Final Brackets

BROCKPORT, N.Y. – Senior Stephen Hinton (Montclair, Va./Forest Park) became the second Lycoming College wrestler to earn the Empire Collegiate Wrestling Conference’s Most Outstanding Wrestler award, as he won the conference title at 125 pounds to lead a contingent of five Lycoming College grapplers that placed for the team at the ECWC Championships on Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Jim and John Vlogianitis Gymnasium at SUNY Brockport.
 
The Warriors finished sixth in the field of eight teams with 56.5 points. No. 13 Cortland State, thanks to three wins in true second-place matches, edged out No. 5 Ithaca for the team title, 128.5-127. No. 19 Brockport came in third with 105.5 points, just beating out No. 22 Messiah, which finished with 97 points. Oneonta State (81), Lycoming, SUNY Oswego (36) and RIT (30.5) rounded out the standings.
 
Hinton, who placed three times at the ECWC Championships but never higher than fourth, opened the tournament by pinning Danny Lethbridge of Messiah in 3:49. He followed that by posting one of the biggest upsets of the tournament, notching a takedown in overtime to take a 3-1 decision from Cortland State’s eighth-ranked Nigel McNeil. In the championship, Hinton posted a 7-5 win over 2010 ECWC champion Tyler Marlow of SUNY Brockport.
 
With the pair of upset wins, Hinton, who entered the tournament as the No. 4 seed, improved to 18-2 on the season and became the fifth Warrior to win an ECWC title and the first since Chris Dahlheimer won it in 2009-10. He joins Dahlheimer as a winner of the most outstanding wrestler award, as Dahlheimer won it in 2008. He is the 13^th Warrior to earn a conference’s most outstanding wrestler award and the eighth in the 19-year career of head coach Roger Crebs.
 
Hinton is the first Warrior 125-pounder to win a conference title since the NCAA realigned its weight classes in 1998-99. Colin McSherry won the Middle Atlantic Conference title at 126 pounds in 1998.
 
Besides Hinton, a pair of Warrior wrestlers with experience at the championships finished third and a pair of freshman also placed.
 
At 184 pounds, junior Tyler Cunningham (Haddon Township, N.J./Haddon Township) had a breakthrough tournament to place for the first time, posting a first-round 10-3 win over fifth-seed Stephen Provenzano of Oneonta State. After a loss to top-seeded Tim Stewart of Messiah, he pinned RIT’s Tyler Brent in 4:58 to reach the third-place match, where he posted an 11-2 major decision against Provenzano. Carl Korpi of Cortland State beat Cunningham, 12-1, in the true second-place match.
 
Senior Russ Korbul (Asbury, N.J./North Hunterdon) placed at the ECWC Championships for the third time, as he posted a 4-0 decision over Ithaca’s Tom Heckman to start his tournament before falling to SUNY Brockport’s Paul Glover, 7-4, in the semifinals. He rebounded to notch an 11-2 major decision against Oneonta State’s Jacob Smith to reach the third-place match, where he posted a 7-1 decision over Messiah’s Travis Eversole to close out his senior season with a 26-6 record.
 
After dropping the first round match, freshman Lucas Wisniewski (Conshohocken, Pa./Plymouth-Whitemarsh) came back to take fourth at 149 pounds. He notched a 10-0 major decision against RIT’s Adam Hugunine and an injury default helped him into the third-place match, where he fell to Brockport’s Robert Troy.
 
Freshman Caleb Willey (Towanda, Pa./Towanda Area) came in sixth at 141 pounds, as he fell twice to Messiah’s Victor Bracey, but notched a 12-5 win over Oneonta State’s Brian Berry to place.
 
While no other wrestlers won a match, freshman Brian Watkins (Bear Gap, Pa./Southern Columbia) nearly notched an impressive upset at 157 pounds, as top-seeded Derek Brenon of Ithaca notched a late third-period takedown to sneak away with an 8-7 win in the opening round.
 
Hinton will now have 13 days to get set for the NCAA Division III Championships on LaCrosse, Wis., as the two-day event starts on Friday, March 9 at 11 a.m.