Brackets  |  Team Scores

Wheaton, IL – No. 8 Messiah College took home three individual titles and two second place finishes en route to 161 total points to win the annual Wheaton Invitational. The victory marked the program's first-ever title at the highly-regarded event.

"I'm really, really pleased with how our guys wrestled," said Messiah head coach Bryan Brunk. "It's great to get out of our area and see guys that we don't normally see, and this is really the best we've wrestled so far this season. Our guys were going hard, they were attacking, and they were looking to score points."

The showing for Messiah was especially encouraging considering they have worked around a few injuries throughout the season. This weekend, they were as close to full strength as any other point this year, and it showed in the results.

"We're wrestling hard enough and well enough to beat anybody," said Brunk. "Even our losses this weekend were tight, and even though we made a mistake here or there, we know we can clean them up. We want to keep getting better, and this helps us continue in the right direction."
 
Precious Medals
Messiah earned championship titles at three different weight classes, with No. 1-ranked Lucas Malmberg (125) and No. 1-ranked Ben Swarr (174) each taking home gold medals. No. 14 Kyle Koser also won gold thanks to a terrific weekend that included three pins, including a momentous fall in the semifinal over No. 6-ranked Mason Bumgartner of Concorida.
 
Two other Falcons also reached the championship bout, Jeff Hojnacki (157) and Larry Cannon (165). They decisions by 11-6 and 8-4, respectively. Derek Beitz (184) also finished in fourth place while Hunter Harris finished in sixth place at 133 to round out seven place finishers.
 
Falls Rising
The Falcons collected 13 falls across two days of competition, with Hunter Harris' four pins leading the way. That showing pushed Harris' NCAA-lead in pins to 26 total, and he's just two shy of the single-season program record set by Dan Morrison in 1978-79 (Morrison also holds the second-highest single-season mark with 27 pins in 1979-80).
 
Top Flight Competition
The Invitational once again lived up to its reputation of drawing many of the best teams and wrestlers in the nation. Harris faced No. 7 Joe Brodman of UW-Whitewater twice, losing by a 7-5 score (in overtime) and a 10-5 score in wrestlebacks.
 
Both Hojnacki (No. 18 in the nation) and Cannon (No. 4) also had a chance to see nationally renowned competition, with Hojnacki taking on No. 10 Logan Meister (Ferrum) and Cannon taking on No. 1 Logan Hermsen (UW-Stevens Point) in their respective championship bouts.
 
For Swarr, a win came in the semifinal against Jon Goetz, the No. 7-ranked wrestler from UW-Platteville. Koser also earned a big fall in the quarterfinal over No. 6 Mason Bumgartner of Concorida.
 
Even though some of those bouts did not finish in the Falcons' favor, the competition will undoubtedly serve Messiah well as they work toward next month's NCAA Regional and National Tournaments.

Looking Ahead
Messiah will be off for just four days before hosting Gettysburg and York on back-to-back days next week. Each dual will be at 7:00 p.m. in Brubaker Auditorium, and Messiah will make it three-straight days of competition when they then host the Messiah Open on Saturday.


 

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