Mines at the NCAA Division II Championship, Friday-Saturday [Live Results] [Live Video]

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OREDIGGERS SEND THREE TO ST. LOUIS
The 2021-22 wrestling season comes to its conclusion this weekend as the nation's elite converge in St. Louis for the 2022 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships, hosted at Chaifetz Arena on the campus of Saint Louis University. The two-day meet will begin with two sessions on Friday, at 11 a.m. and 5 p.m. CT, and conclude Saturday with sessions at 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. CT. Live video of every mat is available for free on ncaa.com, with live brackets on trackwrestling.com. 

WHO'S IN
Mines sends three wrestlers to nationals in 141-pounder Grayston DiBlasi, 184-pounder Anderson Salisbury, and 285-pounder Weston Hunt. All three qualified via third-place finishes at the NCAA Super Region VI Championships on Feb. 26 - but more on them in a minute. 

AT SUPER REGIONALS
At the NCAA Super Region VI Championship, the Orediggers scored 84.5 team points to take fourth with seven placewinners overall. In addition to the three nationals qualifiers, Mines had fifth-place finishers in Tyler Krause (133) and Carter Noehre (157), and sixth-place finishers in Christian Lopez (125) and Ryan Fidel (174). 

REGULAR SEASON REWIND
Mines finished 8-2 overall in duals and 6-1 in the RMAC, wrapping up the regular season on Feb. 12 with an emphatic 35-9 win over CSU Pueblo. The Orediggers also own in-region wins over New Mexico Highlands, Adams State, San Francisco State, Fort Hays State, Western Colorado, and Chadron State. 

141 POUNDS - GRAYSTON DIBLASI
Grayston DiBlasi is the first Oredigger freshman to make the nationals field since John Crowley in 2013 as he hopes to end his terrific rookie campaign on a high note. DiBlasi leads Mines in wins at 24-5 this season, going 18-3 vs. Division II and 2-1 vs. NWCA-ranked opponents. He won the Doug Moses Open and was second at the Mines Rookie Open and UNK Open earlier this season. 

DiBlasi's draw sees him wrestling a prelim against Matthew Zuckerman of Tiffin to start, and then facing either fifth-seeded Christian Small of King with a win or the loser of seventh-seeded Peter Kuster of Drury and Pitt-Johnstown's Caleb Morris in consolations. He has faced two NCAA qualifiers this season, pinning Ethan Leake of Chadron State in their dual on Feb. 6, and losing by fall to UNK's Nick James at NCAA Super Regionals; both are on DiBlasi's side of the bracket. 

184 POUNDS - ANDERSON SALISBURY
Redshirt senior Anderson Salisbury makes his third consecutive trip to nationals, hoping to improve on his eighth-place All-America finish a year ago. Ranked #7 by the NWCA, Salisbury is 19-3 this season and won the UNK Open Elite tournament while finishing third at NCAA regionals and seventh at the Midwest Classic. He is 2-2 vs. ranked opponents this season and 2-1 against NCAA qualifiers, including his preliminary opponent Joey Williams of Maryville, who Salisbury beat in the 7th-place bout at the Midwest Classic in a first-period fall. Salisbury also faced Fort Hays State's Marty Verhaeghe twice during the season, beating him in a dual but losing to him at NCAA Super Regionals, both by decision. 

Salisbury earned the seventh seed at 184 pounds and will face Williams in a preliminary-round bout; the winner will face Reece Woracheck of UW-Parkside in the first round, and the loser wrestles the loser of Caden Steffen (SW Minn. St.) and Anthony Giampietro (Millersville) in consolations. 

285 POUNDS - WESTON HUNT
Only the second four-time NCAA qualifier in Mines Wrestling history, Weston Hunt caps off his decorated career as he hopes to return to the national final. Last year's 285-pound runner-up, Hunt heads to his final tournament 19-2 overall this season and 74-25 in his career. A two-time All-American, Hunt made a run to the national final last year where he lost to St. Cloud State's Kameron Teacher, who is on the other side of this year's bracket. Hunt is 2-2 vs. ranked opponents this year.

Hunt has faced only one NCAA qualifier this season, fifth seed Ian Kuehl of McKendree, losing 2-1 in overtime at the Midwest Classic. He also was slated to take on both UIndy's Cale Gray and Fort Hays State's AJ Cooper at the Midwest Classic but did not compete via medical forfeit, and he and Cooper did not face each other during Mines' dual with FHSU earlier this season. Hunt faces a potentially tough first-round opponent in third-seeded Shawn Streck of Central Oklahoma, a former NCAA D-I qualifier at Purdue. The winner and loser of Hunt's first-round bout matches the winner and loser of David Henson (Tiffin) and Lee Herrington (UNK). 

NOTING MINES AT THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
Mines' best team finish at the NCAA Division II meet was seventh in 1996 ... Mines was 14th last year with Hunt and Salisbury the only qualifiers in the pandemic-truncated field ... The Orediggers were also the national runner-up in 1964 before there were divisions, and have been top-10 four times overall at NCAA meets ... The Orediggers have seven individual national champions, the last coming in 1998 when John Simpson won at 184 ... The program has 53 all-Americans since 1960 ... Hunt is trying to become Mines' first three-time all-American since Simpson in 1997-99 ... He joins Glen Frank as the only other four-time qualifier in Mines history since the NCAA went to the regional qualifying format in 1975.