Roanoke, VA --- WPI junior Tommy Dell'Aera (Eastchester, NY) wrestled Friday in the 2023 NCAA Division III Wrestling Championships hosted by Ferrum in the Berglund Center in Roanoke, VA. 

Dell'Aera faced a pair of seeded competitors Friday and ends his standout season with a 10-4 mark with all four of his defeats coming to wrestlers still competing in the NCAA Championships. Perhaps even more impressive, the junior missed the second half of his sophomore season and the first half of this year's campaign due to injury. 

Dell'Aera began the day facing eighth-seed Thomas West (Avon Lake, OH) of Baldwin Wallace, the second place finisher from the Central Regional.   The bout was scoreless until West notched a takedown two minutes into the first period and then quickly picked up two near fall points before riding out West to end the opening stanza. Dell'Aera chose neutral to start the second period and collected a takedown of his own with 10 seconds left to slice the lead in half to 4-2.   Starting on the bottom to kickoff the third period, West registered a reversal about 50 seconds in , add a two-point near fall and collected the riding time bonus to finished with a 11-2 major decision. 

The junior then received some bad luck as he got drawn into a preliminary round consolation bout against a returning All-America and was shutout 4-0.  Sixth-seed Alex Villar (Plainfield, IL) was upset in his preliminary round match and tallied a takedown, an escape and the riding time bonus to post the 4-0 victory. 

The two-day event concludes with a pair of sessions Saturday, culminating in the championship matches on Saturday evening.  

Friday marks the end of the Engineers season, a year that saw head coach Matt Oney's squad quadruple their win total and post better finishes in both the NEWA Duals and NCAA Northeast Regionals and have a national qualifier for the first time since 2020.