LHU’s Neff Earns All-American Honors
ST. LOUIS – Redshirt-junior Dan Neff (Quarryville, Pa./Solanco) of the Lock Haven University wrestling team became the Bald Eagles’ 39th All-American and first since 2007 tonight at the 2015 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis.
He will wrestle for seventh-place at 149 pounds tomorrow morning. Neff will face the No. 8 seed in Old Dominion’s Alexander Richardson. By way of his guaranteed top-eight finish, Neff has earned All-American honors.
Neff is Lock Haven’s 39th NCAA Division I All-American and first since Obe Blanc in 2007.
It also marked the first All-American for second-year LHU head coach Scott Moore and his staff.
Neff was 1-1 tonight after going 2-0 this morning. His 3-1 record today puts him at 4-2 for the tournament after he split matches yesterday on Day 1.
This marks Neff’s third straight NCAA Championship appearance after reaching the tournament in each of the last two seasons at 141 pounds. Neff moves to 6-6 lifetime at the NCAA Tournament. He’s now 25-14 on the season and 82-33 in his Haven career.
Neff and Ohio’s Tywan Claxton locked up in a “Round of 12” thriller, which just added to the fireworks of a thrilling start to Session 4 tonight.
Neff and Claxton met back in mid-November in a dual and Claxton won 5-4 (SV-2).
Once again, the two needed more than seven minutes to settle their differences.
Claxton took the upper hand in the opening period with a pair of takedowns. He led 4-2 after one. Neff started the second period on top and hammered Claxton, riding out the period and putting the riding time in his favor. With riding time in hand, Neff’s early third-period escape tied the match and the two were deadlocked at 4-4 at the end of regulation.
Neff and Claxton went through sudden victory with no scoring. In the tiebreaker, Claxton started on bottom and quickly escape. When it was Neff’s turn to be in the bottom position – he couldn’t break Claxton’s grasp until there was just two seconds left – and he hit a standing granby for a reversal, stunning Claxton. The two points gave Neff the dramatic 6-5 win and cemented his status as a 2015 All-American.
The win over Claxton marked Neff’s four straight in the consolation bracket after the dropped his tournament-opening match yesterday.
In his second match of the evening session tonight, Neff met fourth-seed Brandon Sorenson of Iowa.
Neff pushed Sorenson around for six minutes, but gave up a late takedown and the Hawkeye edged him 4-3. Neff led 2-1 after one period after a takedown, but a Sorenson escape in the second tied the match at 2-2 after five minutes. Neff earned a quick escape in the third and led 3-2, but Sorenson picked up the winning takedown in the last minute of action.
Neff advanced to tonight’s action after going 2-0 earlier today during Session 3.
Also, earlier today in Session 3, senior Fred Garcia (Donora, Pa./Ringgold) dropped his only bout of the day and was eliminated from the tournament.
Neff picked up his second win of the tournament midway through Session 3, as he dominated Purdue’s Brandon Nelson. Neff took down Nelson four times, including twice in the third period on the way to a 10-2 major decision.
Neff turned in another strong outing in Session 3, picking up his second win of the session with a solid 5-2 victory over Colin Heffernan of Central Michigan. Neff and Heffernan were scoreless after one period, but a second-period takedown put Neff up 2-1. The two were again knotted after two periods – this time 2-2. Neff started the third down and quickly escaped for a second takedown of the match, and he made it 5-2.
Garcia was eliminated from the tournament with a 9-3 loss to Missouri’s Willie Miklus. Garcia finished his senior season at 35-9 and caps his remarkable Haven career at 104-39. He’s just the 16th LHU wrestler to reach the 100-win club in his career. Garcia went 1-2 over the last two days and caps his career at 4-6 overall at the NCAA Championships.
Ronnie Perry (Christiana, Pa./Solanco) went 0-2 yesterday on Day 1 of the NCAA Championships and was eliminated from the tournament. The sophomore 133-pounder finished the season at 30-11 and is now 43-20 for his career.
The NCAA Tournament continues tomorrow with Session 5 (wrestleback-semifinals, 3rd, 5th & 7th place matches) at 11 a.m. EDT. The finals are set for 8 p.m. EDT. Action will be televised live on ESPN, ESPNU and ESPN3.
