UPJ's Chris Eddins Jr. wins NCAA wrestling championship

CLEVELAND, Ohio — After claiming a national title at 141 lbs. in 2018, Pitt-Johnstown’s Chris Eddins made it back-to-back national championships with a 7-2 victory over Tiffin’s Trey Grine in the 149-lb. title bout at Saturday’s 2019 NCAA Division II National Wrestling Championships at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio. Eddins led a group of five Mountain Cat who earned All-American honors.

Pitt-Johnstown has 14 different national champions who have combined to win 22 national titles.

Along with Eddins, Pitt-Johnstown boasted four other All-Americans. Devin Austin (165 lbs.) finished third, Brock Biddle (184 lbs.) finished fourth, while Joey Alessandro (141 lbs.) placed fifth, and Brendan Howard (125 lbs.) placed eighth.

The Mountain Cats finished in sixth-place in the 55-team field with 68.5 points. St. Cloud State claimed its second consecutive team national championship.

Eddins, last year’s National Champion at 141 lbs., made it two straight appearances in the national finals, with a 7-4 decision over No. 8 Isaiah Kemper (McKendree) in the 149-lb. semifinals. In the title bout against Tiffin’s Trey Grine, Eddins built a 4-1 lead with a take down and two back points. Grine road out Eddins the entire second period, but a take down by Eddins with a minute left in the match increased his lead to 6-1. Grine got a point for stalling, but Eddins added a point for riding time and became a back-to-back national champion with a 7-2 victory.

Eddins opened the tournament by pinning Belmont-Abbey’s John Gahagan at 2:41, before earning a 3-1 victory over Lindenwood’s Gavin Londoff to earn his spot in Saturday’s semifinals.

Austin joined Eddins in the semifinals by defeating last year’s national champion at 165 lbs. Bret Romanzak (Ashland), 3-2, in the first round, then dealt ninth-ranked Brock Benitz (Upper Iowa) a 5-2 loss in the quarterfinals. Third-ranked Shane Ruhnke (Millersville) pinned Austin in the semifinals, but Austin answered by pinning St. Cloud State’s Devin Fitzpatrick at 1:49 in the consolation semifinals to secure his spot in the third-place match. Austin then got a take down late in the third period and a point for riding time to defeat fifth-ranked Tyler Harrington (Maryville), 5-2, to lock down third-place.

At 184 lbs., Biddle, in his first NCAA Championships, suffered and opening round loss but answered by pinning ninth-ranked Brandon Sloop (UNC-Pembroke) at 3:36 and scoring a 16-5 major decision over No. 7 Tarrance Williams (Colorado State-Pueblo) to stay alive in the tournament. Biddle scored a 9-7 win over San Francisco State’s Justin Pichedwatana in the consolation quarters, and got a take down in overtime to defeat No. 1-ranked Jeff Reimel (Kutztown), 15-13, to reach the third-place match. However, Central Oklahoma’s No. 2-ranked Heath Gray defeated Biddle, 8-2.

Alessandro, who also suffered a quarterfinals loss, took on third-ranked Joe Calderone (LIU-Post) for the third time this season in the consolation quarterfinals, and Alessandro came away with a 5-1 win. Top-ranked Brandon Ball (Fort Hays State) won a 7-3 decision that sent Alessandro to the fifth-place match, where he avenged an earlier loss in the tournament to Lindenwood’s Danny Swan with a 4-0 victory. Alessandro pinned Belmont-Abbey’s Troy Gregor at 4:15 in the Frist Round, the suffered a 10-6 setback to Swan in the quarterfinals. Alessandro then held on for a 2-1 win over Central Oklahoma’s Nate Keim in the second round of the consolations.

Howard battled back after a tough loss in the quarterfinals with an 11-6 win over Brandan Lucas (Bellarmine) in the second round of the consolations to reach Saturday’s consolation quarterfinals in the 125-lb. weight class. However, fourth-ranked Marcus Povlick won an 8-3 decision that sent Howard to the Seventh-Place Match, where No. 5 Cole Jones (Minnesota State-Mankato) won a 13-5 major decision, giving Howard an eighth-place finish. Howard opened the tournament by defeating last year’s national finalist Maleek Williams (Upper Iowa), 9-6.

Two-time national qualifier Corey Falleroni (157 lbs.) was 2-2 and three-time national qualifier Levi Niebauer (197 lbs.) posted a 1-2 record, but both were eliminated in the second round of the consolations.

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