The Wabash College Wrestling Team is off to a great start!! The team has now competed in two open tournaments and have shown why they have been ranked in the Top-20 in the nation the last 2 years.

The team competed at the Concordia University Open on November 18 and came away with four place winners. Seniors Will Clarke (North Central H.S.) and Keith Garrard (New Castle H.S.) both reached the finals at 184 and 197, but lost hard fought battles in the finals to finish the day as runner-up. At 165 pounds Barton Bridge finished the day 4-3 with a solid 6th place effort. Senior Ryan Pritchard (Britt, IA) also posted a solid 6th place finish on the day finishing the tournament with a 4-3 record.

The team hit heads with the University of Chicago after Thanksgiving break and came away with a 25-16 victory. Winning matches for the Little Giants were 125 pounder Stephen Iles (Mascoutah, IL), 141 Kurtis Hess (Jay County H.S.), 149 Jared Tribbett (Crawfordsville H.S.), 184 Will Clarke (North Central H.S.) and 197 Keith Garrard (New Castle H.S.).

To kick off the month of December the Wabash team headed to Manchester College to compete in the 47th Annual Little State Wrestling Invitational. The team put together a great tournament and walked away with ten place winners and 3 individual champions. Freshman Michael Burke ( Yorktown H.S.) and Cody Johnson (Franklin Community H.S.) had great tournaments on the day. Burke finished the day in 3rd place at 174 and Johnson came back to take 5th after a opening round loss. Wabash had a pinning machine at 165 with Barton Bridge's fourth place effort, he finished the day with a 3-2 record, and three falls! Seniors Garrett Pino, Will Clarke and Keith Garrard all came away with individual titles at the meet, marking the first time since 1986 that Wabash College has had more than 2 individual champs at the Little State meet in the same year. It was a great effort by all Little giant wrestlers this weekend, everyone went out and wrestled hard and hard nosed.

I want to thank the family and friends of the program who get out and see us on the weekends. It's nice to see all the red Wabash wrestling shirts in the stands. I still have a lot of this year's new Wabash College Wrestling T-shirts left. If any one is interested in purchasing a T, contact me at andersob@wabash.edu or 765-361-6190.