W-A-T-C-H Ryan Malo go for NCAA title at 197 TONIGHT (3/7); Paulish finishes 4th

W-A-T-C-H Ryan Malo go for the NCAA 197 title.

Championship round begins at 7:00 PM Central Standard Time

CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – Impressive. Williams wrestling sent two sophomores to the NCAA Division III wrestling championships and even though Ryan Malo and Corey Paulish were making their debuts on the national scene both will come home as All-Americans.

Unseeded Corey Paulish faced his third seeded opponent in the semifinal round in #2 Zach McKray of Wartburg. After a scoreless first period McKray chose down and escaped 15 seconds in to take a 1-0 lead. A McKray takedown at the one-minute mark boosted the McKray lead to 3-0. 

Paulish managed an escape before the period ended and narrowed the margin to 3-1.  Paulish chose down to open the final period and escaped immediately to make the score 3-2.  Paulish then surprised McKray with a take down to make it 4-3 at with 1:20 left in the match.  Paulish then rode McKray for about 30 seconds before McKray escaped to tie the match at 4-4 with just over 40 seconds left. The McKray escape came with Paulish halfway to a riding time point. With 20 seconds left in the match McKray shot in on a single leg takedown and was able to finish the takedown to win 6-4.

Next up for Paulish was a re-match with his first opponent at the Championships -- #3 Luke Baum of RIT in the Consolation Semifinals.

Paulish took Baum down and then turned him two times in the first period to build a 7-0 lead.  In the second period Paulish again took Baum down and finished in a cradle and got 5 more points.  Paulish had accumulated over four minutes riding time in a dominating performance and beat Baum who later captured 5th place by a score of 16-4.

In the third place match Paulish met the #1 seed Austin Bautista of Wisconsin-Whitewater.  Paulish and Bautista battled for seven minutes exchanging shots, scrambles, and different attacks on one another.  The match then went into overtime tied 1-1.  After the first minute of sudden victory the match was still tied.  After the first tie breaker, which consists of two 30-second periods the match remained tied, 2-2.  In sudden victory 2, after more than nine minutes of even wrestling and after two great scrambles with Paulish almost scoring  Bautista secured a takedown and third place.

Paulish finished with All-American honors with his fourth place finish and tied for the third highest finish by a Williams wrestler all-time (Jon Dolan 4th in 2007). 

Paulish finished the season 40-9 (owning the Eph single season record for wins), and was also awarded Scholar All-American honors as he carries a 3.78 cumulative GPA.

This is only the second time in Williams wrestling history that the Ephs have had two grapplers named All-American in the same year. The first time was in 2005 when Tom Prairie finished second (125) and Jon Dolan was seventh (174). With Paulish's fourth place finish and Malo guaranteed to finish at least second the Ephs will post their best team finish at the NCAA Championships when the event concludes tonight

Ryan Malo (38-1) pinned Andy Moore of Wisconsin-La Crosse in 2:13.  Malo secured the first takedown about 30 seconds into the match and then was able to dominate Moore on the mat.  Malo relentlessly attacked Moore, stretching him out on bottom and turning Moore for three back points and then eventually pinning Moore in the first period.  Malo no leads all divisons with the most pins by any wrestler this season.

"Ryan was very dominating this morning in his semifinal match and has been very focused all tournament," noted Eph co-head coach Dan DiCenzo. "His goal is to be a national champion and tonight he has put himself in position to reach that goal.  It has been very impressive to see his hard work and dedication this season and especially this past month in the wrestling room. In his extra workouts he has challenged himself every day and has tried to get better every day he came to practice.  That type of drive and focus is why he is successful.  A lot of student-athletes who experience the kind of success Ryan has had think they have all the answers and do not have to work that hard.  Ryan's success has only made him work harder and he always tries to get better everyday and is conastantly trying to learn and improve."

"Ryan has a great challenge tonight in Jared Massey of Augsburg but Raf and I know Ryan is excited about the challenge." Malo will try to become the first Eph to win an NCAA title in wrestling. Going into the final he is guaranteed to finish at least second, which ties him with Tom Prairie '05 for the best finish by an Eph. Prairie, a three-time All-American at 125, is currently the head coach at Plymouth State University. At Williams Prairie fashioned a career record of 106-8 (.930).

"Corey Paulish had a great season and an awesome national tournament," noted DiCenzo.  "Corey beat the #3 and #6 seeds on Friday to become an All-Americas.  Both of those wrestlers came back and earned All-American honors after losing to Paulish.  Corey is one of the hardest workers and most disciplined athletes I have ever been around.  What is exciting about Corey Paulish is he is not satisfied with 4th place.  He is very competitive and should be very proud of how he wrestled this weekend."

Overall the NEWA conference brought 14 wrestlers and had five All-Americans, two of which, Paulish and Malo are from Williams.  Malo and Paulish are also the two highest place winners from the conference and Malo is the NEWA's only national finalist.