The Peacock men's wrestling team and a handful of individuals were named in the most recent national rankings by The Open Mat. Upper Iowa is ranked No. 10 in the tournament-based rankings and No. 7 in the dual-based rankings, while UIU has wrestlers ranked in the top 15 across six different weight classes.
Upper Iowa collected 47 points to take the No. 10 spot in the team tournament, while they remained in the No. 7 slot in team dual with a record of 1-0. The Peacocks are one of three GLVC members showing representation in the top 25. Indianapolis is seated right above Upper Iowa in the tournament rankings at No. 9 with 48.5 points. McKendree sits at the No. 17 spot with 38 total points.
UIU has posted 171 victories in 316 matches for a winning percentage of .541. The squad has registered 62 wins by fall, 31 by tech fall and 28 by major decision.
Last week at the Midwest Classic, the Peacocks placed fourth behind five place winners.
Chase Luensman (165) placed second,
Tate Murty (141) and
Ethen Doty (149) came in fourth,
Eric Faught (157) took fifth in his first action of the season and
Colter Bye (184) placed seventh.
Collectively, UIU tied with Lander for a tournament-high of 11 pins in a combined time of 23:09 while recording a total 326 match points.
The six Peacocks ranked by The Open Mat include
James Davis (No. 15 - 133),
Tate Murty (No. 4- 141),
Ethen Doty (No. 13- 149),
Eric Faught (No. 10- 157),
Chase Luensman (No. 2- 165),
Colter Bye (No. 12- 184).
Davis is currently 2-2 on the season with two wins by major decision, while recording 11 takedowns so far this season.
Murty has an 8-3 record on the year with five wins by fall and one by major decision while registering 14 takedowns. He took fourth place at the Midwest Classic with a 5-2 mark over the weekend, both losses to nationally-ranked wrestlers.
Doty leads the team with 13 wins on the season with six losses. He also paces the team in wins by fall with nine. He finished fourth at the Midwest Classic after executing an 8-2 record and stringing together seven straight wins. Doty put up five wins by fall during the event in 5:50, earning him an award for "Most falls in the least amount of time."
Faught started off the season going 7-2 in Indianapolis. He secured wins over three nationally-ranked wrestlers en route to his fifth-place finish.
Luensman has registered a 10-4 record with one win by fall, three by tech fall and two by major decision. He made the finals for the second year in a row at the Midwest Classic and led the Peacocks by placing second. He dropped to the second-ranked wrestler, David Hunsberger, in the first-place match by decision (7-4) after giving up a takedown as time expired.
Bye is 7-4 on the year and placed seventh at the event in Indianapolis after recording a 4-2 record for the weekend.
Upper Iowa is set to take the mat in 2024 at the NWCA National Duals on Jan. 5-6 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
