Senior Keith Garrard continued to plow through his wrestling competition this season, winning the 197-pound weight class title at the 26th Annual Ohio Northern University Invitational over the weekend.
Garrard entered the tournament as the third seed, but rolled to a perfect 5-0 mark for the tourament. He entered the weekend with a 9-1 mark for the season with seven pins. Of his five victories at ONU, four came by pin, including his win in the championship bout over Ben Briscoe 3:11 into their match. Garrard opened with a pin (2:15) over Mike Walsh. Garrard defeated Olivet's Joey Yurisich by pin at the 3:40 mark in the next round, then claimed a 13-2 major decision over Thiel's Andrew Kimmy to advance to the semifinals. Garrard faced second-seeded Jeff Wright from Olivet, winning with a pin 3:23 into the match to advance to the finals.
While Garrard was putting wrestler after wrestler on their backs, teammate Cody Johnson was also performing well in the other half of the 197-pound bracket. The freshman knocked off top-seeded Glen Jackson from Campbellsville, winning 8-6 before losing to Briscoe in the next round. Johnson just missed earning a spot in the top-eight, suffering a loss to Yurisich in the consolation bracket.
Will Clarke was seedeth seventh at 184 pounds at the coaches meeting, but went 4-1 on the mat to finish in fourth place. He earned a technical fall in the opening round over Stuart Fisher from ONU, then battled to a 4-3 victory in the second round and 3-1 win in the third. He lost 6-0 to third-seed Chris Gibbs in the quarterfinals, but bounced back for a 1-0 victory in the semis against Bobby Jablonski. But the match took its toll on the senior, who was forced to withdraw from the finals after suffering a concussion.
Senior Eric Slabaugh had one of the toughest bouts of the tournament. The 133-pounder picked up a pin at the 5:04 mark in his first round matchup, then advanced again with a 6-4 victory in round two. He lost to the top-seed, Shane Perkey from the University of Indianapolis, in the third round. Falling to the consolation bracket, Slabaugh took an 8-4 decision to advance to the quarterfinals to face fourth-seeded Kaci Payne from Campbellsville. The two wrestlers battled through three regular periods and four overtimes before Slabaugh scored the deciding point in a 3-2 sudden victory. But he would move on to lose 1-0 to sixth-seeded Eric Meyer in the semifinals and drop a decision to fifth-seeded Braxdon Scaletta in the finals to finish sixth overall.
Freshman Michael Burke had a strong showing at 174 pounds. The rookie drew 2006 national qualifier Ben Plowman from Ohio Northern in the first round. Burke sent him to the consolation bracket with a 5-2 victory, only to lose 4-1 in the next round to drop down, as well. The draw got even tougher when he had to face teammate Ryan Pritchard in the next round, losing 7-5. Pritchard posted a 4-2 victory after beating Burke, but missed an opportunity to making the placing rounds after suffering a 7-2 loss to Drew Winfield.
Barton Bridge lost his opening match, but responded with three straight wins in the consolation bracket. His 4-2 loss to Dave Walpole kept him from earning a spot in the top-eight at 165 pounds.
Rookie Kurtis Hess also missed a spot in the placing rounds, going 2-0 to start the tournament at 141 pounds before a loss to Kyle Norred, the fourth seed, sent Hess to the wrestlebacks. The freshman fell 8-6 to Thomas Pompei, who went on to finish seventh.
The Little Giants tied for seventh with Gannon in the final team scoring with 72 points. Olivet was the only NCAA Division III school to finish higher in the team scoring, tying for fifth place, scoring a total of 90 points.
Wabash will participate in the Midlands Championships in Evanston, Illinois December 28-29.
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