Ahmad-Statts and Gamble-Williams Claim MEC Titles; Three Others Headed to NCWA Nationals
The National Collegiate Wrestling Association 2026 Mid East Conference championships proved to be a great event for the Williamson wrestling team, as they claimed two individual championships, advanced a total of five wrestlers to the NCWA national championships and finished in a tie for second overall in the team standings.
Leading the way for Williamson as they have all year were standouts Nurrideen Ahmad-Statts and Alexander Gamble-Williams. Both wrestlers headed into the championships undefeated, and both left that way helping Williamson claim multiple individual conference championships for just the second time in school history.
The returning national runner-up from the 2025 NCWA national championship at 174 pounds, Ahmad-Statts was methodical, as he has been all year, in winning four straight bouts to claim the title at 184 pounds. He defeated Humza Abbas from the University of Maryland via pin in his opening bout before blanking James Geiger from Penn State, 5-0. He then pinned Charlie Kealy, also from Penn State in the second period to advance the finals, where he took down Edward Davis from West Chester University via a majority decision, 14-3, to claim the title. He heads to nationals undefeated and ranked #1 in the nation with a record of 26-0.
Gamble-Williams was equally as dominant at 174 pounds. Listed as 19-0 on the year in the latest NCWA rankings, after receiving an opening round bye, he pinned William Cadeen of West Chester in the second period. We then manhandled Cole Smith from Rowan University via technical fall at 16-1 before claiming the championship with a 10-4 decision over Charles Perkins of Point Park University.
Joining those two at nationals will be Harry Asencio, Liam Kernan and Joseph Coney. Asencio, who will be making his third straight trip to nationals at 285 pounds, lost via fall in the championship bout. Kernan, who will also be making his third trip to nationals finished fifth at 141 pounds, while freshman Joe Coney finished 4th at 174 pounds to earn his first trip to nationals.
As far as the team standing went, Williamson finished tied for second overall, tied with Mercyhurst and just 11 points behind champion Penn State University.
It was also announced at the event that Williamson had the highest combined average Grade Point Average out of the 18 teams participating.
The 2026 NCWA national championships run March 26-28 in Shreveport, Louisiana.
