KEARNEY, Ne. (March 11, 2011) – Austin Williams (Pen Argyl, PA/Pen Argyl) and John Paukovits (Northampton, PA/Northampton) each won their opening matches, while Seth Csaszar (Northampton, PA/Northampton) dropped a tough match in the first session of the 2011 NCAA Division II Wrestling National Championship at the University of Nebraska Kearney. (UPDATED BRACKETS)
Williams (25-5), the Super Region I champion at 133 pounds, beat Mesa State's Tyler Nelson by a 6-3 decision. Williams has now won 18 consecutive matches and will face Jason Jeremiason (22-4) from Augustana College in Session Two later tonight.
Paukovits, also a Regional Champion at 149, took the long trip to Nebraska to only wrestle for 36 seconds as he defeated Jesse Westphal from Minnesota State. Paukovits (21-5) has now won 14 consecutive matches for KU. Next on Paukovits' checklist to becoming a national champion will be Mitchell Means (33-9) from Fort Hays State.
Csaszar will have a little more work to do today after dropping his opening match at 184 pounds to Charlie Pipher from Western State College by fall in 2 minutes, 45 seconds. Csaszar (9-6) will need to wrestle two matches Friday night to make it to Saturday morning's events. He will go up against Bradley Anderson (21-11) from the University of Mary in Friday night's opening matches.
The second session of matches will begin Friday evening starting at 6:00 p.m. If Williams and Paukovits win their respective matches, they will be done for the night and advance to Saturday's semifinal, whereas a loss will force another match on Friday.
Live webstreaming of the Division II Wrestling Championships, as well as live statistics and match updates from each individual match throughout the entirety of the Division II Wrestling Championships can be accessed via the NCAA's Division II Wrestling page at the following links:
http://www.ncaa.com/sports/wrestling/d2.
Video - http://www.ncaa.com/liveschedule
