Wabash wrestlers Greg Rhoads, Bryan Hugo, and Cody Johnson finished in the top-eight of their respective weight classes at Saturday's Ohio Northern University Invitational. Rhoads took fourth place at 174 pounds while Hugo was fifth. Johnson finished seventh in the heavyweight division.
Rhoads (left) opened with three consecutive wins, scoring a 10-3 victory over Collin Swick from Ohio Northern in the first match. An 11-4 win by Rhoads against Dayne Williams from Heidelberg set up a match between the Wabash freshman and fourth-seeded JT Jenkins from the University of Indianapolis. Rhoads came away with a 5-3 win to advance to the championship quarterfinals. A 12-5 loss to top-seeded Kyle Vanderhyde from Olivet dropped Rhoads to the consolation bracket where he defeated third-seeded Phillip Oudhuis from Campbellsville 1-0 to move into the finals. Second-seed Nick Kraus from Trine took an 8-4 victory in that match, putting Rhoads at fourth in the final bracket.
Hugo (right) lost 7-4 to Kraus in his first match on the mats at 174 pounds. After picking up a forfeit in his opening consolation bracket match, Hugo defeated Eli Snyder from Lycoming 6-5 in the next bout. Hugo beat Jenkins 11-5 in the next round, followed by a 6-1 win over Swick. Hugo lost 1-0 to Kraus in their second meeting of the day, then picked up a medical forfeit in the finals to take fifth place.
Johnson (left) was pinned in his first match, but responded with pins against Jordan Cox from Manchester (2:26) and Blake Miller from Ohio Northern (5:35). A 2-1 overtime victory against Melvin Warrick and a pin at 16 seconds versus Sean Misko from Olivet put Johnson up against Adam Salyers from Wilmington in the quarterfinals. The number-six seed pinned Johnson, but the Wabash junior rallied for a 12-2 win in the finals of the seventh-place match against fifth-seeded Chad Brown from Campbellsville.
Wabash finished 17th in the team scoring with a total of 36 points. The Little Giants will not compete again until January 3-4 when they will participate in the Midwest Classic at the University of Indianapolis.