Goetz advances to NCAA Championship semifinal round

Cleveland, OHIO - In his third trip to the NCAA Division III National Championships, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville's Jon Goetz has become the Pioneers' first All-American since 2010. Goetz went 2-0 on the first day of competition and earned his spot in the semifinal round Saturday morning.

Goetz (27-1) had little trouble in either of his two matches as he outscored his opponents by a combined score of 21-0. He also advances his streak of shutout matches to six in which he has outscored his opponents 32-0 with a pair of pins. In his first match, Goetz cruised to a 12-0 major decision over Central's Nathan Fritz (19-5) and followed that performance with a 9-0 major decision over Darden Schurg (37-3) of Wabash College. In the semifinal round Goetz will match up with defending 174 pound national champion Eric Devos (16-0) of Wartburg College.

The Pioneers' D'Andre Johnson lost his first round matchup to Waynesburg University's Jake Evans (48-3), but bounced back with a pin against Alveno Matthews (15-10) from Ferrum College in just 21 seconds. In his second wrestleback match Johnson got out to an 8-4 lead, but eventually was pinned and eliminated from the tournament by Austin Bellile (13-1) from MSOE. Johnson finishes his season at 22-6 with 10 pins while earning his second appearance at the NCAA National Championships.

Wrestling is set to begin in the Cleveland Public Auditorium at 9 a.m. central time on Saturday.