Ricky Caruso Earns Automatic Bid to NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships

MIDDLETOWN, Ct. -- Bridgewater State University senior heavyweight Ricky Caruso (Waltham, Mass.) is heading to the 2014 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships after earning an automatic berth with his third place finish at the Division III Northeast Regional hosted by Wesleyan University on Sunday.

The top three in each weight class at each of the six regional tournaments throughout the country get an automatic bid to the national championship tournament which will take place on March 14-15 at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Seeded second in the heavyweight bracket, Caruso battled back from an opening round loss to win five consecutive bouts capped off by a victory in the third place match. On Sunday, he posted a 10-0 major decision over #8 George Madosky of Johnson & Wales University followed by a 4-0 triumph over #3 Brian Nicoll of Rhode Island College to advance to the third place match.

With an NCAA bid on the line, Caruso edged fifth-seeded Shane Bartrum of Ithaca College, 2-1 in double overtime, to place third and secure a spot at nationals.  After holding Bartrum down for the first 30-second session of double overtime, Caruso was able to escape ten seconds into the second session to win the match.

Caruso (36-5) is the eighth grappler in BSU wrestling history to earn a spot in the NCAA Division III Tournament and first since Patrick Walsh in 2012.  Bridgewater will be sending at least one wrestler to the national tournament for the tenth time in the past 13 seasons.

BSU finished 15th in the team standings with Caruso accounting for all 15 of the Bears' points.  Cortland State captured the team title with 128 points followed by Ithaca College (126 pts.) in second place and Johnson & Wales University (105.5 pts.) in third.

Cortland and Ithaca have the most automatic qualifiers with six apiece.  Johnson & Wales is the top New England Wrestling Association (NEWA) school with four representatives.

Official brackets for the NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships will be released on Monday, March 10th.