Bucknell University
NCAA Championships
Kevin LeValley Becomes Third Bucknell Wrestler to Earn All-America Honors Twice
3/18/2011 8:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 18, 2011
PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - Senior Kevin LeValley has joined an exclusive group at Bucknell. He is just the third wrestler in school history to earn All-America honors twice as he clinched a top-eight showing in the 149-pound bracket Friday at the NCAA Championships at the Wells Fargo Center. LeValley will wrestle Virginia's Derek Valenti for seventh place on Saturday morning.
LeValley, who finished in seventh place at the 2010 NCAA Championships, joins Bobby Ferraro (1994, 1995) and former teammate Andy Rendos (2009, 2010) as the only two-time All-Americans in program history.
The winner of the 149-pound bracket at the 2011 EIWA Championships, LeValley posted a 1-2 record against tough competition on Friday. The third-seeded LeValley opened the day in the quarterfinals against Boise State's sixth-seeded Jason Chamberlain. The bout went to overtime tied 2-2. In the first tiebreaker, LeValley escaped to go up 3-2, but Chamberlain quickly countered with a takedown to claim a 4-3 victory.
Chamberlain is now 4-0 all-time against LeValley, including wins in each of the last two NCAA Championships.
The loss to Chamberlain dropped LeValley to the consolation bracket, where he still had the opportunity to finish as high as third.
LeValley won his first consolation bout over Edinboro's Torsten Gillespie by an 11-2 major decision. It was LeValley's third victory in three tries this year against Gillespie. That win clinched All-America status for LeValley, who last year became the fifth individual in program history to be named an All-American.
Still with a chance to finish as high as third, LeValley met up with Northwestern's 11th-seeded Andrew Nadhir in the consolation quarterfinals. LeValley trailed 5-3, but scored a takedown with 15 seconds left in the third period to tie it up. It appeared as though he might face another overtime bout, but Nadhir escaped, clinching the match, 6-5.
Friday's meeting was the second all-time between LeValley and Nadhir. LeValley posted a 6-3 opening round win at last year's NCAA Championships.
LeValley's Saturday morning opponent Valenti is unseeded. It will be the first all-time meeting between LeValley, who is now 33-3 this year, and Valenti.
Fellow Bison senior Jay Hahn was also in action on Friday and his NCAA run came to an end with a 10-1 major decision loss to American's Daniel Mitchell. It was the third time in the last month that Hahn faced Mitchell and each time Mitchell came away victorious. The two conference opponents also met in the third-place bout at the EIWA Championships two weeks ago and Mitchell posted a 4-3 victory in Sojka Pavilion.
Hahn finished his final campaign with a 29-12 record, while his career record finished at 63-52.
Bucknell was listed 37th place in the team standings with 10.5 points Friday evening with just a handful of bouts still to be contested.
Bucknell Results
149: Kevin LeValley (No. 3 seed), Sr., Hugo, Colo.
Thursday:
First Round: W, maj. dec. Joey Metzler (Old Dominion), 10-2
Second Round: W, maj. dec. Scott Sakaguchi (Oregon State), 8-0
Friday:
Quarterfinals: L, dec. #6 Jason Chamberlain (Boise State), 4-3 (tb1)
Consolation Fourth Round: W, maj. dec. Torsten Gillespie (Edinboro), 11-2
Consolation Quarterfinals: L, dec. #11 Andrew Nadhir (Northwestern), 6-5
197: Jay Hahn (unseeded), Sr., Malvern, Pa.
Thursday:
First Round: W, dec. Nikolas Brown (Chattanooga), 11-7
Second Round: L, maj. dec. #4 Dustin Kilgore (Kent State), 13-4
Friday:
Consolation Second Round: L, maj. dec. Daniel Mitchell (American), 10-1
Hahn Eliminated
