CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND. -- The Trine University wrestling team finished in 10th place at the annual NCAA Division III Central Regional Meet hosted by Wabash College in Crawfordsville, Ind.
The Thunder finished with an overall team score of 52.5 points to place 10th of 19 teams. Host school Wabash ended up as team champion with 156.5 points, followed by Baldwin Wallace (Ohio) University in second with 146.5 points. The University of Mount Union rounded out the top three teams with 144 points.
Individually, Trine had four wrestlers place in their respective weight classes in junior Nick Miller (Fort Wayne, Ind./Snider), junior Luke Carver (Sturgis, Mich./Sturgis), senior Caleb Maddox (Russiaville, Ind./Western) and sophomore Ethan Simmons (Scotts, Mich./Climax-Scotts).
Miller recorded the highest finish for the Thunder of fourth place in his 174-pound bracket. Miller began the day with an 11-6 decision against Jimmy Suhayda from John Carroll before falling to the consolation bracket by way of a 14-4 major decision. Miller then tallied four straight victories, beginning with a pair of decisions, 5-1 and 4-2, before recording a pin against Otterbein (Ohio) University's Donny Didion in his third match of the consolation bracket with a time of 5:27. He went to beat Clayton Davidson from Ohio Northern for his fourth win and advance to the third-round bout where he faced Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association opponent, Haydn Kinjorski from Olivet (Mich.) College. Miller ended up dropping an 8-4 decision to Kinjorski to finish in fourth place and ended the tournament with a 4-2 mark.
Carver placed sixth overall at 184 pounds and started off with a tech fall against Hunter Mcnutt of Defiance (Ohio) College by a score of 15-0 in 3:16. After falling to his next opponent by way of a 7-3 decision, Carver posted his second tech fall of the day in his first match of the consolation bracket against Christian Hipsher of John Carroll (Ohio) University, 15-0 (3:07). Carver then squared off against MIAA foe Dylan Seaton of Alma (Mich.) College and pinned Seaton in a time of 44 seconds. Following the pin, Carver moved to 2-2 on the day with an 8-1 loss in his next bout, setting up a matchup against Ethan Herrin of Wabash for fifth place. But Carver fell on the losing end of a 13-6 decision in the match against Herrin to claim sixth place.
Maddox ended his day with an overall record of 3-2 and finished in seventh place in the 141-weight class. Like Miller and Carver, Maddox started off the tournament with a win that came via a pinfall against Ohio Wesleyan University's Ryan McElwee in a time of 4:27. Maddox then fell to the consolation bracket after being pinned, but rebounded with a 9-0 major decision victory in his first match against Jacob Frisch of Case Western Reserve (Ohio) University. Maddox moved to an even 2-2 mark on the day after a tiebreaker loss against Tanner Mchugh of Baldwin Wallace. In his seventh place match, Maddox won by a medical forfeit against Nate McClanahan of Mount St. Joseph (Ohio) University.
Simmons claimed eighth place in the 285-pound division despite starting out with a loss by pin. In his first match of the consolation bracket, he won by disqualification and moved on to face Nick Joyner from Manchester University where he won by major decision with a score of 15-4. In his next bout, Simmons fell to Antonio Zapata of Muskingum (Ohio) University, 7-2, and then took on Christian Climer of Heidelberg (Ohio) University in the seventh-place matchup. Simmons fell to Climer by pinfall in a time of 2:23 to place eighth overall.
