GRANTHAM, PA (February 28, 2020) -- Sophomore Kade Kravits continued his solid campaign this year, winning three of his four bouts Friday to advance to the second and final day of action tomorrow in the opening rounds of the 2020 NCAA Southeast Regional, hosted by Messiah College. 

The Monarchs saw strong performances at 165 and 174 on Saturday, as sophomores Kravtis and Isaac Mensah each had strong afternoons. At 165, Kravits announced himself as a serious threat Friday, winning the first match of the day handily with a pinfall victory 1:31 into the opening bout over Penn State Behrend's Josh McCall. 

The toughest task of the day came in the next match for Kravits, who lined up against Thomas Poklikuha of Stevens Institute of Technology, the top-rated 165 wrestler at the regionals and the No. 8 ranked 165 competitor in the nation according to Intermat.com. 

The match was exciting from the start, as Kravits earned a strong takedown in the first period to take a 2-0 lead after the first three minutes. Controlling things from the top, Kravits accumulated some strong riding time, but Pokikuha rallied to eventually cancel out the riding time while earning more than a minute himself in the third period. Kravits was unable to escape in the third, and the match ended in a 4-4 tie with the riding point going to Pokikuha for the win narrow decision win. 

Despite the defeat, Kravits continued to wrestle with confidence and purpose, responding with a 9-1 major decision win over Gettysburg's Marc Larson to move into Saturday's action where he'll take on Messiah's Matt Pangle. Kravits will need to win three matches Saturday to finish third and stamp his ticket to the NCAA Championships. 

At 174, the Monarchs got a strong outing Friday from Mensah, who went 2-2 but wrestled well the entire day. After a first round victory over Jake Nase of Delaware Valley by fall at 1:38 of the match, Mensah would fall in the championship first round to Joe Paul of Johns Hopkins just before the end of the first period on a pin. 

Mensah came back strong though, using some good technique and putting Greensboro College's Trevor Carter in a crusher headlock, pushing him to the mat where he'd earn the pin 1:22 into the match. In his last match of the afternoon, Mensah battled hard and picked up a few late takedowns but it wasn't enough in falling 17-6 to Dillon Charlton of Waynesburg College. 

Kravits and Mensah were the only King's wrestlers to earn victories on the day, but senior Dakota Quick finished his Monarch career with a gutty performance at 133. Quick drew Jack Bauer of Wilkes University, a wrestler he fell to by major decision just last week, but Quick pushed the match to overtime. With the score tied at 1-1, Quick went in for a quick shot, but Bauer was able to sidestep it and swing around for the points and the win. Quick finishes his King's career with 68 total victories at 125 and 133. 

At 141, freshman Robert Zelinski was in both matches of his Friday, but gave up a late takedown in his opening match to Ethan Landis of Lycoming to fall 3-1. In the consolation rounds, Zelinski was neck-and-neck with Hayden Funck of Ferrum College but ended dropping an 8-6 decision. 

Fellow newcomer Colby Spencer competed in his first collegiate NCAA Regional Friday at 149, and looked good at times despite the two losses. Spencer worked with pace against Jace Guy of Waynesburg but couldn't string moves together while losing by decision 6-3. In his second match of the day, Tony Locke of Greensboro defeated Spencer 18-2 by technical fall.

At 184, Billy Grace battled but lost his opening round bout to Nathan Werheimer of Johns Hopkins by fall, and then couldn't come out on top of a 11-5 decision to Brendan Loder of Gettysburg. David White was also winless at 197, while junior Issac Santiago suffered a pair of losses by pin as well. 

Kravits' day Saturday will start at 9 a.m. as the final King's wrestler of the 2019-20 season.