LEWISBURG, Pa. – Frank was a tank!

One year after heartbreak on Day Two of the EIWA Championships, senior Frank Mattiace achieved redemption by becoming Penn’s 64th EIWA Champion after a pair of tiebreaker victories at the 2017 EIWA Championships at Bucknell University.

Mattiace entered the tournament as the No. 3 seed and knocked off the No. 2 and No. 1 seeds en route to the title, avenging a pair of regular season losses.

Three seconds was the difference in Mattiace’s championship win. In his second 11-minute match of the day, Mattiace held a riding time advantage of 0:03 at the end of the second tiebreaker period and that broke a 3-3 deadlock to give Penn its first EIWA champion since Micah Burak also won the 197-pound crown in 2013.

Mattiace was close a few times to scoring the winning points on offense. In the first period, he was in on a shot but ran out of real estate before he could finish. In the third period, he was again inches away from a score after a side-by attempt, but was ruled to not have secured enough control. In the first round of tiebreakers, he was originally awarded a reversal but that call was changed on the mat to just an escape – negating what would have been a one-point win.

Nevertheless, Mattiace rode tough enough in the two rounds of tiebreakers to earn the win.

No. 7 seed Brooks Martino was defeated in the final by the No. 1 seed, Cornell’s Brandon Womack, 16-1. Martino was unable to get anything going in the opening stages as Womack worked a takedown and then two sets of nearfall for a 10-0 lead. That lead was too much for Martino to overcome, but the senior nevertheless wrestled his way to a second NCAA Championships automatic bid.

The Quakers went 2-1 in the semifinal round, punching multiple tickets to the EIWA Finals for the first time since 2014.

Martino trailed No. 3 seed Tyrel White of Columbia, 3-2, after one period in his semifinal bout put together a full 2:00 of riding in the second period to flip momentum to his side. Martino escaped early in the third and tied the match, 3-3, and then was able to secure a neutral fall at 6:33 to advance to the finals and secure an automatic bid to NCAAs.

No. 3 seed Frank Mattiace once again met Princeton’s No. 2 seed Brett Harner in the semifinals in a rematch of the 2016 semis. Last year, Harner picked up a one point win – this year was Mattiace’s turn for the win.

In a grueling 11-minute match, Mattiace had a riding time advantage after the second period of tiebreakers and that was enough for the win in a bout that was tied, 3-3.The win was Mattiace’s first over the defending EIWA champ and returning All-American.

No. 3 seed Casey Kent was knocked off in his semifinal at 174 pounds, 7-3, by No. 2 seed Ryan Preisch of Lehigh. The difference was a four-point nearfall for Preisch in the second period with the match tied, 0-0.

Kent would responded in his usual fashion, dominating Harvard’s No. 5 seed Josef Johnson to the tune of a 17-0 technical fall at 4:15 of their consolation semifinal match. He would go on to finish third after a 1-0 win over No. 4 seed Jaaden Bernstein of Navy.

No. 8 seed Joe Heyob secured an automatic bid to his first NCAA Championships with a 5-4 win over Harvard’s Kanon Dean in the Seventh Place Match. Heyob scored a takedown in the second period and built a big enough bank of riding time for the deciding point after a Dean takedown attempt in the final seconds was waived off after a Penn coaches challenge.

First Round: lost to #3 Tanner Shoap (Drexel), 10-3

Consolation First Round: Bye

Consolation Second Round: lost to #5 Steven Bulzomi (Binghamton), 5-1

First Round: lost to #8 Joey Gould (Bucknell), FALL 3:26

Consolation First Round: lost to Alec Kelly (Columbia), 8-0

First Round: lost to #8 Jacob Macalolooy (Columbia), 8-2

Consolation First Round: lost to Dylan Caruana (Binghamton), 16-0

First Round: lost to Corey Wilding (Navy), 6-5

Consolation First Round: defeated Travis Vasquez (Brown), 17-0 (4:56)

Consolation Second Round: lost to Danny Reed (Columbia), 9-5

First Round: defeated Laurence Kosoy (Columbia), 4-3

Quarterfinals: lost to #4 Dylan Palacio (Cornell), 5-1

Consolation Second Round: lost to #3 Victor Lopez (Bucknell), 6-1

First Round: defeated Kyle Bierdumpfel (Harvard), 14-4

Quarterfinals: defeated #2 Cole Walter (Lehigh), 8-4

Semifinals: defeated #3 Tyrel White (Columbia), FALL 6:33

Final: lost to #1 Brandon Womack (Cornell), 16-1 (5:32)

First Round: defeated D.J. Hollingshead (Bucknell), 18-0 (4:31)

Quarterfinals: defeated #6 Jonathan Schleifer (Princeton), 3-1

Semifinals: lost to #2 Ryan Preisch (Lehigh), 7-3

Consolation Semifinals: defeated #5 Josef Johnson (Harvard), 17-0 (4:15)

Third Place Match: defeated #4 Jaaden Bernstein (Navy), 1-0

First Round: defeated Jason Grimes (American), 2-1

Quarterfinals: lost to #1 Gabe Dean (Cornell), 21-6 (6:01)

Consolation Second Round: defeated Anthony Mancini (F&M), 6-4

Consolation Quarterfinals: lost to #5 Alex DeCiantis (Drexel), 2-1 (TB)

Seventh Place Match: defeated Kanon Dean (Harvard), 5-4

First Round: defeated Nezar Haddad (Hofstra), 10-4

Quarterfinals: defeated #6 Ben Haas (Lehigh), 12-5

Semifinals: defeated #2 Brett Harner, 3-3 (TB2, Riding Time)

Final: defeated #1 Thomas Sleigh (Bucknell), 3-3 (TB2, Riding Time)

First Round: lost to #7 Connor Calkins (Binghamton), FALL 6:52

Consolation First Round: lost to Nick Gajdzik (Harvard), 4-1

Mattiace, Martino, Kent and Heyob are locked and loaded for the 2017 NCAA Championships in St. Louis March 16-18. May Bethea awaits a potential at-large bid when the field is announced on March 8. The brackets and matchups will be announced on March 9.