Wrestling | December 29
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill.—Seven members of the Northern Illinois University Huskies wrestling program have advanced to the third session of the 60th Ken Kraft Midlands Championship.
Sean Carroll (Overland Park, Kan./St. Thomas Aquinas),
Tommy Bennett (Evergreen Park, Ill./Brother Rice),
Brett Smith (Troy, Mo./Buchanan),
Landen Johnson (Owatonna, Minn./Owatonna),
Tommy Curran (Carol Stream, Ill./DeKalb),
Jacob Brya (St. Johns, Mich./St. Johns), and
Blake West (Shakopee, Minn./Shakopee) advanced to the second day of the tournament.
As a team, the Huskies are in ninth with 36.5 points.
The second day of Midlands starts at 10:30 a.m. CT with the third session. The final session begins at 3 p.m. with the awards ceremony concluding at 6 p.m.
Huskies On the Mat
After opening his day with a bye in the 125-pound bracket, West defeated Patrick Adams of Northwestern in a 10-2 major decision. West posted a 6-3 decision over Ben Monn of George Mason before defeating Princeton's Ethan Rivera in a 7-1 decision.
Brya defeated Cal Poly's Alek Vanbebber in the opening round via technical fall, 15-0. In the second round, Brya won by fall over Kole Brower of Illinois (2:20). In the quarterfinal round, Brya fell via major decision to Danny Martinez (SIUE), 10-2.
Curran opened his day with a bye before Hayden Whidden (SIUE) defeated him via fall (9:00). In the third consolation round, Curran defeated Matt Hart of Indiana in a 5-3 decision. Curran posted a 4-2 decision victory over Indiana's Cole Rhemrev before winning via fall over Princeton's Jacob Mann (Fall 1:32).
Johnson won by fall over Cody Tavoso of Princeton (Fall 5:51) to start his day before dropping a 7-3 decision to Dylan Evans of Pittsburgh. Johnson won by decision over Braden Stauffenberg of Michigan State (7-5) before ending his day with a win via fall over Jeremy Ginter of Cal Baptist, (Fall 3:40).
Smith dropped his opening match via sudden decision to West Virginia's Shawn Taylor (SV-1, 4-1). In the first round of the consolation bracket, Smith won by major decision over Missouri's Jeremy Jakowitsch (11-2). Smith won his next two matches by decision, defeating Paul Ognissanti of Penn in a 4-1 decsion and Stanford's Zach Hanson (8-6 decision).
Bennett met Central Michigan's Mason Alessio in the opening round and dropped a 10-8 decision before receiving a bye in the first consolation round. Bennett won by technical fall over Ethan Popp of Purdue (19-4) before posting a 15-11 decision over Cal Poly's Blake Hinrichsen.
Carroll fell in his opening match to Nick Stemmet of Stanford, dropping the match via fall (3:45). After receiving a bye in the next round, Carroll defeated Donovan Sprouse of George Mason in an 11-7 decision. Carroll won via decision against Cal Baptist's Eli Sheeren, 7-3.
Huskies wins over Power-4 Schools
Talan Parsons (Ovid-Elsie, Mich./Ovid-Elsie) posted a win over Wilfred Tanefeu of Michigan in the third round of the consolation bracket, winning via fall (6:54).
Markel Baker (Freeport, Ill./Freeport) opened his day with a technical fall win over Purdue's Jacob Macatangay, 21-6. In the second consolation round, Baker took on Logan Frazier of Indiana, winning in a 7-0 decision.
