REILLY LOOKING TO MAKE HIS MARK AT NCAA DIVISION III NATIONALS
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – King's College wrestling standout Mike Reilly (Mountain Top/Crestwood) will look to make a name for himself when he competes in the NCAA Division III National Wrestling Championships Friday and Saturday at U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
Brackets, results, and information will be available at the following web site: http://pearl.coe.edu/ncaawrestling/
A sophomore, Reilly is making his second straight trip to the Division III national event after defending his 174-pound individual title at the Metropolitan Conference Tournament on February 22.
Reilly (28-6) will compete in a strong 174-pound weight class where he is one of 17 grapplers set to do battle for a national title. The top eight place-winners in each weight class earn all-American honors and Reilly will attempt to become the second member of his family to earn the honor. His older brother Jason placed third in the 2007 Division III national tournament at 197-pounds.
The Monarchs standout comes off a brilliant effort at the Metropolitan Tournament where he went 3-0 and was named the tournament's outstanding wrestler. Reilly registered a 16-0 technical fall over Charles Cannello of Centenary in the quarterfinals, and then posted an impressive semi-final 11-2 major decision over second-seeded Greg Osgoodby of the College of New Jersey in a rematch of the 2008 championship match won by Reilly.
In the championship final, Reilly was dominant in posting a 17-7 major decision over York's top-seeded Ryan Tomason, who, at the time, was the 10th ranked wrestler nationally in Division III by the National Wrestling Coaches Association and eighth by D3Wrestle.com.
Reilly will need to be at the top of his game at the national tournament. After a first-round bye, Reilly will face a difficult second-round matchup against fifth-seeded Kyle Kehrli of Iowa-based Cornell College who owns an outstanding 43-4 record after winning the powerful Iowa Athletic Conference championship.
The two met a year ago in the consolation bracket of the national tournament where Kehril posted an 11-6 decision. Kehril, a senior, eventually earned all-American honors with a sixth-place finish. Like Reilly, he is a two-time Division III national tournament qualifier.
Should Reilly win, he will face the winner of the match between fourth-seeded David Priest (27-3) of Ithaca and unseeded Frank Heffernan (22-11) of Wilkes.
Reilly is positioned in the upper half of the bracket which features top-seeded Jerome Owens (29-0) of Johnson and Wales. The bottom half of the bracket features second-seeded Rocky Mantella (27-0) of Delaware Valley and third-seeded Kyle Vanderhyde (40-6) of Olivet who defeated Reilly 14-7 in the second round of the 2008 national tournament.
”Mike has worked extremely hard since the Metro tournament to prepare for nationals and is ready to go out and give his best,” King's coach Ned McGinley stated. “The great thing about Mike is that he always goes out and wrestles hard. He leaves it all on the mat, win or lose, and that is all you can ask of a wrestler. He is in a tough weight class but I believe he is capable of competing with anyone at the same weight. Mike has all the tools necessary to come back home as an all-American.”
