ONEONTA, N.Y. -- Senior Oneonta wrestlers Avery Leonard (Milford, N.Y./Milford Central), Carson LiCastri (Easton, CT/Joel Barlow High School), and Jack Ryan (Trumbull, CT/) all qualified for the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships and will represent Oneonta on Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14. The Division III Wrestling Championships is being held at the Alliant Energy Power House in Cedar Rapids, Iowa with the two-day competition beginning at 10 am central, 11 am eastern, on both days.

The three Red Dragons qualified for the National tournament with top three finishes at the Region II Championships two weeks ago (Feb. 27 and 28) at Ithaca College. LiCastri won the 197-pound Region II title, while Ryan placed second at 184 pounds, and Leonard finished third at 149 pounds. The Oneonta senior trio is competing for All-American honors and a chance to be crowned National Champion. They must finish in the top eight of their respective brackets to earn All-American recognition. If Ryan wins his first two matches on the first day he will automatically qualify for All-American status, where as Leonard and LiCastri will automatically qualify if they win their first three matches on day one.

LiCastri enters his second straight National tournament with a record of 30-6 with 14 falls, one tech fall, and five majors. He was recently ranked 18th in "TheOpenMat" media poll at 197.

The Oneonta 197-pounder's first match is against Zach Borzio from Williams College. Borzio enters the tournament with a 22-11 record after qualifying with a second-place finish in the Region I Championships. He competed at 184 pounds for the first part of the season then 197 for the back half. Borzio was unranked in the latest polls from both the NWCA and TheOpenMat.

The winner of the 197-match will face the three seed in the tournament, Lorenzo Pellot- Vázquez (Roanoke). The top seed at 197 pounds is Region III Champion, TCNJ's DJ Henry. Henry and LiCastri competed against one another in their first match of last year's national tournament in Providence, Rhode Island. Henry ended up getting the upper hand with a 5-2 decision in sudden victory. 

Leonard heads into his second National tournament with an overall record of 30-5 with four falls, 19 tech falls, and one major. He competed at 141 pounds during the regular season, then at the Region II Championships he went up to 149 and went 5-1 with two first-round falls for his third-place finish. He was ranked 17th in the latest media poll from TheOpenMat.

The Milford, N.Y.-native will compete against TheOpenMat's 19th ranked 149-pounder Ty Stewart (Springfield) in his first match. Stewart finished the regular season with a 22-11 record and qualified with a third-place finish at the Region I Championships. The winner of Leonard and Stewart's match will face the tournament's four seed Cole Handlovic (Stevens), the runner-up in the Region II Championships. The top seed in the bracket is Region III Champion Thomas Monn from McDaniel.

Leonard faced a handful of opponents that qualified for Nationals at 141 pounds this season and defeated Ty Trickle (Trinity (Ct.)) in an 18-5 major during the Manganaro Duals. Regarding the other competitors in the 149-pound bracket, Leonard faced both Angelo Centrone (Cortland) and Caleb Seyfried (Williams) last season, who are ranked third and 11th, respectively, in this year's tournament. He defeated Seyfried in a 17-8 major, while coming up short in an 8-5 sudden victory decision against Centrone.

Ryan will go into his fourth National tournament appearance with a 16-2 record with 10 pins and four majors. After finishing as the Region II runner-up, Ryan was ranked as the eight seed in the National tournament and eighth in the latest TheOpenMat poll.

The 184-pound Red Dragon will face the ninth seed of the tournament, Landry Barker from Loras College (Iowa) for his first match. Barker, who was ranked sixth in the final NWCA rankings and ninth in TheOpenMat, enters the tournament with a 26-6 record and qualified with a second-place finish in the Region VI Championships.

The winner of the 184-bout will advance and face the winner between top seeded Ganon Smith (Elizabethtown) and Caden Stout (Coast Gurad) or Zane Pannell (Dubuque). Stout and Pannell will wrestle one another in the first round to see who will face Smith.

Ryan has a history with Smith, competing against him once this season and twice in last year's National Tournament. This season's matchup was back in November at the Wilkes Invite, where Smith had the slight advantage for a 5-2 decision. At last year's nationals, Smith took a 7-2 decision in the quarterfinals before Ryan avenged himself with a 4-1 sudden victory decision in the third-place match.

The links to the Wrestling National Championships live stats and live stream can be found on our wrestling's schedule page, at the top above this article, or you can click HERE for the live stats and click HERE for the live stream.

Please note: The live stream link will send you to the NCAA live video schedule. You will need to scroll down to the bottom and find "DIII Men's Wrestling". There will be six links to choose from, one for each mat. We will not know which mats our Red Dragons are wrestling on until 30 minutes to their competition. It may ask you to enter an email to watch the stream. If so, it is a free sign-up to access the live event.