Howe captured the invitational title at 165 lbs. for the second-straight year after he defeated No. 4 ranked Justin Kerber of Cornell, 10-3, in the championship match. Earlier in the day, Howe recorded a 2-0 decision over Hofstra’s No. 6 P.J. Gillespie in the semifinals.
No. 1 Cornell claimed the title with 140 points with three wrestlers placing first. No. 1 Mack Lewnes (184 lbs.), No. 4 Steve Bosak (184 lbs.) and No. 2 Cam Simaz (197 lbs.) all won the championship match in their weight class for Cornell.
For the Badgers, No. 11 junior Travis Rutt (184 lbs.) and redshirt sophomore No. 3 Tyler Graff (133 lbs.) also finished strong after slating second place accolades in their respective weight classes.
No. 15 Andrew Saunders (North Carolina-Greensboro) dropped a 7-2 decision to Rutt in the semifinals to give him a pass to the championship match. After a hard fought battle, Rutt fell to Bosak, 2-0, marking his first defeat of the season.
Graff placed second and faced his first loss of the season after falling to No. 2 Andrew Hochstrasser of Boise State, 7-3. In the semifinals, Graff defeated No. 8 Lou Ruggirello (Hofstra) 2-0 in the semifinals Saturday morning. Graff’s finish marks his career-best at the annual invite after he placed third last year at the Cliff Keen in 2009.
Also helping the Badgers to their second place finish was No. 18 redshirt sophomore Cole Schmitt (149 lbs.) and No. 13 redshirt senior Eric Bugenhagen (Hwt.), who also placed for the Badgers.
Bugenhagen fell in yesterday’s quarterfinals but was able to work his way up to a fourth place finish in the consolation bracket Saturday before falling to Jarod Trice (Central Michigan), 3-2, in the third place match.
After falling yesterday in the quarterfinals, redshirt sophomore No. 18 Cole Schmitt finished seventh after cementing a 5-0 decision over Hofstra’s Justin Accordino.
The Badgers made a large jump after slating fifth place at the end of day one on Friday. Boise State and Oklahoma finished in third and fourth place, respectively, at the conclusion of Saturday’s events.
The Cardinal and White jumped seven places since last year when the program finish ninth at the Cliff Keen Invite.
Wisconsin represented the Big Ten Conference with pride. The remaining conference teams all placed among the top 16. Illinois notched fifth place (91.0 points), Michigan placed sixth (86.5 points), Purdue finished ninth (68.5 points), Ohio State (12th, 63.5 points) and Indiana slated the No. 16 spot to wrap up the league teams in the field of 36 squads at the invitational.
Several Badgers also competed in the UNI Open on Saturday. Freshman Timmy McCall (184 lbs.) was the only member of the Cardinal and White who placed in the tournament. McCall recorded a 4-2 win over Upper Iowa’s Mitchell Schultz. Check out complete results.
The Badgers host back-to-back duals on Saturday and Sunday. Wisconsin faces the University of Northern Iowa at 7 p.m. (CT) Saturday and takes on Michigan at 1 p.m. (CT) Sunday. Both duals take place at the UW Field House in Madison, Wis. and will broadcast live on UWBadgers.com.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now