Thomas, Jacoby, Lininger Win East Region Championships, Murphy Second
Feb. 25, 2006
KUTZTOWN, Pa. - Senior Corey Jacoby (Hanover, Pa./Delone Catholic) and red-shirt senior Jake Lininger (Camp Hill, Pa./Lower Dauphin) won the school's first-ever NCAA East Region championships at 197 pounds and heavyweight, respectively, to highlight three regional championships for the Shippensburg University wrestling team Saturday at Kutztown University.
The three individual championships are the most in a single-year in school history, equalling the feat first accomplished in 2000 when Jeff Putt (125), Brett Owen (149) and Kevin Boccella (184) each won titles.
As a team, Shippensburg finished fifth with a total of 80 points. The University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown, which won its fourth-straight championship with 136 points, has won nine of the last 10 team titles. Mercyhurst College came on strong to finish second with 119 points, followed by West Liberty State College (97.5), Gannon University (86.5) and Shippensburg.
Red-shirt junior Jamie Thomas (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) also won an East Region championship at 125 pounds while junior Mark Murphy (Dillsburg, Pa./Northern York) finished second at 184. Red-shirt sophomore Dan Nauman (Middletown, Pa./Middletown) finished fourth at 149 pounds as all five wrestlers qualified for the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships hosted by the University of Findlay March 10-11.
It marks the fourth time under fifth-year head coach Don Tabar that Shippensburg has qualified at least one wrestler for the national championships and the third consecutive season that the Red Raiders have had at least five qualify. Tabar has had 17 NCAA qualifiers and seven All-Americans in his five seasons.
As a team, Shippensburg has had 24 wrestlers qualify for the Division II national championships since 2000 and 36 total.
The championship is the second in the storied career of Jacoby who is the defending NCAA Division II champion ay 197 pounds. It is the first region championship for Jacoby who currently has 113 career victories to rank him third in school history. Prior to capturing the second part of the "triple crown," Jacoby had finished second at both the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Championships and NCAA East Region Championships as a sophomore and junior.
Last month, Jacoby missed his final opportunity to capture a conference championship when he lost a narrow decision, 4-3, to Joe Fendone of Division I Edinboro University on January 28.
Thomas, Jacoby and Lininger each went a perfect 3-0 this weekend with two victories on Saturday. Thomas defeated Chris Neidermeier of Belmont Abbey College in the semifinals 8-2 before edging Daniel Clausing of Limestone College 2-1 in the 125-pound championship.
Jacoby scored a major decision over Darryl Scott of Anderson College (S.C.) in the semifinals at 197, his team-best eighth this season, and then edged Chris Taylor of West Liberty State in a hard-fought championship match, 1-0.
Meanwhile, Lininger, ranked second, easily defeated Andy Freas of host Kutztown 6-0 in the heavyweight semifinals, but had to earn a tough 1-0 decision versus Zach Majocha of Pittsburgh-Johnstown in the championship.
After defeating Bret Wade of Kutztown 3-2 in the semifinals, the third-ranked Murphy fell to fifth-ranked Mike Corcetti of UPJ in the championship at 184 pounds.
Nauman posted a 2-1 record on Saturday to finish fourth at 149. He started the day with a fall over Matt Black of Newberry College in 3:39 before scoring a major decision against Joey Hagedorn of West Liberty State, 10-2. He then was beaten 9-3 by Don Cummings of Mercyhurst in the third-place match.
Also in action Saturday, sophomore Rick Mascino (Philadelphia, Pa./North Catholic) finished in the top-8 at 174 pounds after losing 5-1 to Ryan Wasser of Kutztown in the consolation quarterfinals.
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