WAVERLY, Iowa - At the Dick Walker Invitational hosted by Wartburg College, the Trine University wrestling team finished fifth with 36.5 points. The Thunder faced some stiff competition as they went up against seven schools, including the host and top ranked team in Division III Wartburg along with #2 Augsburg, #4 Coe and 28th ranked Loras.
The Thunder picked up two runner-up finishes by a pair of sophomores in 22nd ranked Brandon Preston (Logansport, Ind./Logansport) in the 125 weight class and Mack Green (Buchanan, Mich./Buchanan) at 197 pounds.
Preston picked up his first two wins by pin, taking down Dustin Horne from Iowa Lakes Community College at 4 minutes and 40 seconds and then Dakota Boesch of Wartburg at 2:49. Preston would advance to the finals by defeating 2nd seeded Tristan Bundy from Iowa Central Community College 7-5. In the finals though, Preston would face his toughest opponent of the season, falling to the top ranked wrestler in Division III in Gilberto Camacho from Wartburg.
Green needed just two wins to advance to the finals as took a close decision in his opening match, defeating Steven Kleamenakis from Wartburg 4-2. Green then easily took care of Colton Kelly of Cornell 10-5 to advance to the finals. In the championship match, Green dropped a tough one to 20th ranked Punahele Soriano from Wartburg 8-3.
In addition to Preston, Trine also took home a sixth place finish at 125 by freshman Matt Fane (Auburn, Ind./DeKalb). In his opening match, Fane defeated Chad McCannon from Iowa Central 5-3. After dropping his next match to fall into the consolation bracket, Fane rebounded with a 4-2 decision over Stephen Kettner of Loras. Fane then took down Horne 10-5 before falling to Bundy 11-3 to drop to the fifth place match. In the final match, Fane dropped his second match of the day to Scott Smith from Cornell by a narrow 5-4 decision.
Also taking home a sixth place finish was freshman Josh Blanton (Alexandria, Ind./Alexandria) in the 141 division. Blanton defeated Beau Westpfahl from Coe in their opening match 8-5 before falling in his second round match. Blanton rebounded with a 7-5 decision over Samuel Chalkley of Cornell and an 11-9 victory over Todd Murakawa also from Cornell. Blanton dropped his final two matches of the day to the sixth and fourth seeded wrestlers.
At 165 pounds, freshman Trevon Jordan (Sykesville, Md./Meade Senior) picked up a win in the consolation bracket 5-0 over Ben Rosen of Cornell.
Trine will next participate in the 34th annual Midwest Classic hosted by the University of Indianapolis. The two-day meet begins on December 15 at 10:00 a.m.