ROCHESTER, NY -- Johns Hopkins sophomore Jake Hoffmann entered the second day of the 2024 NCAA Mideast Regional Championships on Saturday knowing exactly what he needed to do qualify for the upcoming NCAA Championships – win three consecutive do-or-die matches.  Anything short of that would leave him on the outside looking in.
 
Hoffmann left no doubt with his effort on Saturday as he outscored his three opponents by a combined score of 45-19 with one major decision and two wins by decision.
 
He opened his run with a dominating 18-5 win over Elizabethtown's Gavin Fehr.  Up 4-2 after the first period, Hoffmann used a second-period takedown and four-point nearfall to push the lead to 11-3 and added two more takedowns and a point of riding time to cruise into the consolations semifinals.
 
Hoffmann then scored a first-period takedown of Oneonta's Max Yahre to lead 3-1 after three minutes, but Yahre used a second-period escape to make it 3-2 entering the final period.  Working from the bottom to start, Hoffman scored a reversal to grab 5-2 lead and added a pair of takedowns to roll to an 11-4 victory and advance to the third-place match.
 
In the consolation final, RIT's Marek Bush grabbed a 7-5 lead at the end of a wild first period before Hoffmann scored two takedowns in the final minute of the second to grab an 11-9 lead entering the final period.  Hoffmann then used a quick escape and takedown to extend his lead to 15-9 before holding Bush off for a 16-10 victory.
 
In addition to Hoffmann's run on the final day, the Blue Jays had two other place-winners as senior Chris Roybal went 1-2 on the second day of the regional to place sixth, while graduate student Riley Parker finished eighth.
 
The Blue Jays placed 14^th in the final team standings as they totaled 51 points.  TCNJ won the team title with 151 points with Ithaca (138.5), Elizabethtown (115.5), McDaniel (88.5) and RIT and Ursinus (86.0) rounding out the top five in the final team standings.
 
Roybal scored a 5-2 win over Penn Tech's Travis Green in his first match of the day before dropping two straight to earn his sixth-place showing.  Parker fell to Brockport's Liam Bullock in his first match and then forfeited the seventh-place match to place eighth.
 
Hoffmann's three wins boost his single-season total to a school record 39 on the year as he is now 39-10.  His 49 overall matches are also a Johns Hopkins single-season record and he becomes the 27^th NCAA qualifier in school history.  All 27 have come since 2000 and 25 of the 27 have come under the direction of current head coach Keith Norris.
 
Hoffmann is the third Blue Jay to qualify for the NCAAs at 157 pounds as he joins Dominick Reyes (2018) and Matt Fusaro (2012).
 
What's Next
The NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships will take place on March 15-16 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.