Eight Heidelberg University grapplers have been named All-Ohio Athletic Conference following their championship season.
Seniors 149-pounder Andrew Johnson (Weston/Otsego) and 197-pounder Andy Lovins (Clinton Township, MI./Lake Shore) along with sophomore 184-pound, transfer Richard Dowdley (Cleveland/Ginn Academy) received first team honors.
While senior 165-pounder Justin Wharton (Oregon/Clay), juniors 125-pounder Delian Schneider (Tiffin/Columbian), 141-pounder Chris Osborne (McComb), 174-pounder Jeremy Stepp (Cincinnati/Princeton) and freshman heavyweight Nino Majoy (Huron) collected second team selections.
The selections are all first time achievements, as the OAC has never recognized All-OAC first and second team before.
Throughout their careers, Johnson and Lovins have been mainstays for the Berg, wrestling at 149 and 197-pounds respectively. The two seniors combined have tallied 49 victories over the 2012-13 season.
Lovins navigated the OAC unblemished, wrestling to a 5-0 record in dual match competition. Lovins joined the Heidelberg wrestling team mid-way into the season but still has managed to climb up the Division III rankings to national contender.
Johnson leads the Berg in falls with 14 and is currently ranked as an honorable mention by d3wrestle.com entering the Mideast Regional. Johnson dropped only one dual match in the OAC to Mount Union’s Tyler Johnson.
Dowdley transferred to the Berg at the beginning of second semester and wrestled to a 2-1 record in conference action. Entering the Mideast Regional, Dowdley boasts an overall record of 11-5 as a Student Prince.
Schneider, Wharton and Osborne finished the 2012-2013 conference schedule unbeaten in their respective weight classes.
Stepp dropped only one OAC dual match to the defending 174-pound national champion, Kyle Kwiat of Ohio Northern in the season finale.
Majoy came on strong for the Berg and asserted himself in a weight classes with a lot of intra-squad competition. The highlight to Majoy’s OAC dual match season was collecting a victory over veteran Nick Tarifaj from the University of Mount Union, in Alliance, 2-1.
The Heidelberg grapplers will return to the mat on Saturday, March 2 when they travel to Ada, Ohio and the campus of Ohio Northern University for regional competition.
For the first time in recent history, qualification to the Division III National Championships will come through the Mideast Regional and not at the Ohio Athletic Conference Championship Tournament, which did not take place this year. Action from Ada is slated for 9:00 a.m.
