ST. LOUIS - A chance to compete in the NCAA DII wrestling national championship was cut short for Christopher Droege and Lake Erie wrestling last year. That opportunity returned on Friday and Droege finished the day with All-American honors. 

Droege, in the 197-pound weight class, began the day dropping his opening round match against Donald Negus (Colorado Mesa). From there, Droege would earn back-to-back decisions, winning 9-8 over Darius Parker (Lander) and 10-6 over Bryce Walker (UNC-Pembroke). On Saturday, Droege will compete to finish as high as third place and has already earned a top-8 placement. 

Lake Erie also had three wrestlers who finished one match short of All-American honors. Zane Johnson, Sean O'Hearon, and James Penfold finished the day going 1-2. O'Hearon won his only match by fall over Gabe Johnson (Central Oklahoma). 

Coach Breese's Thoughts

"This is a big day for our program and for Chris. He is has been a tireless worker and has come further in his time a Lake Erie than almost anyone I have ever coached. 

We couldn't be happier for him, but he still has work to do tomorrow to try to come back and reach third place.  

From an overall program perspective, today brings mixed emotions having three other guys come one win short of joining Chris as an All-American is tough to swallow.  

The negative is obviously that we only have one All-American instead of four.  The positive is we will return 4 guys next year that are Top 12 in the country."

Up Next

On day two Droege will face Joseph Reimers (Nebraska-Kearney) who defeated Nicholas Mason of Tiffin on Friday.