KU's Kemmerer, Snyder finish second at NCAA Regionals

ERIE, Pa. — Joe Kemmerer (sr. Mountain Top/Crestwood) and Scott Snyder (jr. Slatington/Northern Lehigh) each finished as the runner-up in their respective weight classes at the NCAA Division II Super Region I tournament at Mercyhurst College.

Both wrestlers will represent the Kutztown University men's wrestling team at the NCAA Division II Championships March 12-14 in Houston, Texas.

Joe Kemmerer

No. 1-seeded Kemmerer, at 133 pounds, lost his first bout of the season, getting pinned by No. 2 Shane Valko, of Pitt-Johnstown, in 7:23. Kemmerer was 24-0 heading into the title bout with Valko.

David Zeek (jr. Newtown/Council Rock North), as the No. 5 seed, won a major decision over Mike Frazzitta, 10-0, in the first round of the 157-pound bracket. He then won 3-2 over Gannon's Brett Terry, seeded fourth.

In the semifinals, Zeek fell 5-2 to No. 1-seeded Josh Shields, of Mercyhurst, and in the wrestleback semifinals, he was pinned in 2:37 by No. 6 Seth Phalen, of West Liberty State.

Chris Chambers (sr. Holland/Council Rock South), who had a bye in the first round of the 157-pound bracket, defeated No. 2-seeded Mike Rogers, of Carson Newman, 5-4.

Chambers also lost consecutive matches Saturday, falling 16-5 to No. 3 Andy Lamancusa, of Mercyhurst, in the semifinals, and 3-1 to No. 4 Brandon Monin, of Gannon, in the wrestleback semifinals.

KU finished the tournament in sixth place with 53 points. Newberry College, boasting three individual champions, won the team title with 135.5 points and Pitt-Johnstown was second with 108.5 points. West Liberty State (92), Gannon (80.5) and Mercyhurst (71) rounded out the top five.

Brett Martinez (jr. Slatington/Northern Lehigh) and Sonny Flood (sr. Southampton/William Tennent) also wrestled Saturday after qualifying for the wrestleback quarterfinals, but both wrestlers lost in the morning session.

Martinez, the No. 8 seed at 141 pounds, started the tournament with a technical fall over Troy Baranik, of St. Andrews, 15-0, in 3:48. He lost to the No. 1 seed, Latra Collick, of Newberry College, getting pinned in 3:19.

Martinez won a second-round wrestleback bout, a 10-4 decision over Apollon Jean-Paul, of Belmont Abbey, but lost 4-3 to Mercyhurst's Lenny Calhoun Saturday morning in the wrestleback quarterfinals.

Flood won 5-3 in the second round of the wrestlebacks, defeating Mike Hall of UNC-Pembroke, but lost 3-1 to Pitt-Johnstown's Zach Lundgren in the wrestleback quarterfinals.

John Paukovits (so. Northampton/Northampton), the No. 4 seed, lost in the fourth round to Anderson University Ron Lofton. He bounced back with a win in the wrestlebacks, defeating Carson Newman's Zane Sary 12-1. Paukovits' tournament, however, came to an end with a loss to No. 3 Tony Washington, of Newberry College.

In the heavyweight bracket, Robert Knopf (fr. Stroudsburg/Pocono Mountain East) fell 6-1 in first round to Limestone's Trey Moss, a No. 2 seed. Knopf also won in the first round of the wrestlebacks, pinning American International's Kelvin Valencia in 6:38. But his tournament also came to an end in the second round of the wrestlebacks, dropping a 5-2 decision to No. 8 Cody Tominack.

Clayton Youtz (fr. Dauphin/Central Dauphin), at 125, lost in the first round to No. 6 Payne Lint, of Mercyhurst, who pinned him in 4:50. He then fell 4-2 in the first round of the wrestlebacks to West Liberty State's Steve Riner.

No. 7 Jon Moore, of Pitt-Johnstown, pinned Eric Sergent (fr. Nazareth/Nazareth) in 4:21 in the first round of the 184-pound bracket. He then fell to Vaakov Bloch, of American International, 4-1 in the wrestlebacks.

2009 NCAA Division II Super Region 1 Championship (at Mercyhurst)