Upper Iowa men's wrestling finished in 16th place (61 points) out of 43 teams behind three place winners at the 45th Annual Midwest Classic in Indianapolis, Ind. The Peacocks had five wrestlers that advanced to day two of the event, two in the championship rounds and three clawing through the consolation brackets. Lawson Losee led the team with a 5th place finish, followed by Colter Bye in 6th and Ethen Doty who took 8th.
"We did a lot of learning throughout this tournament and we're not far off from where we want to be," said Head Coach Heath Grimm. "We'll make some adjustments to keep getting better, that's what wrestling is. I was very impressed with the effort that Coach Faught, Coach Broghammer and Matt Rueckert put in to ensure these guys were ready to battle match after match."
Ryah Wehner and Geoffery Freeman each wrestled in the consolation bracket but picked up an early loss on day two and were unable to place in the event.
Wehner (141) defeated his opponent in round one of the event by major decision before falling by major decision in the second round, sending him into the consolation bracket. In his first round of consolation, he trumped his opponent by major decision (11-3). In Wehner's last round of the event, he was defeated in an 8-1 decision by Isham Peace (Lander). He scored 4.5 team points.
Doty (149) finished in 8th and collected 15 team points. He fell by decision (8-3) in the championship bracket sending him to the consolation bracket where he posted two wins by fall and one by tech fall. He dropped his next match in a close 3-1 decision and fell in a 6-1 decision in the 7th place match.
Losee (174) took 5th place after coming out on top in his first two matches by decision. He fell in the quarterfinals in a 4-2 decision. Losee trumped his opponents in the next two bouts in the consolation rounds by major decision and decision before falling in the consolations semifinals. He then trumped his opponent by decision (13-8) in the 5th place match.
Bye (184) successfully made it through the first three championship rounds behind a bye and two wins by major decision (11-0) and decision (4-2). On day two, he fell to Reece Woracheck (UW Parkside) in a tough-four 4-3 decision. Bye went on to win the next two consolation rounds before falling in the consolation semifinals and 5th place match, both by decision.
Freeman (197) was successful in his first bout of the event after pinning his opponent. He dropped the second round by fall before he rattled off three straight wins in the next three matches by injury default, tech fall and decision. He then dropped the consolation round five by fall (9-7) to conclude the tournament.
Men's wrestling takes a break from action during the holiday season but returns to the mat on January 10 at the NWCA National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa.
