By Joe Ruby

Writer

Bison wrestler Kevin LeValley ’11 earned All-American Honors for the second consecutive year and Jay Hahn ’11 won his first round match at the NCAA Wrestling Championships this weekend in Philadelphia, Pa. LeValley equaled last year’s performance with a seventh-place finish to become the third Bison wrestler to be a two-time All-American.

LeValley, seeded third, easily won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals, where he suffered only his second defeat of the year, 4-3 in the first tie-breaker period to sixth seed Jason Chamberlain of Boise State. After defeating Edinboro’s Torsten Gillespie 11-2 to reach the consolation quarterfinals and guarantee All-American status, LeValley lost 6-5 to Andrew Nadhir, the 11th seed, of Northwestern.

LeValley took a 4-0 lead in the seventh-place match against unseeded Derek Valenti of Virginia and hung on for a 5-4 victory. LeValley finished the season at 34-3 with a record of 11-3 against nationally-ranked wrestlers. Cornell’s Kyle Dake, who LeValley defeated to earn his EIWA Championship, won the 149 lb. National Championship.

Hahn, unseeded entering the tournament, won his first-round match, defeating Nikolas Brown of Chattanooga by a score of 11-7. Hahn next faced fourth-seed and eventual National Champion Dustin Kilgore of Kent State, losing 13-4. In the consolation second round, Hahn was defeated by Daniel Mitchell of American for the third time this season, falling by a 10-1 major decision.

On the strength of LeValley’s and Hahn’s performances, the Bison finished 36th of the 73 teams present with 11.5 points, just behind EIWA foe Harvard and just ahead of EIWA foe Navy. Penn State won the overall team championship with 107.5 points.