Wrestling 1/21/2017 9:03:00 PM Chris Myers

Cardinals Claim 3 WV Invite Titles and Place 17 Wrestlers

Maxwell Lacey (top) claimed the 285-lb title

WEST LIBERTY, W.Va. – In the 2017 West Virginia Intercollegiate Invitational, Wheeling Jesuit claimed three title winners and 14 other placewinners to highlight its Saturday on the wrestling mat.

Dustin Warner (133), Nic Skonieczny (165) and heavyweight Maxwell Lacey won their way through the brackets for individual championships. WJU added a quartet of runners-up – Tyler Hogue (141), Reyse Wallbrown (174), Nate Starkey (184) and Logan Bowman (285).

"It's always a fun event for our guys as we get one more opportunity to wrestle all of our guys in a tournament setting," explained WJU head coach Sean Doyle. "We only wrestled half of our starters today, but the 23 guys who did wrestle had strong days. We had 17 individuals place out of the 23, seven made the finals and three were crowned champions. We had no entries at 125 or 149."

Of the Cardinals top line wrestlers, Dominick Nania (149), Greg Brusco (157) and Terrance Fanning (197) were projected number one seeds, but did not take part. At 141, top-seeded Daniel Romero won his first round match, but withdrew afterwards for precautionary reasons. Freshman 125-pounder Jake Donahue also was given the day off.

Warner made his successful return to the mat. The 2015 All-American won a 7-5 decision over West Liberty's Bryce Humphreys in the 133-lb final. Nolan Whitely and Logan Adkins were third and fourth in the same weight class.

At 165, Skonieczny recorded a 5-2 decision over Keith Stednitz of Alderson Broaddus for his individual title. Anthony Renforth defeated his teammate Anthony Smith, 1-0, in the consolation match.

In the 285-pound class, Lacey continued his solid wrestling. He took down teammate Logan Bowman, 4-2 in sudden victory, for WJU's third title. The Cardinals completed the top four weight class places as Corey Siegfried won 3-2 over Devan Uzelak.
In the other weight classes:

141: Micah Powell of Alderson Broaddus recorded a 9-4 decision over Hogue in the title bout. Ohio Valley's Hagan Root won a 6-3 match over WJU's Bradley Kakos in the consolation final.

157: In the consolation match, Cardinal Christian Rivera lost a 2-1 tiebreaker to West Virginia Tech's Corey Palmer.

174: Junior Reyse Wallbrown fell just short of a title as Ohio Valley's Dalton George earned a 2-1 tiebreaker decision in the final. Sam Solomon from Alderson Broaddus picked up a 12-7 decision over WJU's Keegan Driscoll in the consolation final.

184: Cody Spinks of Alderson Broaddus posted an 11-2 major decision for the weight class title over Nate Starkey.

197: In the consolation final, Chase Logan defeated West Virginia Tech's Terry Nance for the 8-4 decision.

WJU takes a break before it hosts nationally-ranked Pitt-Johnstown next Friday night, Jan. 27. First bout starts at 7 p.m.

-GoCards-

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