Springfield, Mass. – March 9, 2026 – Six student-athletes from the Springfield College wrestling program have earned the opportunity to compete against the nation's best as they have qualified for the NCAA Division III Wrestling National Championships, which will be held on March 13-14 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Esuar Ordonez (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) will wrestle at 133 pounds and open action on Friday morning against Connor Krueger of St. John's (Minnesota). The winner of that bout will take on top-seeded Garrett Totten of TCNJ later in the day. Ordonez will enter nationals with an overall record of 26-9 after finishing in third place at the NCAA Region I Championships last weekend. Ordonez fell into the wrestleback where he took down Matthew Carrozza by pin with seven seconds left in the third place bout to punch his ticket.

Ty Stewart (Dracut, Mass.) will wrestle at 149 pounds and open action on Friday morning against Avery Leonard of Oneonta State. The winner of that bout will take on fourth-seeded Cole Handlovic of Stevens Institute of Technology later in the day. Stewart will enter nationals with an overall record of 22-11 after finishing in third place at the NCAA Region I Championships last weekend. Stewart fell into the wrestleback after his first bout and won six straight matches including pinning third-seeded Ike Guttentag of Wesleyan late in the third period of the third place match securing his spot in his first-ever national championship meet.

Ryan Kozdra (Mahwah, N.J.) will wrestle at 157 pounds and open action on Friday morning against Jaryn Hartranft of Wilkes University. The winner of that bout will take on top-seeded Peter Kane of Williams College later in the day. Kozdra and Kane met at the Regional Championships and Kane came away with a 7-3 win by decision. Should those two meet again this weekend it would be an interesting matchup for both sides. Kozdra will enter nationals with an overall record of 33-10 after finishing in third place at the NCAA Region I Championships last weekend. Kozdra ended up pinning Avery Carl in the third place bout in under a minute to punch his ticket to this weekend's national championship.

Jacob Deguire (Schenectady, N.Y.) will wrestle at 174 pounds and is seeded fifth in his weight class. Deguire, who has a record of 23-1 heading into the weekend, will await the winner of Jack Lamson of RIT and Zach Needles of Messiah in the second round. Deguire used three pins and then defeated Joseph Baker of Castleton by decision to reach the NCAA Championships for the third time in his career. In his 24 matches this season, Deguire has pinned 21 opponents and earlier in the year broke the all-time Division III pin record. Of his 21 pins this year, all but three have come in the first period.

Nick Rogers (Watertown, N.Y.) will wrestle at 197 pounds and open action on Friday morning against Samuel West of Central (Iowa). The winner of that bout will take on second-seeded Josh Stahl of York College of Pennsylvania later in the day. Rogers enters this weekend with an overall record of 17-6 after finishing in third at the NCAA Region I Championships last weekend. He upset top-seeded Joseph Negron of Castleton, 5-1, by decision in the third place match to punch his ticket to nationals for the second consecutive season.

Ben Katz (Medford, N.Y.) will wrestle at 285 pounds and open action on Friday morning against Mike Welsh of SUNY Brockport. The winner of that bout will take on third-seeded Josh Harkless of RIT later in the day. Katz enters this weekend with an overall record of 26-6 after taking down Adolfo Bentancur of Johnson & Wales in the regional semifinals for the first time in his career. Katz ultimately finished as the runner-up in the region, but punched his ticket to nationals for the first time.

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