Azarian, Choinski To Face Ranked Foes At NCAA Wrestling Championship
UW-Oshkosh sophomores Kody Azarian and Mark Choinski both face nationally ranked opponents to open the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship this weekend in La Crosse.
Competition begins at 11 a.m. Friday (March 10) and 10 a.m. Saturday (March 11) in the La Crosse Center.
Wrestlers qualified for the Division III Championship by finishing among the top three in their respective weight classes at one of six regional sites.
Both Azarian and Choinski advanced to their first national meets by finishing second at the NCAA Division III West Regional held Feb. 25 in Moorhead, Minn.
Azarian (10-3, 1 pin) begins competition in the 141-pound weight class by taking on fourth-seeded Tim Ambacher (28-6, 1 pin) from Delaware Valley University (Pa.). Ambacher, who won this year's East Regional title, is ranked second in the country by d3wrestle.com.
At 157 pounds, Choinski (21-3, 8 pins) battles third-seeded Nick Bova (31-2) from Wabash College (Ind.).
Choinski enters the weekend ranked ninth nationally by d3wrestle.com while Bova, the 2017 Midwest Regional champion, is ranked fourth. Bova earned All-America honors with a sixth-place finish at last year's national meet.
UW-La Crosse's Dustin Weinmann (23-0, 5 pins) is seeded first in the 141-pound weight class. He placed third at last year's national meet in the 133-pound category.
Robert Dierna (17-0, 7 pins) from State University of New York at Cortland is the top seed at 157 pounds. Dierna, the defending 157-pound champion, was also the national runner-up in 2014 and the third-place finisher in 2013.
UW-Oshkosh's Azarian and Choinski both compiled 2-1 regional records after losing first-place matches. Azarian lost his championship match by a 7-2 result to David Flynn of Augsburg College (Minn.) while Choinski was outscored, 17-10, by Concordia College's Cole Sladek in his title bout.
UW-Oshkosh has produced 14 NCAA Division III All-America performances and three individual national champions. Nazar Kulchytskyy, the 2013 and 2014 d3wrestle.com Wrestler of the Year, owns all three of the Titans' national titles, claiming championships at 157 pounds in both 2012 and 2014, and at 165 pounds in 2013.
NCAA Division III Wrestling Championship Host Website