Count 'em. 3⃣ All-Americans for @GannonWrestling.
— Gannon Athletics (@GUKnights) March 14, 2021
The Knights will finish in ninth place in the team standings, the third-highest in program history.#UKnighted pic.twitter.com/kvC8m0XrrP
ST. LOUIS - Alex Farenchak (Painesville, Ohio/Riverside) entered the weekend as one of a program-record eight Gannon wrestlers competing at nationals. He finishes the weekend as one of just four in program history to wrestle in the final session as a finalist.
The Gannon redshirt sophomore finished second in the country at 165 pounds, completing his run to the finals, where second-seeded Fred Green of Colorado Mesa slipped by him with a 7-3 decision for the national title Saturday night at the America's Center Convention Complex in St. Louis.
Farenchak escaped shortly after Green got the opening takedown, but Green won a scramble late in the first period to take a 4-1 lead. Farenchak hipped over for a reversal midway through the second, but Green followed that up with an escape to keep it at a 5-3 lead.
The lead went up to 6-3 after Farenchak let him up with an optional start, and the strategy nearly worked out, as Farenchak picked an ankle and got Green's left leg. Green funked out of that to force a stalemate, and was able to evade the Golden Knight the rest of the way.
Farenchak is the fourth Gannon wrestler to compete in the finals, and the first since 2011.
Joining Farenchak on the podium were teammates Nick Young (Batavia, N.Y./Alexander) (6th at 157) and Jacob Dunlop (Belle Vernon, Pa./Belle Vernon) (8th at 133).
Those placements, plus points from the Golden Knights' seven quarterfinalists, pushed Gannon to ninth place in the team standings, the third-highest in program history and the best since an eighth-place finish in 2010.