ELIZABETHTOWN, PA – Graduate student Chris Roybal earned a runner-up finish at 165 pounds to lead the way for the Johns Hopkins wrestling team at Elizabethtown's Blue Jay Classic on Saturday.  Hopkins totaled 87.5 points to place eighth in the 12-team tournament.  Wilkes cruised to the team title as the Colonels' totaled 194 points.  Penn Tech (132), Elizabethtown (131), Roanoke (130.5) and Cortland (122.5) rounded out the top five in the team scoring.
 
Roybal needed less than three minutes to move through his first two matches as he pinned Penn Tech's Jonathan Altamirano Bautista (1:27) and Wilkes' Brayden Shannon (1:18) in less than 90 seconds.  He added a 10-3 decision of Etown's Justice Hockenberry-Folk in the quarterfinals and added a tight 6-2 win over Caleb Lawrence of Wilkes in the semifinals.
 
In the title bout, Roybal drew Carter Davis of Penn Tech and Davis used a pair of first-period takedowns to jump to a quick 6-1 lead.  Davis added a second-period takedown, a third period reversal and a point of riding time to close out a 12-2 victory.
 
In addition to Roybal's runner-up finish, two other Blue Jays - freshman Giorgio Difalco (141), sophomore Freddy Pimental (157) and junior Jacob Pomykata (285) also advanced to the semifinals before falling into the third-place match.
 
Difalco finished fourth with a 2-2 record on the day.  He picked up a pair of wins by fall over Ferrum's Josiah Canales (5:57) and Davis & Elkins' Richard Davis (3:25) before slipping to the third-place match with a tight 6-3 loss to Cortland's Dom Vinci in the semifinals.  He fthen ell to Etown's David Panone in the third-place match to cap his day.
 
Pimental scored three straight bonus-point wins to roll into the semifinals.  He opened with a second-period pin of Keystone's Codi Bomboy (4:23), scored a 16-0 technical fall over Scranton Aidan Veirun and needed just 40 seconds to finish off Gabriel Pujadas of Davis & Elkins to move into the semis.  There, he dropped a 13-6 decision to Jaryn Hartranft before finishing fourth after a 4-1 loss to Roanoke's Andru Boyd, 4-1.
 
Like Pimental, Pomykata used three bonus-point wins to advance into the semifinals.  He needed just 76 seconds to take care of Elmira's Nick Lopez, took out Ferrum's Trent Ray in 4:27 and made it three straight wins by fall as he stuck Etown's Jimmy Yeingst at the buzzer to end the first period.  He then fell to Wilkes' Caleb Burkhart by fall in the semifinals before dropping the third-place match to Etown's Ksawery Niewadomy.
 
In addition to Hopkins' three, top-four finishers, the Blue Jays had several other solid performances on the day with a number of team points earned via bonus-point victories.
 
• Eric Gendlin (157) finished off a 2-2 performance with both of his wins coming by decision.
• Noah Graber (184) went 2-2 on the day with a first-period pin among his two victories.
• Dillon Heffernan (175) picked up two wins (2-2) with both earning bonus points (technical fall, pin).
• Nicholas Hwang (165) picked up a pair of wins by major decision and one by injury default as he won three of his five matches.
• Kadin Khalloufi (174) went 2-2 with two wins by fall, both of which came in the first period.
• Connor Powell (174) won three of his five matches with one technical fall and two pins to his credit.