McKillop Wins Title at 184 lbs. at Regional Tournament
Mountain Cats Finish Second With Seven National Qualifiers
02/23/13...Travis McKillop (Lower Burrell, Pa.) won the championship at 184 lbs. on his way to leading the Mountain Cat wrestlers to a second-place finish behind Newberry (SC) College at Saturday's 2013 NCAA Division II Super Region I Tournament at Kutztown University. Along with McKillop, six other Mountain Cats earrned spots in the National Tournament on March 8-9... (Tournament Website) ... (Results)

After cruising into the semifinals with a pin and a major decision on Friday, McKillop won a 10-3 decision over Mercyhurst's Eric Lundgren, before shutting out Newberry's Mitch Brown, 7-0, to claim the title at 184 lbs.

Evan Link (Cresson, Pa.) and Dave Cawley (Pittsburgh, Pa.) both finished as runner-ups. Link suffered a 9-7 loss to Willie Bohince (Mercyhurst) in the title bout at 125 lbs., while top-seeded Daniel Ownbye took the championship at 141 lbs. after Cawley was forced to injury default in the third period.

Dave Fogle (Summerhill, Pa.) (133 lbs.), Gary Lantz (Delta, Pa.) (174 lbs.) and Josh Duplin (Johnstown, Pa.) (285 lbs.) reached the semifinals, before finishing fourth to claim spots at nationals.

One other Mountain Cat had to win a true-fourth match to get a shot at the National Tournament. Keith Ryan (Shirleyburg, Pa.) pinned Shippensburg's Robert Scheivert in the true-fourth match at 165 lbs. to round out the seven Mountain Cats who qualified for nationals.

Jack Bachman (Greensburg, Pa.) (149 lbs.) and Nikos Garafola (Greensburg, Pa.) (197 lbs.) both lost in their true-fourth matches and placed fifth.

Joel Paolo (Weirton, WV) wrestled for Pitt-Johnstown at 157 lbs., but did not advance to Saturday's action.