WILLIAMSPORT — Lycoming College sophomore 165-pounder Nolan Barger of Clearfield has been seeded sixth for the 2015 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships booked Friday and Saturday in the Giant Center at Hershey.
The Mideast Region champ, ranked No. 6 in the nation by d3wrestle.com, will take a 31-7 record into his second round bout against junior Blake Letney of Luther (Iowa) College in the opening session that will get under way at 11 a.m.
Letney, who placed third in the Midwest Regional, is 19-11 with a 70-42 career record.
A victory would send Barger into Friday’s 6 p.m. quarterfinals against one of three possible opponents.
Third-seeded Dylan Foley (23-2) of Springfield (Mass.) will meet C.J. Caserta (41-7) of Steven Institute of Technology (N.J.) in a pigtail bout, with the winner advancing to a second round match against Sam Guidi (40-4) of Waynesburg.
Foley, a senior with more than 100 career wins, is a returning All-American, having placed sixth last year for a 42-9 finish. The Northeast Region champ was tabbed No. 1 in the d3wrestle.com preseason national rankings and held that spot through early February. He enters the tourney ranked No. 5.
Caserta, a graduate student, won the East Region title to push his career record to 97-30. The Centennial Conference champ did not wrestle as a junior.
Guidi, a senior with career totals of 102-33, is making his second appearance at the nationals. The two-time Presidents’ Athletic Conference champ was 2-2 with a 6-4 overtime loss to the top seed at 165 two years ago when he has the Mideast Region champ. He didn’t qualify last year.
Also in the bottom half of the bracket is No. 2 seed Farai Sewera (25-2) of Coe (Iowa) with a career mark of 75-24 for his second trip to the nationals.
He is a junior who was ranked No. 1 going into the Midwest Regional, where sophomore Andrew Steiert (16-3) of Wartburg (Iowa) ended his 20-match winning streak in the finals, 5-3 in overtime.
Sewera had beaten Steiert 3-2 when they met during the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Duals in January.
Two-time qualifier Terner Gott (30-4) of John Carroll (Ohio) also is in the bottom bracket as the No. 7 seed. The Mideast Region runner-up was 1-4 at 157 the last two years.
Steiert and Sewera are considered the top contenders by d3wrestle.com along with No. 4 seed Tyler Schneider (20-5) of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
Seiert, Schneider and No. 5 seed Jake Krogstad (21-8) of Concordia-Moorhead (Minn.) are expected to battle it out in the top half of the bracket. Krogstad and Schneider were ranked third and fourth in the last d3wrestle.com rankings.
The tournament wraps up on Saturday with the championship semifinals and consolation quarterfinals, semifinals and finals starting at 11 a.m. and the championship matches at 7 p.m.