Gorham, ME --- Tommy Dell'Aera (Eastchester, NY) advanced to the semifinals and Tanner Thatcher (Blairstown, NJ), Mario Barberio (Muncy, MA) and Lucas Wilson-Wuestefeld (Barrington, RI) remained alive for a possible spot in the national tournament as the WPI wrestling team competed Saturday on the opening day of NCAA Division III Northeast Regional hosted by Southern Maine. 

On the day, the Engineers accumulated 31.5 points and sit in 13th place in the 19-team event, just 10 points out of seventh place. 

Dell'Aera, seeded fourth at 157 pounds, began his day with a 10-2 major decision over Nico Patch from Trinity and followed with a dramatic 6-4 win in SV1 against Eric Zane of Rhode Island College.  The junior will square off with Castleton's Jashon Holmes in a semifinal match in which the winner will advance to the NCAA National Championships in two weeks while the loser would have to be victorious in a pair of consolation bouts later Sunday. 

The trio of Thatcher, Barberio and Wilson-Wuestefeld all went 2-1 on the day and will look to post three consolation-round triumphs Sunday to punch their tickets to nationals.  

Thatcher and Barberio each advanced to the quarterfinals.  Thatcher, the seventh seed at 125 pounds, got the day started with a pin of Patrick Hughes from New England at 4:37, but fell 7-0 to second-seeded Jake Craig of Southern Maine in the quarterfinals.  The sophomore advanced to Sunday by grinding out a 4-1 win versus Nikko Beato of Coast Guard.  The fifth-seeded Barberio his tournament with a tight 4-3 victory at 165 pounds over Western New England's Sean Monteiro.  The junior then dropped a tough 4-1 quarterfinal before bouncing back in a big way to reach Sunday with a fall at 1:17 against Southern Maine's Tyler Haynes. 

Wilson-Wuestefeld took a different path to Sunday.  The senior heavyweight fell in his opening match to the three seed in his weight class but bounced with a first period pin of Timothy Glynn from Trinity and a 13-4 major decision over Bridgewater State's Ryan Higgins to advance to day two. 

Seniors Chris Cook (Mount Kisco, NY) and Tyler Riggs (North Scituate, RI) both registered victories after first round setbacks.  Cook bested Western New England's 141-pounder Colby Reilly 6-2 before being eliminated 15-13 in the next round.  Riggs provided WPI bonus points at 197 pounds with a 17-0 tech fall (4:07) against Elian Chen of Williams and nearly reached Sunday before being pinned at 6:52 in his next bout.    

Others to compete for WPI on Saturday included 133-pounder Connor Doran (Gales Ferry, CT), Ethan Wilson (Braintree, MA) at 149, Adam Marsh (Upper Black Eddy, PA) at 174 and 184-pounder David Gibson (Goffstown, NH). 

Action continues Sunday in the two-day event beginning at 11am.