Ethan Cohen & Dylan Rittenburg draw third seeds in opening bouts at NCAA Championships

For the first time since 2005 the Ephs will send two competitors to the NCAA Div. 3 Championships in junior tri-captain Ethan Cohen and sophomore Dylan Rittenburg. The Eph duo is making its first appearance in the NCAA Tournament. "I like the seeds for both Ethan and Dylan," noted co-head coach Dan DiCenzo. "These guys have the right attitude – their goal is to make All-American, not just show up and wrestle. Both are talented and competitive so we’ll see where that puts them nationally."

Cohen's title at 125 at the NEWA Championships and Rittenburg's second place finish at 141 on a wrestler-back helped lift the Ephs to a third place finish at the NEWA Championships, despite being ranked fifth in the region heading into the championship event.

Cohen and Rittenburg will both face the third seed in their bracket in their opening bout, however Rittenburg will have a bye in the first round before tangling with Matt Kelly of Wartburg, Cohen's first match will pit him against Jake Oster of Elmhurst.

Ethan Cohen '09	Dylan Rittenburg '10

Heading into Friday's NCAA match Cohen has compiled an 84-24 record and he is 34-6 this winter.  He has big wins over Peppy Cabrera of Cortland State, winning on a pin in 1:44. Cabrera was ranked 5th in the country at the time.  He also pinned Ellie Naoum of John Carroll in 5:22 and beat Shaun Farhum of Wilkes 8-3.  At the NEWA Championships Cohen pinned Mike Bastante twice on his way to winning the Tournament's outstanding wrestler title as voted on by the coaches.  Bastante was ranked 7th in the country earlier this year.  Ethan was 1st at the Williams Invitational and 3rd at the Doug Parker Tournament, and 5th at the RIT Invitational.
 
Rittenburg is 29-11 this season and is 50-28 in his Eph career.  Big wins for Rittenburg this year include two wins over Andrew Hawley of Roger Williams University and2-0 vs. Jake Gire of Trinity both of whom are all New England wrestlers and very talented, Another quality win came when he downed Matt Ulrich of the University of Southern Maine 4-2, also an All-New England wrestler.  He also owns a 6-0 win over Brandon Prentice of Wilkes, 2-0 over Chris Prihoda of the College of New Jersey and two wins over Caleb Brus of Simpson.  Rittenburg was 2nd at the NEWA Championships, 2nd at the Doug Parker Tournament, and 4th at the RIT and Williams Invitationals.
 
Cohen and Rittenburg have both been nominated for National wrestling coaches Association Scholar All-American status.

Best of all – both return next season and they will have had a taste of the national scene to fuel their competitive fires.