NORFOLK, Va. -- Three Old Dominion wrestlers landed top-10 spots in InterMat's and The Open Mat’s first set of rankings for the 2015-16 season. As a team, the Monarchs were selected No. 17 by InterMat as a tournament team and No. 18 as a dual meet team.
At 125, junior Brandon Jeske was selected No. 16 by The Open Mat. Jeske enters his junior campaign after qualifying for the NCAA Championships in both his freshman and sophomore seasons. At the 2015 National Tournament, Jeske fell to the No. 1 and No. 2 seeds but earned a consolation victory over Appalachian State’s Dom Parisi.
Returning All-American Chris Mecate came in at No. 5 at 141 in both polls and has at least one career win to his credit over the No. 1 and No. 2 ranked wrestlers in his weight class. The fifth-year senior placed sixth at the NCAA Championships a season ago after storming into the semifinals as a No. 11 seed.
Alexander Richardson was ranked No. 5 in both polls at 149, as the senior enters the 2015-16 season after earning All-American status with a seventh place finish at the 2015 NCAA Championships. Richardson unofficially begins his season on Sunday, Nov. 1 at the 50th Annual NWCA All-Star Classic in Atlanta, Ga. where he will take on Rider’s BJ Clagon, who is ranked No. 4 in both early season polls, live on ESPNU.
Redshirt junior Jack Dechow was tabbed No. 7 by InterMat and No. 9 by The Open Mat at 184. The 2014 NCAA All-American reached the semifinals en route to a fourth place finish as a freshman and became a two-time MAC Champion and Midlands Champion in his sophomore season.
As a team, Old Dominion was selected as the No. 17 tournament team and the No. 18 dual meet team in the nation by InterMat.
The Monarchs begin the 2015-16 season on Wednesday, Oct. 28 with the annual Blue-Silver Intrasquad meet which is slated to begin at 7 p.m. in the Jim Jarrrett Athletic Administration gym.
VOUCHER BOOKS
Take advantage of the great offer to attend ODU wrestling matches through the ODU Wrestling Season Ticket Voucher Book available online here. Each voucher book contains 12 vouchers. These vouchers are good for any regular season ODU home wrestling match during the 2015-2016 season.
Be sure to follow Old Dominion Wrestling on Twitter at @ODUWrestling, find them on Facebook at OldDominionWrestling and subscribe to ODU Wrestling on YouTube!