ITHACA, N.Y.- The TCNJ wrestling team currently stands atop the leaderboard with 80 team points after day one of the Mideast Region tournament on Friday. Ithaca narrowly trails TCNJ with 78.5 team points followed by RIT with 70. The Lions have nine wrestlers who still have a chance to punch their ticket to nationals.
 
Five of the nine have advanced to the semifinals and are just one win away from a trip to Roanoke. Those five Lions include Domenic Difrancescantonio (141), Mike Conklin (149), Matt Sacco (157), Nick Sacco (165) and Peter Wersinger (285).
 
Kyle Nase (133), Reid Colella (174), Quinn Haddad (184) and Joe Daddario (197) are all still alive, having advanced to the quarterfinals of the consolation bracket. The winner of the consolation bracket will receive third place and in turn qualify for nationals. These four Lions are three wins away from doing just that.
 
Difrancescantonio started his day off with a 15-1 major decision win in his first bout of the day over Marquis Lamond of the College at Brockport. He followed that up by pinning Noah Hunt of Pennsylvania College of Technology midway through the second period. He will face off against Cathal Donovan of SUNY Cortland in the 141 lb. semifinal tomorrow.
 
Conklin in similar fashion took off running with an 8-0 major decision win over Shane Strausser of Elizabethtown College. He then pinned Eli Sims from the College at Brockport midway through the third round. He will take on Thomas Monn of Mcdaniel College in the 149 lb. semifinal bout tomorrow.
 
Matt Sacco began his region tournament strong with a pin of Farhid Negabhan of Pitt-Bradford in the last minute of the first period. After that, he picked up two decision wins over Xavier Howard and Cameron Bruffy of McDaniel andCentenary respectively to earn a spot in the semifinal match. Tomorrow, he will go up against Brandon Bowles of Muhlenberg College.
 
Nick Sacco also had a prelim matchup to start his tournament at 165 lbs. where he won by decision against Jake Hoffman from Johns Hopkins University. He then went on to win twice more by decision against Jaden Datz and Mason Leshock of SUNY Cortland and Pennsylvania College of Technology consecutively. Sacco will match up against Brian Schneider of Elizabethtown College tomorrow in the semifinals.
 
Wersinger began his 285 Mideast region tournament with two impressive wins, first a major decision win over Cameron Carter-Green of Pitt-Bradford followed by a pin of Brendan Hamilton of Keystone College. In the quarterfinals, Wersinger matched up against Jeremy Mazzella of Ithaca, who he defeated by decision. He will take on Joe Yanis of The College at Brockport for a trip to nationals tomorrow.
 
Action at the DIII Mideast Region Tournament will start back up tomorrow at 11 AM as TCNJ looks to make it three consecutive region titles.