales (Rhode Island) and Isaac Odell of Wheaton (Illinois) have 15.
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Jamel Morris of NC State is the first Division I wrestler to reach double digits in tech falls with 10 this season in 38:07 to hold the national lead over three wrestlers with nine.
Five wrestlers in Division II have accumulated six tech falls, but it is Sebastian Vidika of Ashland who holds the tiebreaker with an aggregate time of 19:35, which is more than eight minutes faster than the next best mark set by Nick Vandermeer of Lake Erie.
Messiah 197-pounder Kyle Koser leads all divisions with 14 tech falls this season, while three wrestlers are jockeying for position behind him with 12.
The initial Most Dominant Wrestler standings will be released later this season to allow wrestlers to achieve the minimum amount of matches that is required to be eligible for the standings.
