Cleveland, OH – Hofstra Wrestling senior Michael Hughes earned NCAA All-American honors Friday night and will be competing for a possible third-place finish at 285-pounds on Saturday at the 2018 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Quicken Loans Arena.

Hughes, a native of Smithtown, New York, posted two more victories in Friday night's Session IV and earned his first All-American honor by defeating Oklahoma State's ninth-seed Derek White in the fourth round of the wrestlebacks, 6-1. Hughes, who is the 11th seed in the Championships, wrestled again after earning All-American honors Friday night and defeated the 12th-seed Youssif Hermida from Maryland in the fifth round of the wrestlebacks, 8-0.

Hughes, who is now 5-1 in the NCAA Championships this year, improved to 39-4 on the year and is the Pride's first wrestling All-Americans since Steve Bonanno placed eighth at 125 and Justin Accordino placed sixth at 149 in the 2012 NCAA Championships.

Hughes will next face Oregon State's sixth-seed Amar Dhesi in the consolation semifinals on Saturday at 11 a.m. Hughes and Dhesi hooked up in the championship bracket, round of 16 with Dhesi pinning the Pride standout in 3:37. Since then Hughes has been on a tear with four consecutive wins. The winner of this match will wrestle the winner of Duke's fourth-seed Jacob Kasper against Iowa's fifth-seed Sam Stoll for third place. The losers will wrestle for fifth-place.

Hughes' 39 wins this season are the sixth-most in a single season in school history. James Strouse (2006-07), Chris Skretkowicz (2003-04) and Hughes (2015-16) are tied for third and are the next plateau to reach for the 2018 All-American. In addition, Hughes now has 115 career victories, tying him with Strouse (2002-07) and Tom Noto (1999-2004) for eighth-place on the Pride career victory list.  

In the team championship race, Penn State is first heading into the final day with 120.5 points with Ohio State second with 109.5, Iowa third with 86.5 points and Michigan fourth with 73.5 points. Hofstra is in 28th place in the 72-team field.