Lions Head To 57th Midlands Championships

Sunday, December 29

Hoffman Estates, Ill.

All Day

Columbia University

Midlands Championships

12/28/2019 11:48:00 AM | Wrestling

Watch ($)Live Stats Trackwrestling Rankings (125 Pounds)Trackwrestling Rankings (141 Pounds)

For the first time since 2016 Columbia Wrestling will take part in the Midlands Championships.

HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – With the holiday break behind them and dual meet season right around the corner, Columbia Wrestling (0-1) heads to the extremely competitive Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern and held at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, with the two-day tournament running from Sunday, Dec. 29 to Monday, Dec. 30 in what is Columbia's first visit to the annual tournament since the 2016-17 season.

HOW TO WATCH/FOLLOW
Midlands Championships (Dec. 29-30): Live Stats | Watch (Flowrestling [$]) | Twitter (@ColumbiaWR)

Brackets for the tournament will be made available on FloArena early Sunday morning, as the tournament is set to get going at 10:30 a.m. EST.

In Columbia's last visit to the Midlands Championships, from Dec. 29-30, 2016, the Lions had two reach the quarterfinals, with Garrett Ryan and Tyrel White each advancing past the first day for Columbia. This season Columbia will be joined by a large collection of some of the best programs and wrestlers in the country as the Lions are one of 26 programs sending student-athletes to the tournament.

Among the collection of teams, 10 are ranked by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, two are receiving votes in that same poll, eight compete in the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association and, along with Columbia, all five Ivy League programs will be in attendance.

COMPETING SCHOOLS:
American
No. 21 Army
Bloomsburg
Brown
Bucknell
Cal Poly
RV Campbell
No. 24 Central Michigan
Columbia
Franklin & Marshall
Harvard
RV Illinois
Indiana
No. 1 Iowa
No. 17 North Carolina
Northern Illinois
No. 16 Northern Iowa
No. 13 Northwestern
Ohio
Oklahoma
Penn
No. 12 Princeton
No. 20 Purdue
Southern Illinois Edwardsville
No. 23 Virginia
No. 8 Wisconsin

RANKED LIONS: Sophomores Joe Manchio (14-2) and Matt Kazimir (14-1) each held their rankings in the latest Trackwrestling polls with Manchio making a slight down movement to No. 29 at 125 pounds, while Kazimir stayed put at No. 22 at 141 pounds. The latest ranking makes it five straight ranked weeks for Manchio in the Trackwrestling polls while Kazimir makes it three straight weeks sitting in the Trackwrestling rankings.

Overall, both Kazimir and Manchio have been off to strong starts, with Kazimir already taking a pair of tournament titles (Princeton Open [Nov. 3], Patriot Open [Dec. 7]) and Manchio knocking off the then-ranked No. 14 125-pounder from Stanford and taking the Roadrunner Open (Nov. 24) title all in the same weekend. Along with those tournament wins, both Kazimir and Manchio lead the Lions in wins so far this season and combined the Lion sophomore duo have only lost three matches over the first month and a half of the 2019-20 season.

COLUMBIA PARTCIPANTS

57th MIDLANDS CHAMPIONSHIPS
Hoffman Estates, Ill. (Sears Centre)

125 Pounds: No. 29 Joe Manchio
133 Pounds: Angelo Rini
141 Pounds: No. 22 Matt Kazimir
149 Pounds: Andrew Garr
157 Pounds: David Berkovich
157 Pounds: Riley Jacops
165 Pounds: Kyle Mosher
174 Pounds: Lennox Wolak
184 Pounds: Joe Franzese
197 Pounds: Sam Wustefeld

FOLLOWING THE LIONS: Stay up to date on all things Columbia Wrestling by following the Lions on Twitter (@ColumbiaWR), Instagram (@columbiawr) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).