Flannery takes fifth at NCAA Championships

3/11/2023 4:36:00 PM | By: Ethan Hulsey, Director of Athletic Communications

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – After putting a scare into the No. 1 seed in his first match of the day, Millersville University's Devin Flannery closed his season with his hand raised and a fifth-place finish at the NCAA Division II Championships.

Flannery bounced back from back-to-back losses to defeat West Liberty's Vincent Scollo by a 4-1 score in the fifth-place match, needing only a takedown and a reversal as he controlled the match for nearly the entirety.

"To come back and wrestle like he did in the fifth-place match tells you that Devin has a lot of grit," said Millersville head coach Jerry Boland. "I've coached a lot of kids in high school and college, and he is one of the grittiest I've coached. To win at this level you have to have that. You have to overcome adversity quickly, make adjustments during and after the match and rebound quickly. It says a lot about how he trains and how he prepares mentally. You only have one goal in mind to win. When you wrestle at the level he has, you have to prepare for things to not go your way and what you will do in response."

Against Scollo, Flannery finished the second period with a flurry and earned two points for a takedown on the edge of the mat as time ran out, giving him a 2-1 lead heading into the final two minutes. Flannery started on the bottom in the third period, and Scollo looked to transition into a pinning situation, but Flannery slipped free and won a long scramble with a reversal. Flannery stayed on top for the remainder of the period.

"He had a dominant win in the fifth-place match," said Boland. "He controlled it from start to finish and put a nice statement on the year. I'm happy with the way things finished for him."

Flannery's season concluded with a 32-6 record, tying him for 12th at Millersville in single-season victories and the sixth-best single-season winning percentage. He is the first Marauder to win at least 32 matches since Shane Smith in 2008-09, and Smith hit that total with nine more matches wrestled.

Flannery reached the fifth-place match after falling 15-5 to Quentrevio Campbell of Chadron State in the semifinals, but the match was far closer than the final score would indicate Campbell had won his first two matches of the tournament by 18-1 tech falls, but Flannery came close to pinning situations twice. Flannery's escape to start the second period made the score 2-2, but Campbell's noticeable height and length advantage helped him leverage Flannery's offense into his own points. With one minute remaining in the second, Flannery shot in on Campbell's legs, but Campbell blocked it and put Flannery on his back for a takedown and four nearfall points. Trailing 9-3 in the third, Flannery scored a takedown and looked to tilt Campbell onto his shoulders, but Campbell wriggled away from danger. Back to a neutral position, Flannery continued to press, and with 10 seconds left, he caught Campbell with an underhook, but as Flannery turned to toss, Campbell's length proved too much. Campbell fell directly onto Flannery, picking up five quick points.

That put Flannery in the consolation bracket with a familiar foe--Mercyhurst's Eric Bartos. Of Flannery's five losses on the season, two came at the hands of Bartos--one in the regular season and one in the NCAA Super Region I Championship match. Flannery scored the bout's first points by slipping behind Bartos at the edge of the mat and dropping him to his knees. But seconds later, Bartos rolled underneath, flipping Flannery to his back and finishing the pin in a moment.

It was a tough result for Flannery, who had wrestled well on his feet in both matches, but match-ups are everything. Scollo had beaten Bartos 7-3 in the quarterfinals 24 hours earlier. Flannery went 2-0 against Scollo but 0-3 against Bartos.

"This weight class was pretty wide open," said Boland. "On a different day, I think he's at the top of the podium. It's weird how the sport is with match-ups."

Flannery closed his redshirt junior season with a 66-19 career record, putting him just four wins shy of becoming the 29th Marauder with 70 career victories. A two-time All-American, Flannery improved his placement by two spots over the previous season. He achieved the NWCA's No. 1 ranking at 133 during the season.

As a team, the Marauders qualified Flannery and Brandon Connor for the NCAA Championships and had six wrestlers place at the Super Region I Championships. The Marauders were ranked as high as No. 8 during the season--the highest-ever ranking at the Division II level. Millersville also posted its first winning dual season since 2009 and won 10 dual matches for the first time since 2002.

"What we did as a team, the culture that continued to progress positively, overall it was a successful year," said Boland.

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