Brackets
Grantham, PA - Messiah College wrestling opened up their 2012-13 season on Saturday, winning the annual Messiah Invitational in Hitchcock Arena. The Falcons earned 105 points, holding off local rival Elizabethtown College and their 93.5 points to take first place.
Kaleb Loht picked up from where he left off last season, finishing as champion in the 141 lb. weight class. Loht earned two pins in his bracket before defeating Heidelberg's Chris Osborne 6-4 in the final.
Loht was joined as a champion by freshman
Josh Thomson, as he finished first in the 184 lb. weight class in his Messiah debut. Thomson won four matches en route to the title, including a pin of Eldar Muradov from University of Maryland-Baltimore County in the championship bout.
Both
Ben Kramer (174) and
Charles Jones (285) finished as runner-up in their division. In both those weight classes, Messiah narrowly missed seeing an all-Falcons semifinal as Rico Plummber (174) and
Evan Canady (285) both lost in their quarterfinal matches. Canady recovered from his defeat when he won two more matches—both by pins—to wrestle back to third place.
In the 197 lb. class,
Jason Wright and
Travis Ebersole both advanced to the quarterfinal before losing. The pair were unable to earn any additional wins in their attempt to earn third or fourth place.
Kyle Dayhoff (165) earned a trip to his quarterfinals with a 6-4 decision over teammate Jacob English, where he fell to Michael Shermot of the Coast Guard Academy. Dayhoff won one more match before he took fourth place overall.
Elizabethtown and Heidelberg each picked up two champions as Chad Lammer (133) and Jeremy Rieth (285) finished in first for the Blue Jays, while
Andrew Johnson (149) and Jason Russell (197) took first for the Student Princes.
Complete team scores for the Messiah Invitational can be seen below.
Team Scores
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Messiah (105)
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Elizabethtown (93.5)
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Heidelberg (82.5)
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Wheaton (74)
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Ursinus (65.5)
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Coast Guard (60.5)
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McDaniel (58.5)
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UM-Baltimore (48.5)
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Johns Hopkins (6.5)
