Michael Williams clinched all-region status to lead the Misericordia University men's wrestling team on the opening day of the NCAA Region 3 Championships, Friday at Messiah.

Williams won a pair of matches and is down to the final eight at 149 pounds.

He won his opening bout by technical fall (19-2, 3:23) over Fleck Remington of Penn State Abington.  After a tough 4-2 loss in the quarterfinals to Thomas Monn of McDaniel, he stayed a live with a 5-4 win over Freddy Pimental of Johns Hopkins.

He'll face Vincenzo Napolitana of NYU in the consolation quarterfinals, Saturday.

Kruz McCusker (141), Anthony Matas (174) Simeon Hunte (197) and Aaron Hidlay (285) all finished one match short of all-region status.

McCusker dropped his opening bout before winning his first consolation match via disqualification, but lost by tech. fall in the second round of consolations.

Matas lost his opener and advanced via forfeit before falling to Anson Dewar of Muhlenberg.

Hunte fell in the opening round and stayed alive with a 4-2 win over Paul Parise of Muhlenberg.  He fell to McDaniel's Valentino Pryor, 14-5.

Hidlay beat Jake Pomykata of Johns Hopkins, 4-1, in the first round before dropping into the consolation bracket where he fell to Brey Loving of Merchant Marine, 8-7.

Action resumes Saturday at 9:00 a.m.