Chris Eddins (141 lbs.) and Cody Law (157 lbs.) won championships to lead a group of five Mountain Cats who qualified for the National Tournament on Saturday's final day of the 2017 Super Regional Wrestling Tournament at Mercyhurst.
 
Along with Eddins and Law, defending National Champion Tyler Reinhart (165 lbs.) and All-American John Blankenship both placed third, while Levi Niebauer (184 lbs.) finished fourth to round out the five National Qualifiers.
 
Pitt-Johnstown also got a fifth-place finish from D.J. Sims (285 lbs.)
 
As a team, Pitt-Johnstown finished third with 104.5 points.  Notre Dame (OH) won the team championship with 155 points, and Gannon was second with 116.5 points.
 
Eddins, a true freshman and the fourth-seed at 141 lbs., earned an 8-0 major decision over Mercyhurst's Braden Flinn, then held off West Liberty's Josh Ridgeway, 1-0, in the quarterfinals to reach Saturday's semifinals where he upset top-seed and defending National Runner-up Joey Alessandro (Seton Hill), 7-1 in Sudden Victory 2.  Eddins then pinned Notre Dame's Cobey Fehr at 6:48 to win his title at 141 lbs.
 
At 157 lbs., No. 1-ranked Law coasted into the semifinals by pinning Cole Gavin (Mercyhurst) two minutes into the match, before winning a 24-8 technical fall at 5:50 over Jackson Mordenti (Long Island-Post).  On Saturday, Law defeated fifth-seeded Zach Voytek (Seton Hill) 19-8 in the semis and second-seeded Eric Lewandowski (Gannon) 16-4 in the finals to claim his title.
 
Reinhart, the second-seed and defending National Champion at 165 lbs., defeated West Liberty's DeMadre Turner 14-5 in the opening round, and pinned Alderson-Broaddus' Kevin Stednitz at 1:51 to advance to the semisfinals, but was upset, 6-1, by Notre Dame's third-seeded Isaiah White.  Reinhart bounced back to pin Gannon's Garret Smith at 1:05 and win a 5-3 decision over fourth-seeded Troy Warner (Kutztown) to place third.
 
Top-seeded Blankenship (174 lbs.) reached the semifinals with an 8-0 major decision win over Kevin Holman (Mercyhurst) and a 6-2 decision over sixth-seeded Shane Ruhnke (Kutztown).  However, fifth-seeded Dalton George secured a 6-4 Sudden Victory in the semis, forcing Blankenship into the consolation bracket.  Blankenship got a 3-0 win over Wheeling Jesuit's Reyse Wallbrown and placed third with a 5-1 decision over third-seeded Jake Stratton (Gannon).
 
Niebauer was Pitt-Johnstown's fifth wrestler to advance to the semifinals after a 19-3 technical fall victory at 7:00 over Long Island-Post's Dan McClure and a narrow 4-3 win over Ohio Valley's fourth-seeded Cody Spinks.  Niebauer was dealt a 16-0 technical fall loss at 3:12 to No. 1-ranked Garrett Lineberger (Notre Dame) in the semifinals.  Niebauer then dealt third-seeded Tyler Richardson (East Stroudsburg) a 9-7 loss in the consolation semifinals, but lost a 12-5 decision to eighth-seeded Nathan Bowlen (Seton Hill) in the third-place match.
 
At 285 lbs., Sims suffered an early round loss, but came back with a 13-2 major decision over American International's Jenard Rosemont to reach the consolation semifinals where Kutztown's Ryan Appleby sent Sims to the fifth-place match with a 3-1 victory.  Sims went on to place fifth by downing Wheeling Jesuit's Maxwell Lacey, 8-4.
 
Sam Holandez (125 lbs.) (2-2), Tanner Cahill (133 lbs.) (2-2), Corey Falleroni (149 lbs.) (1-2), and Nico Pecora (1-2) all wrestled, but did not place.
 
Pitt-Johnstown will close out the Super Regional I Tournament on Saturday, before traveling to the 2017 NCAA Division II National tournament in Birmingham, Ala. On March 10-11.

 

Final Team Scores
1.	Notre Dame College (Ohio)	155.0
2.	Gannon University	116.5
3.	University Of Pittsburgh Johnstown	104.5
4.	Mercyhurst University	93.5
5.	Seton Hill University	83.5
6.	Kutztown University Of Pennsylvania	78.0
7.	Wheeling Jesuit University	76.5
8.	East Stroudsburg University Of Pennsylvania	47.0
9.	Ohio Valley University	31.5
10.	Shippensburg University Of Pennsylvania	30.5
11.	West Liberty University	24.0
12.	Alderson Broaddus University	20.0
13.	Millersville University Of Pennsylvania	19.0
14.	Long Island University/LIU Post	17.0
15.	American International College	6.5