"We saw some good things but also some things we needed to work on," UW head coach Barry Davis said. "I think some guys needed to compete for a full seven minutes and some guys did. We have to realize that, when you wrestle, it's a seven-minute match unless you get a pin or tech fall. You keep competing the full seven minutes."
Coming off of a win at the prestigious NWCA All-Star Classic, senior Connor Medbery carried his momentum into the tournament to take first in the 285-pound bracket. The second-ranked wrestler picked up a technical fall at 2:16 in his first match before taking down Minnesota's fifth-ranked Michael Kroells with a dominant 10-0 major decision. In the finals, Medbery faced yet another top-10 opponent in fourth-ranked Tanner Hall of Arizona State, but Medbery came away with the tournament crown by taking down Hall 3-2. He has now defeated three top-10 opponents within one week.
Hunter Ritter won his first two matches by decision, 7-1 and 12-3, to move on to the finals. The 184-pounder beat Cortland's Colin Barber 6-2 to capture his third tournament title as a Badger and first while wrestling attached.
149-pounder Andrew Crone beat his first two opponents by decision, 11-3 and 15-4, before beating Joshua Maruca of Arizona State 13-1 to earn first place.
Mason Reinhardt also picked up his first tournament title at Wisconsin after collecting two pins. The 197-pounder recorded a pin at 3:55 in the first match and won his second match 5-3 to advance to the finals, where a pin of Arizona State's Austyn Harris at 1:33 sealed the victory.
Both Jens Lantz and Michael Cullen finished second in the 125-pound class. Lantz won two matches by decision, but fell to Dalton Duffield of Oklahoma in the finals. Fellow Badger Cullen dropped his first match, 10-3, but rebounded with a 4-0 win in the second round and 6-4 sudden victory against Charles Lenox of North Carolina State.
Also earning second place was Ricky Robertson, who finished with a 2-1 record in his first time competing at 197 pounds. After easily winning his first two matches 6-2 and 5-2, he fell to Ohio State's Kollin Moore 12-11.
Sophomore Ryan Christensen recorded a technical fall at 7:00 in his first match before falling to Lehigh's Ryan Preisch 8-0. The 174-pounder finished third after taking out Jacen Petersen 13-8 in the finals to place third.
Eli Stickley also finished third after recording a pin at 2:28 in the first match and picking up a 3-0 win in the finals.
141-pounders Luke Rowh and Cole Martin earned third and fourth place, respectively. Rowh beat Tyler Sage of Arizona State 9-4 in the third round, while
Martin fell to Oklahoma's Mike Longo 7-6 in the finals.
Wrestling at 157 pounds, Rylan Lubeck finished fourth while 197-pounder Eric Peissig and 165-pounder Izaec Quintanilla both earned sixth place.
Wisconsin returns to the mat to take on Duke on Nov. 18 at 6 p.m. in Durham, North Carolina, for the Badgers' first dual of the season.
"We're making strides, we're getting better and seeing good things but there's some things we have to work on Monday to move forward," Davis said. "We will straighten some things out and regroup to get ready for Duke on Friday."
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