GRANTHAM, Pa. - The Messiah wrestling team opened the 2019-20 season on Saturday afternoon with a first-place finish in the Messiah Invitational. The Falcons had four individuals win their respective brackets with Josiah Gehr (133 lbs.), Garret Cornell (141 lbs.), Nick Barnhart (149 lbs.), and Stephen Maloney (157 lbs.) all claiming first-place finishes in their weight class.
 
As a team the Falcons earned 116.5 points to take first among the eight teams in attendance. Including their four winners, Messiah had a total of 10 wrestlers earn top-10 finishes on the afternoon.
 
Messiah will be back in action next Saturday (Nov. 9) when they travel to Gettysburg for the Gettysburg Invitational. Wrestling begins next Saturday at 10:00 a.m.

Dominant Victories
National Qualifiers Josiah Gehr and Stephen Maloney breezed their way through the 133 lbs. and 157 lbs. brackets, respectively. Bumping up a weight class to 133 lbs., Gehr was awarded a bye in the opening round. A 19-1 technical fall over Scott Weinkowitz (Ursinus) moved Gehr into the semifinals. A first period fall took care of McDaniel's Nicholas Mallinowski in 2:19 before Gehr won the title with a dominating 15-3 major decision over Josh McLaughlin (Elizabethtown).

At 157 lbs., Stephen Maloney was just as controlling as Gehr, earning three technical falls, and a pin to claim his title. His day started with an 18-3 technical fall over Kelvin Cupay (Gettysburg) before pinning Reed McLaughlin (Liberty) in 2:04 in the second round. A 16-1 technical fall over McDaniel's Anthony Carida moved Maloney into the semifinals.

A semifinal injury to his opponent advanced Maloney into the finals where he claimed the title with a 17-0 technical fall over Brian Schneider (Elizabethtown).

Both Gehr and Maloney scored bonus point wins in every match.

First Year Winners
Messiah had a pair of freshman win their brackets on Saturday with Garret Cornell (141 lbs.) and Nick Barnhart (149 lbs.) claiming titles. Cornell picked up a pair of falls in his first two matches as a collegiate wrestling, pinning Jake Stein (Gettysburg) and Colton Rex (Elizabethtown) in 1:29 and 4:00, respectively, to move into the semifinals.

In the semis, Cornell squared off with McDaniel's Ryker Eckenbarger and earned a hard-fought 4-2 decision. While Cornell was making his run through the bracket at 141 lbs., teammate Dalton Daugherty was doing the same on the other side. Daugherty earned a fall in the first round against Hanting Wong (Johns Hopkins), before picking up a pair of decisions to move into the final with Cornell. With a pin late in the third period, Cornell claimed the victory in the all-Messiah final with a fall in 6:43.

"I think especially notable is an all Messiah final at 141 lbs.," said head coach Bryan Brunk. "We had a freshman champ in Garret Cornell. He beat a seasoned wrestler (Eckenbarger) in the semifinals, who's spent a lot of time in the national ranking the past two years. Then had a showdown with his teammate (Dalton Daugherty) in the finals."

Just one weight class above, Nick Barnhart was mirroring Cornell's journey in the 149 lbs. bracket. Barnhart earned a fall in his first bout against Wheaton's Ben Black in exactly a minute. A technical fall was next before a tight, 8-6 overtime decision against Josh Paisely (Elizabethtown) move the freshman into the finals.

Barnhart claimed the bracket with 12-10 decision over Shawn Marchesano (Ursinus) to finish the day with a 4-0 record with a pin, technical fall, and two decisions.

Filling Out the Bracket
In addition to their four winners, Messiah had six other wrestlers place in the top-four on Saturday. Including Daugherty at 141 lbs., Messiah had three runner-ups with Sean Redington (125 lbs.) and Kevin Edwards (165 lbs.) also advancing to the finals.

Redington earned a pair of falls to move into the finals at 125 lbs., but dropped a tight 5-4 decision to Terry Adams in the finals to finish as the runner-up. At 165 lbs. Kevin Edwards earned a 1-0 decision and a 7-1 decision to punch his ticket to the final bout. Dominick Reyes (Johns Hopkins) earned a pin, five seconds into the second period in the finale against Edwards to give the Messiah junior a runner-up finish.

Nick Nunez had a strong day in the 149 lbs. bracket. The junior wrestled in five matches on Saturday, earning four pins on the day. The only match he dropped was a 7-1 decision in the semifinals to Ursinus' Shawn Marchesano, but Nunez rebounded with back-to-back pins to place third on the day.

Matt Pangle also finished in third place, advancing to the semifinals with a third-period fall and a major decision. After dropping his semifinal match, Pangle earned a tight decision in the consolation semifinals before dominating Ray Martin (Gettysburg) in the third-place match 17-0 for a technical fall.

Jordan Howard earned a pin in his first match of the day before moving into the consolation bracket. Howard rattled off three-straight wins with a major and two decisions to move into the third-place match. Austin Jones (Elizabethtown) earned a 9-3 decision over Howard in the third-place match to place the Messiah sophomore in fourth on the day.

"I'm really excited about how the team performed in the opening tournament. It's always great to win the tournament, but for me the excitement is in seeing some of the progress that our guys have made through the preseason and from last year to this year," said Brunk of his team's performance on Saturday. "Our guys showed a lot of heart and commitment to principles that we've been stressing in practice."

What's Up Next
The Falcons will be back in action next Saturday when they make the short trip to Gettysburg to wrestle in in the Gettysburg Invitational, beginning at 10:00 a.m. on Nov. 9.

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