Since joining the Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association (EIWA) in 2013, members of the Binghamton wrestling team have won three individual titles. Redshirt junior Lou DePrez now owns two of those trophies. For the second consecutive year, the wrestler is ranked third in the country at 184 pounds and won a conference championship.

“[DePrez] did a really good job he kinda dominated his way through the bracket,” said Binghamton head coach Kyle Borshoff. “He had a good guy in the finals, I think the guy he wrestled in the finals is nationally ranked in the top 15. [DePrez] had a good controlling win there, and he put himself in a really good situation moving forward for NCAA seeding. I expect he’ll be a top-four seed.”

DePrez entered the tournament as the heavy favorite and dominated the field. The former All-American will now head back to the NCAA tournament with a legitimate chance to become Binghamton’s first-ever national champion.

In addition to DePrez, redshirt junior Joe Doyle and sophomore Jacob Nolan also qualified for nationals at the 177th EIWA Championships over the weekend.

“[Doyle’s] tournament was awesome for a couple of reasons, the first one being he qualified for nationals,” Borshoff said. “The second one being he hadn’t wrestled a match in 12 months.”

Despite making his season debut at the EIWAs, Doyle was able to place fourth. He last competed at the 2020 EIWAs where he placed sixth. The heavyweight was named an alternate for nationals last season but was unable to take advantage of the opportunity when it was offered.

“I got a phone call from the NCAA that he was going to be in the national championship last year, and then the very next day was when they decided to cancel the event entirely,” Borshoff said. “It was awesome seeing [Doyle] punch his ticket and having no doubts about going this year.”

At 174 pounds, sophomore Jacob Nolan was defeated in the quarterfinals but fought through the consolation bracket to earn a fifth-place finish and a trip to nationals.

“He went 0-2 at this event last year, but we knew [Nolan] was very talented,” Borshoff said. “I remember last year, after his second match, having the conversation with him of remembering this feeling. Remember what this feels like so that we can make sure we don’t ever have to feel this way again.”

In his second year of college wrestling, Nolan found himself in the fifth-place bout with one NCAA bid on the line.

“He ended up in that fifth and sixth place bout where there’s one spot left, and he took it to that guy from Bucknell,” Borshoff said. “That was a really good match for him.”

Outside of those three, the team did not have as strong of performance in the tournament as it may have hoped. Binghamton finished in seventh place among 10 teams.

“I think there were moments where we did things really well, and I think there were moments where you could see that we were a little rusty and not quite ready in certain situations,” Borshoff said.

One factor that hurt Binghamton in the team standings was redshirt junior Zack Trampe’s absence. At 141 pounds, Trampe, a two-time NCAA qualifier, was scratched from Binghamton’s lineup on Thursday and replaced by redshirt junior Dane Heberlein.

“It was definitely a blow to the team,” Borshoff said. “He would’ve been the two seed at the event, and the guy who ended up finishing second, [Trampe’s] beaten before. It’s obviously not an ideal team situation, but we had to do what we had to do at that weight. [Heberlein] stepped up when we put him out there, he got a win in the first round but unfortunately, he couldn’t keep that momentum going.”

Just two Bearcats, DePrez and true freshman Micah Roes, won their quarterfinal matchups and stayed in the championship bracket.

“[Roes] had a really good tournament at 125, there just happened to only be three qualifying spots at that weight,” Borshoff said. “There were five nationally ranked guys at that weight. He beat one of those nationally ranked guys 14-4 today and I’m hoping that he’s in consideration for an at-large bid next week.”

Roes reached the third-place bout with a spot at nationals on the line, but was defeated and finished fourth. Given his 6-2 record this season and his success against other qualified wrestlers, Roes has a good chance to earn an at-large selection to nationals.

With a significantly disrupted regular season due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the NCAA tournament pre-allocations were awarded to conferences in a significantly different manner than usual. Instead of being based on this season’s results, they were based on five-year historical averages, creating some unbalanced scenarios in the EIWA.

“At 125 there were five nationally ranked guys fighting for three spots,” Borshoff said. “At 184 there were two nationally ranked guys fighting for six spots. It was just kind of the way it shook out. I don’t think there’s anyone across the country that’s totally happy with the way it had to happen this year, but there really weren’t a lot of other options to go with.”

The full national championship bracket and at-large qualifiers will be announced on Wednesday, March 10 at 6 p.m. The 2021 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships will take place the following week from March 18 to March 20 at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, Missouri.