3 former Centre County athletes, 10 Penn Staters headed to NCAA Wrestling Championships
The NCAA released the at-large bids Tuesday to make up the 330 qualifiers for next week’s wrestling championships , where Centre County will be well-represented.
Penn State didn’t have to worry as all 10 of its wrestlers earned automatic spots with their placements in the Big Ten championships. The Big Ten has 94 of the 330 qualifiers.
Bellefonte graduate Jude Swisher and Penns Valley graduate Malachi Duvall each also earned automatic spots with their placements in their respective conference championships.
With the at-large announcements on Tuesday, State College graduate Pierson Manville will join the 10 Nittany Lions and former Centre County wrestlers.
Swisher, who competes for Penn, won an Ivy League title at 157 pounds on Sunday by defeating Cornell’s Meyer Shapiro, 8-3. It was a match where the former Red Raiders wrestler opened the bout with a takedown and closed it with a takedown for a win over the No. 3 ranked wrestler in the country.
Duvall, who competes for George Mason, also reached the finals of the Mid-American Championships at 184-pounds as the No. 3 seed. He suffered a 12-3 loss to Ohio’s Sal Perrine, who was the No. 1 seed.
Manville, who competes for Arizona State, entered the Big 12 championships as the No. 5 seed at 141 pounds. He ended up finishing eighth in his first conference tournament, which was one spot shy of the automatic spots the Big 12 was awarded.
