Wrestling team finishes in fifth-place at Pete Willson Invitational
The No. 4 Olivet College wrestling team finished in fifth-place at the 2014 Wheaton (Ill.) College/Pete Willson Invitational at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill.
WHEATON, Ill. – The No. 4 Olivet College wrestling team finished in fifth-place at the 2014 Wheaton (Ill.) College/Pete Willson Invitational at King Arena in Wheaton, Ill.
With two runner-up finishers, a third-place finish, a fifth-place finish and a seventh-place finish, the Comets collected 85 points. No. 2 University of Wis.-Whitewater won the team championship with 155.5 points, followed by No. 14 University of Wis.-La Crosse, 120.5; No. 3 Messiah (Pa.) College, 100.5; and University of Mount Union (Ohio), 93.
Finishing in second-place for Olivet were seniors Justin Holm (Battle Creek/Harper Creek) at 141 pounds and Gage Pederson (Hastings) at 149 pounds. In this morning's semifinals, the No. 2 seed Holm beat No. 3 seed Matt Adock from Wis.-Whitewater, 4-0, and then lost 4-0 to No. 1 seed Kaleb Loht from Messiah in the championship match.
Seeded No. 1, Pederson pinned No. 4 seed Brandt Welcher from University of Wis.-Parkside in the semifinals. In the championship match, he lost a 5-3 overtime decision to No. 3 seed Daniel Mirman from John Carroll (Ohio) University.
As the No. 5 seed at 125 pounds, senior Robbie Bidlingmaier (Chesterfield Twp./Anchor Bay) dropped a 10-3 decision to No. 1 seed Lucas Malmberg from Messiah in the semifinals. He bounced back to pin Nicolas Santos from North Central (Ill.) College in the consolation bracket semifinals and then edged No. 2 seed Sean Ambrocio from Concordia (Wis.) University, 3-1, in the championship match.
Seeded No. 3 at 184 pounds, senior Jeff Holm (Battle Creek/Harper Creek) lost a tough 3-2 decision to No. 2 seed Eric Twohey from Wis.-La Crosse in the semifinals. He then lost another one-point decision, 5-4, to No. 5 seed Josh Anthony from Wis.-Parkside and then received a medical forfeit win in the fifth-place bout.
Junior Kyle Witgen (Romeo) placed seventh at 157 pounds. He fell 7-3 in the consolation bracket quarterfinals but rebounded to beat Dan Argueta from Wis.-Parkside, 6-5, in the seventh-place match.
The Comets host Manchester (Ind.) University for a dual match next Friday, Feb. 7, at 7 p.m.