Fulton, Mo. – The Westminster College men's wrestling team returned home for the first time this season on Friday evening. The Blue Jays welcomed the Iowa Wesleyan University Tigers to Historic Gym for their only home match of the season. The Jays were down four competitors and really started the match down 24-0 due to the forfeits that would come. A valiant effort by the young men who did wrestle was at times herculean. As good of an effort as it was, in the end the Tigers were able to hold off the Blue Jays 33-24 to win the dual.
Brock Davis, as he has done every match this season, got the Blue Jays started in a hurry as he pinned his opponent 2:36 into the 125 pound match. This put Westminster up 6-0. Forfeits followed in the 133 and 141 pound weight classes and that saw IWU take a 12-6 lead in the match. The Blue Jays Jackson Beene, who won his first NCAA Division III match just yesterday, wasted no time getting his second. Beene pinned his opponent in :45 seconds to even the match at 12-12. IWU gained six more points by way of forfeit in the 157 pound weight class to once again take the lead 18-12.
The stage was set for Sean Sax to try to get the Jays back in the match. He did so by getting the win by pinning his opponent in 1:25. The Blue Jays Mr. Dependable had come through again and evened the match 18-18. IWU again received six points for a forfeit win in the 174 pound weight class to regain the lead 24-18. The Tigers extended that lead with a win by pin in the 184 pound weight class. The Blue Jays Montgomery Mills went to work to try to keep his team in it. Mills skillfully achieved his goal by pinning his counterpart from IWU in 1:41. This brought to score to 30-24 IWU with only one match remaining, the heavyweights.
Westminster's Kobe Kaminski came out with a lot of fight and this match would go the distance and then some. With mere seconds left in the match and Kominski clinging to a 4-3 lead fortunes changed as the IWU heavyweight was able to score a point due to a stall call on Kominski with .7 seconds left in the match to tie it at 4-4 and send it to extra time. In extra time the IWU heavyweight was able to score a takedown and end the match 6-4 in sudden victory. The win in the Heavyweight class gave Iowa Wesleyan a 33-24 win in the dual.
Head Coach Tony Eierman was happy with his teams effort, "We were really pleased by our wrestlers performance. Again, we won four of the six matches. All bonus points in the first period." He added, "It was nice to finish out this year's dual meet at home. This team has really come a long way since November, they are a family! We ended with a great performance by Kobe going into overtime."
