GRANTHAM, PA – The Johns Hopkins wrestling team competed at the NCAA Region 3 Championships at Messiah on Friday.  Graduate student Chris Roybal remains alive after day one and will compete in the consolation quarterfinals on Saturday morning.  Roybal is guaranteed a top-eight finish and can punch his ticket to the NCAA Championships with three straight wins on Saturday.
 
The Blue Jays had six wrestlers among their eight entries win at least one match on the day.  Below is a summary of Hopkins' top performers on Friday:
 
165 – Roybal opened with a 4-2 win by decision over Misericordia's Jariel Severino before falling to defending national champion Matt Lackman of Alvernia, 8-0.  In the consolation bracket, Roybal scored a 7-2 decision over Muhlenberg's Chris Sockler on the strength of a pair of first-period takedowns to move into Saturday's consolation quarterfinals.  He will meet NYU's Hassan Khan in his first match on Saturday.
 
149 – Sophomore Freddy Pimental closed his season with a 1-2 mark on the day.  After falling to Messiah's Dalton Monger by fall in his first bout, Pimental bounced back with a second-period pin of Scranton's Shkeb Nadie (4:53) in the consolation bracket.  He then dropped a heart-breaking 5-4 decision to Michael Williams of Misericordia in his final bout. Down 4-0 late in the second period, Pimental scored a takedown to make it 4-3 and then drew even with an escape midway through the third period, only to have Williams score the one-point win on the strength of a riding-time point.
 
157 – Graduate student Fritz Maurath picked up one win in three matches in the final action of his career.  He opened his day with a 25-15 major decision of Elizabethtown's Michael Beers to advance to the quarterfinals.  Up just 13-12 after two periods, Maurath used two takedowns, four near-fall points and a pair of escapes to outscore Beers, 12-3 in the final period to advance.  He slipped to the consolation bracket with a first-period loss to second-seeded Jason Rezac of Alvernia and was eliminated by Muhlenberg's Trey Miletics, 9-6.
 
174 – Junior Connor Powell picked up a 9-6 win over Andrew Weaver of Penn State Altoona in an opening-round match before being eliminated with back-to-back losses to Messiah's Austin Brass and NYU's Nick Bell.
 
184 – Senior Noah Graber opened his day with a loss to TCNJ's James Romaine, but bounced back in the consolation bracket with a second-period pin of McDaniel's Soren Wynn (4:32).  He then drew Nils Updale of Ursinus, who jumped to a 5-1 lead at the end of the first period and bumped the lead to 12-3 at the end of the second before locking down an 18-6 victory.
 
197 – Senior John Libby opened his day with a loss to Messiah's Sawyer Deresznski, but rebounded with a 17-8 major decision of York's Owen Dixon in the first round of consolations.  Libby found himself down 7-0 less than 90 seconds into the match, but a reversal, takedown and four-point nearfall by the end of the first period gave him a 9-8 lead and he added two more takedowns, an escape and a riding time point to grab the nine-point victory.  Rich Fronheiser of King's then ended his day with a 10-6 win.  Libby trailed 7-1 entering the final period, but used two escapes and a takedown to draw closer, only to run out of time in his comeback attempt.