Corey Paulish upsets 3rd seed in 1st bout at NCAAs; Ryan Malo avenges only loss

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA -- Rochester Institute of Technology's Luke Baum entered the 141-pound competition at the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships as the third seed and the Ephs' Corey Paulish entered unseeded.

Trailing 2-0 after the first period, Paulish went on a 5-0 run in the second period to take control of the match. In the third period, Paulish chose down. He was able to execute an escape and increased his lead to 6-2 with a minute left.

Paulish secured the match with a great takedown with about 30 seconds left making the score 9-4.  In the final seconds he gave up a reversal to make the final score 9-6.

"[Co-head coach] Raf Vega and I were really pleased with how Corey came out and just wrestled his match today." said co-head coach Dan DiCenzo. "He just wrestled his style even though he was going against the third seed and he posted a great win over a good wrestler."

Paulish, a sophomore, and the New England champ opened some eyes in his first bout on the national scene with his 9-6 win over the highly regarded Baum.

With the win over Baum Paulish upped his season record to 38-7, establishing a Williams single season mark for wins.

Next up for Paulish is a quarterfinal round bout against #6 Chase DeCleene from Wisconsin-Stevens Point later tonight. DeCeleene won his first match 8-7 to advance.

Sophomore Ryan Malo, the fourth seed at 197, faced the only wrestler to defeat him this season in his first match when he squared off against Brian Scher of Hunter College. Scher defeated Ithaca's Chris Carabello to get on the mat with Malo.

Scher defeated Malo 4-3 at Hunter College in the regular season in the NEWA/Metro Duals, snapping a Malo win streak at 30.

"We were all very happy to see Scher advance because we knew that Ryan did not wrestle his best the first time they met in January," noted DiCenzo. History did not repeat in Cedar Rapids as Malo took out Scher by the tune of 7-0. Male had said shortly after his loss to Scher that he felt that the defeat had helped re-focus his efforts and he proved it this afternoon in Iowa.

After a scoreless first period Malo rode Scher the entire second period. In the third period Malo chose down and escaped right away putting Malo up 2-0. He then got a takedown and turned Scher to his back to secure an impressive 7-0 victory.

"Ryan was very focused today and he controlled the entire match," said DiCenzo.

Malo (37-1) will next battle with Corbin Semple of Waynesburg (36-4) later this evening in the quarterfinals. Semple advanced with an upset of fifth-seeded Anthony Neumann, winning by a score of 7-2.