Kwiat, Painter, Jones win crowns as No. 12 Wrestling finishes second at OAC Tournament

February 25, 2012

By: Tim Glon

TIFFIN — At first, No. 12-ranked Ohio Northern thought its had won the team title at the 2012 Ohio Athletic Conference Wrestling Championships Saturday at Seiberling Gymnasium.

But after a scoring error with the computer system was discovered on Sunday, No. 16-ranked Mount Union had actually won the team crown by one point.

Initially, it was thought that ONU had won the team title 157-150 over Mount Union with Heidelberg third with 135.5 points.

But after the error was discovered, MtU had actually posted a 90-89 win over ONU with Heidelberg third with 80 points.

The computer Heidelberg was using was configured for eight placers, but only four placed in each weight class, giving more advancement points than should have been allotted.

"I hand-scored it today along with Mount Union's head coach, and we both came up with the same 90-89 score," ONU head coach Ron Beaschler said. "I feel bad for the Mount Union wrestlers because they did not have an opportunity to celebrate with their fans in front of the crowd.

"I am still very proud of what our guys accomplished. We were the only school to place all 10 wrestlers. Our guys all did their best and it turned out that we were one point short. I don't want anything we don't deserve and Mount Union scored one more point than us. Hopefully it will give us motivation for next year."

The final team scoring did not affect the finish of other teams, as John Carroll finished fourth with 48 points, Muskingum was fifth with 16.5 points and Baldwin-Wallace was sixth with 13 points.

The Polar Bears won their sixth OAC Regular Season title after going a perfect 5-0 earlier this year.

Northern won three individual titles and will send four wrestlers to the 2012 NCAA Division III Championships March 9-10 at LaCrosse, Wis.

Junior Kyle Kwiat won the 174-pound title, was named the 2012 OAC Tournament MVP and was OAC Wrestler of the Year.

Freshman Cody Lovejoy won the Most Pins in Least Amount of Time Award with two pins in 5:30 and Ron Beaschler was named the OAC Coach of the Year for the second time in his career, giving ONU a clean sweep of all the OAC awards in 2011-12.

"This was a complete team effort," Beaschler said. "I thought we would need to get six in the finals and we did that. Everyone did their part. All 10 of our wrestlers placed and that was big. I'm just very excited for our guys. They've done a great job this year."

Kwiat, senior Billy Painter and junior Jeremy Jones all won their respective weight class championships and the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships.

Six Polar Bears earned All-Conference accolades by reaching the finals of their respective weight classes as all 10 ONU wrestlers placed fourth or higher on the day.

Senior Mick Letcher, sophomore Michael Pawlitz and Lovejoy all earned All-Conference honors with runner-up finishes.

Letcher earned the league's at-large bid and will join the 10 OAC Champions at the NCAA Championships.

Kwiat won his third consecutive OAC crown at the 174 pound weight class, posting an 18-2 tech. fall victory in the finals.

He is now 35-1 on the season and is the No. 3-ranked wrestler in the country in his weight class.

Kwiat finished fifth last year and fourth as a freshman in 2010 at the NCAA III Championships.

Painter won the 165-pound weight class title in impressive fashion and will be making his first trip to the NCAA III Championships in the process.

Painter posted a 2-0 record on Saturday and won his finals match by a 17-0 technical fall over Justin Wharton of Heidelberg.

Painter is now 26-7 on the season.

Jones won the title at 133 pounds by defeating Kevin Nycz of John Carroll 11-1 in the semifinals and Jake Weisman of Heidelberg 6-3 in the finals.

It will be Jones' first trip to the NCAA's and he will enter that meet with a 22-12 record.

Letcher earned All-OAC honors for the second consecutive season, finishing second at 157 pounds with a 2-1 record. The 2011 OAC Champion is 30-7 on the season.

Pawlitz earned All-OAC honors by finishing second at the 197-pound weight class. He was 1-1 on the day and is now 30-8 on the year.

Lovejoy was the sixth Polar Bear to earn All-Conference accolades, finishing second in the heavyweight division.

Lovejoy was 2-1 with a pair of pins and is now 26-17 on the season.

Freshman Brandon Howes finished third at 149 pounds, finishing with a 1-1 record with included an 11-5 victory in the third place match. He ends his season with a 10-15 record.

Freshman Cole Coachran placed fourth at 125 pounds, finishing with a 1-2 record. He ends his season with a solid 19-15 record.

Sophomore Nick Pataro placed fourth at 141 pounds and ended his campaign with a 9-16 mark.

Freshman D.J. Recknagel finished fourth at 184 pounds with a 1-1 mark. He finished his year with a 14-14 record.