Penn State's Jarod Verkleeren Wins Bearcat Open

BINGHAMTON – True freshman Jarod Verkleeren (Hempfield Area) has one of the best, if not the very best, workout partner in the Nation; Zain Retherford (Benton Area). The 2x NCAA Champion is finishing out his final year at Penn State and Verkleeren is trying to soak up as much information and experience as he can. They both own Cadet World Freestyle Championships but Verkleeren has a long way to go on catching up to the 2017 Hodge Trophy winner.

In Verkleeren’s first official performance for Penn State, wrestling unattached, he travelled to the Jonathon Kaloust Bearcat Open where he took on the field at 149 lbs. The 2017 PIAA State Champion advanced into the finals and defeated Columbia senior Jacob Macalolooy (5-3). While Verkleeren was the only Champion from Pennsylvania, Brown senior Justin Staudenmayer (Plymouth Whitemarsh), finished second at 157 lbs. and PA State Champion Joseph Galasso (Father Judge/Cornell) took 4th. At heavyweight 2016 NCAA Qualifier Antonio Pelusi (LaSalle College/Franklin & Marshall) finished in third place.

In total nine wrestlers from Pennsylvania finished in the top eight. View brackets/results from TrackWrestling here.

Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open

NCAA – 125
1st Place – Michael Russo of Cornell Unattached
2nd Place – Nolan Hellickson of Harvard
3rd Place – Mario Guillen of Ohio
4th Place – Kyle Akins of Buffalo
5th Place – Audey Ashkar of Binghamton
6th Place – Joe Nelson of Binghamton
8th Place – Donald Keeley of Brown
8th Place – Dan Planta of Penn

NCAA – 133
1st Place – Cameron Kelly of Ohio
2nd Place – Vito Arujau of FLWC
3rd Place – Ezekiel Salvo of Brown
4th Place – Derek Spann of Buffalo
5th Place – Dominic Giannangeli of Penn State
6th Place – Giovanni Ghione of Penn
8th Place – Noah Baughman of Cornell Unattached
8th Place – Charles Tucker of Cornell Unattached

NCAA – 141
1st Place – Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell Unattached
2nd Place – Alexander Jaffe of Harvard
3rd Place – Nick Lee of Penn State
4th Place – Dane Heberlein of Binghamton
5th Place – Joseph Russ of Binghamton
6th Place – Alec Hagan of Ohio
8th Place – Taylor Brown of Army
8th Place – Jake Lizak of Penn

NCAA – 149
1st Place – Jarod Verkleeren of Penn State
2nd Place – Jacob Macololooy of Columbia
3rd Place – Jonathan Furnas of Cornell Unattached
4th Place – Bo Pipher of Penn State
5th Place – Forfeit Forfeit of Unattached
6th Place – Parker Kropman of Binghamton
6th Place – Chris Schoenherr of Cornell Unattached

NCAA – 157
1st Place – Markus Scheidel of Unattached
2nd Place – Justin Staudenmayer of Brown
3rd Place – Alex Smythe of Buffalo
4th Place – Joseph Galasso of Cornell Unattached
5th Place – Joe Velliquette of Penn
6th Place – Tanner Cook of FLWC
8th Place – Adam Santoro of Cornell Unattached
8th Place – Ben Schneider of Ohio

NCAA – 165
1st Place – Jonathon Chavez of Cornell Unattached
2nd Place – Vincent Deprez of Binghamton
3rd Place – May Bethea of Penn
4th Place – Milik Dawkins of Cornell Unattached
5th Place – Jonathan Viruet of Brown
6th Place – Laurence Kosoy of Columbia
8th Place – Sam Williams of Army
8th Place – Jaron Chavez of FLWC

NCAA – 174
1st Place – Brandon Womack of Cornell Unattached
2nd Place – Tyrel White of Columbia
3rd Place – Josef Johnson of Harvard
4th Place – Luke Hodsden of Army
5th Place – Anthony Lombardo of Binghamton
6th Place – Joseph Terry of Ohio
8th Place – Frank Guida of Bucknell
8th Place – Andrew LaBrie of Brown

NCAA – 184
1st Place – Maxwell Dean of Cornell Unattached
2nd Place – Lou Deprez of Binghamton
3rd Place – Anthony Mancini of Franklin and Marshall
4th Place – Joe Heyob of Penn
5th Place – Devon Van Cura of Penn State
6th Place – Anthony Pedro of Brown
8th Place – Hunter Yeargan of Ohio
8th Place – Jeff Lombardi of Oswego

NCAA – 197
1st Place – Frank Mattiace of Penn
2nd Place – Ben Darmstadt of Cornell Unattached
3rd Place – Benjamin Honis of Cornell Unattached
4th Place – Shakur Rasheed of Penn State
5th Place – Mark Tracy of Binghamton
6th Place – Alex Hopkins of Army
8th Place – Michael Bulkin of Columbia
8th Place – Joe Doyle of Binghamton

NCAA – 285
1st Place – Garrett Ryan of Columbia
2nd Place – Connor Calkins of Binghamton
3rd Place – Antonio Pelusi of Franklin and Marshall
4th Place – Patrick Garren of Penn
5th Place – Ian Butterbrodt of Brown
6th Place – Angus Cowell of Harvard
8th Place – Nolan Terrance of Buffalo
8th Place – Brendan Furman of FLWC

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