College wrestling: Buckeye alum Eddie Neitenbach gets All-American honors

CLEVELAND — Wyoming sophomore Eddie Neitenbach became Medina County's third Division I collegiate All-American on Friday night. Neitenbach (184 pounds) joined fellow former Buckeye standout Nick Nutter (7th, 275 pounds, 1996) and Highland former great Richard Burton (6th, 134, 1983) with a 4-2 victory over Lehigh's Rylan Rogers in the blood round. Nutter and Burton wrestled for Ohio State. "I feel great," Neitenbach said after beating Rogers. "God helped me to not give up, fight through every position and keep the right mindset. I give all the glory to him." Following the win over Rogers, Neitenbach lost 5-0 against Missouri's Aeoden Sinclair, the second seed, to put him in position to wrestle for seventh place against Oklahoma State's Zack Ryder this morning. Neitenbach beat the 22nd-seeded Ryder 7-2 in the second round Thursday. Falling on the other side of the blood round was Cornell freshman and Wadsworth legend Jaxon Joy, who lost 7-2 to Virginia Tech's Collin Gaj to come up one win short of placing. The second-seeded Joy led 1-0 after the second period but gave up a takedown with 1:20 left in the match, which led to four nearfall points by the fourth-seeded Gaj. Joy beat Gaj 5-1 at the Cliff Keen Invitational in December. "It stings," Joy said. "I beat him earlier in the year, but this time I couldn't finish my offense and lost a scramble. "I've got to get a lot better for next year." Joy's day started with a 12-9 loss to 10th-seeded Aden Valencia in the quarterfinals that ended the three-time state champion's pursuit of a national title. He led 7-1 late in the second period before giving up two takedowns in the first 28 seconds of the third period to tie the match at 8. Valencia tallied the winning takedown with 30 seconds remaining. Valencia will wrestle top-seeded Shayne Van Ness of Penn State for a national title this evening. Gaj, who will finish between third and sixth today, also ended Brock Herman's pursuit of becoming an All-American. The Brecksville great, who is now a Medina resident and a junior for Arkansas-Little Rock, dropped a 12-1 major decision to Gaj in the third round of consolation matches. Former Wadsworth star Logan Messer (174) also lost his first consolation match Friday morning. After winning his first match of the tournament in sudden victory Thursday, Messer came out on the other side of an overtime decision with a 4-1 loss to 13th-seeded Carter Baer of Binghamton. Neitenbach, the sixth seed, started the day in the championship quarterfinals but dropped an 8-6 decision to third-seeded Max McEnelly after tying 4-4 with a takedown 14 seconds into the second period. Neitenbach finished the period down 8-4 after McEnelly escaped and eventually got a takedown with seven seconds left in the period. McEnelly advanced to face Penn State's Rocco Welsh, the top seed, after beating Iowa's Angelo Ferrari in overtime 3-2 on riding time. Neitenbach bounced back from the loss to McEnelly against Rogers, the 16th seed, with a takedown with 1:24 left in the second period to take a 3-1 lead. He entered the final period up 3-2 and escaped with 1:32 left to go up 4-2. Neitenbach then did a great job of scrambling over the final 30 seconds to keep Rogers at bay. "That was all fight — literally all fight," he said of the closing scramble. "He tried to take me down, but I fought as hard as I could. I'm not a big scrambler, but it was all fight." Neitenbach wasn't able to get to his offense against Sinclair, who hit a takedown with 42 seconds left in the first period. Sinclair then started the second period with an escape and picked up a point for a stalling penalty with 1:25 left in the second. Contact John Urchek at jurchek@medina-gazette.com.