Things are coming together in the Wabash College Wrestling program! The team headed to Ada, Ohio over the weekend to participate in the Ohio Northern Invitational. This has been a sore spot in our schedule the past few seasons, never able to put together a solid showing. Being that this tournament hits our guys at a busy time, with big assignments due and right before finals week, the guys did a great job.

The Ohio Northern Invitational is a tournament packed with great competition. This year's tournament consisted of 10 nationally ranked teams. The field included ranked DIII teams #5 Heidelburg, #25 Olivet and #23 Thiel; ranked DII teams included #9 Indianapolis, # 12 West Liberty State, #15 Merceyhurst, and #19 Findlay. The field also included nationally ranked NAIA programs, #7 Campbellsville, #14 Cumberland and #4 Cumberland. So needless to say the competition was stiff!

We were short handed three regular starters this weekend in Gary Black at 125, Garrett Pino at 141 and Stephen Mosier at 157, all out working on papers and preparing for a good finals week.

The guys got the tournament off to a great start in the opening rounds, with big wins coming from just about everyone from the Wabash squad. Freshman 174-pounder Michael Burke opened the tournament with a win over a 2006 national qualifier and then narrowly missed placing in the tournament. Freshman Cody Johnson got off to a good start as well with a 2nd round upset of the number one seed at 197. At 141 Freshman Kurtis Hess knocked off the five seed by major dec. in the second round then narrowly missed placing. Senior 133-pounder Eric Slabaugh opened his Senior campaign with a solid sixth place finish. Eric lost to the #4 ranked wrestler in DII in the semi's, but then won a 25 minute match that went to 4 overtime's against the #4 seed and returning national qualifier from Campbellsville. At 184 Senior Will Clarke put together another great tournament this weekend placing fourth. Will fell in the semi-finals 6-0 to the eventual champion and then medical defaulted in his 3rd/4th match due to a concussion.

At 197 Senior Keith Garrard took his second tournament title of the year and in style! Keith won four of his five matches by fall, including the championship match and was awarded the most falls award for the tournament!

The team finished tied for seventh place with DII Gannon, Olivet College was the only DIII school to place ahead of Wabash, all other schools were DII or NAIA schools.

Our next competition will be at the Midlands Championships and Midwest Open shortly after Christmas.

I wish everyone a Happy Holiday and hope to post some great Christmas stories when we return from break! If you are in need of some good stocking stuffer's, I still have a bunch of Wabash wrestling T's, just let me know how many you need.