Cortland, N.Y. -- Seniors Jad Duca (South Brunswick/Monmouth Junction, N.J.) and Robert Stubbs (MacArthur/Levittown) and junior Nick Calandrino (Emerson/Emerson, N.J.) have earned automatic bids to the NCAA Championships by winning individual titles at Saturday's ECWC Championships at Cortland. Senior Matthias Keib (G. Ray Bodley/Fulton), the fourth Bomber to reach the finals, received one of the eight wild-card selections to nationals.

The four Bombers will join 14 other wrestlers from the ECWC who qualified for the NCAA Championships, to be held March 3-4 at College of New Jersey.

Ithaca placed third in the team standings.

Duca, seeded second at 157 pounds, beat face top-seeded Shaheim Bradshaw of Brockport (ranked second nationally) in the final to earn his second straight trip to nationals. Duca was a wild-card selection last year. He raised his career mark to 91-32, tying Dan Bieller (1986-90) for 16th on Ithaca's career list.

Stubbs, the top seed and defending ECWC at 184 pounds, beat second-seeded Brett Giehl of Brockport 4-1 in the finals. Stubbs will be making his second straight trip to nationals. His semifinal win was the 100th of his career, making him the 10th Bomber to reach that total; with 101 career wins, he ranks ninth on the program's all-time list.

Calandrino, seeded first at 197 pounds, defeated second-seeded Zach Greenberg of RIT 6-5 in the final to earn his first trip to nationals.

All-time Ithaca conference and regional champions

Keib, seeded second at 174 pounds, lost 6-3 to top-seeded Stef Sair of Cortland, the nations top-ranked wrestler, in the final. The bout was the third of the season between Keib and Sair (Keib's win in January knocked Sair from the top of the national rankings; he regained the top spot and Keib is ranked fourth). With a 95-47 career record, Keib has moved into 14th on Ithaca's career list.

All-time Ithaca wild-card selections

Senior Brian Lockard (Upper Darby/Dresher, Pa.), seeded second at 165 pounds, placed third with an 8-2 win in the third-place match.

Ithaca's other five entrants were eliminated in the consolation round: senior Macario Alvarez (Grapevine/Grapevine, Texas) at 125 pounds; sophomore Bryan Gammons at 133 pounds; senior
Scott Aronowitz (Clarkstown North/New City) at 141 pounds; freshman Mike Toscano (Ithaca/Ithaca) at 149 pounds and senior heavyweight Tyler Daffinee (Binghamton/Binghamton).

Tournament website

Keib and Stubbs are both ranked fourth nationally and both are coming off NCAA berths a year ago; Stubbs is the defending ECWC champion at 184 pounds. Keib is one of two returning Bombers to have earned wild-card berths to nationals last winter (Duca is the other).

Complete team and individual rankings