Wheeling, W. Va. - The road to the NCAA Division II Super Regional Championships kicked off on Saturday with the Wheeling University Wrestling team heading to the 2024 John Summa Invitational. It was a big day all around as all four Cardinals who competed got wins on the day and competed throughout the afternoon. Jake Powell led the way with a fourth place finish in the 285 pound weight class and all four wrestlers picked up at least one win on the day.

Powell led the way with a fourth place finish in his weight class for the second straight event, finishing 5-1 and heading to the top 10 in wins all-time by a sophomore in program history. He started with a bye before facing #3 ranked Francesco Borsellino and fell in a 6-0 decision. As he moved to the consolation bracket, he hit his stride picking up back-to-back pins, taking down Ohio Northern's Sam Cruser in 2:36 and Otterbein's Zac Stray in 51 seconds. He kept the winning going against St. John Fisher's Jackson Burns as he picked up his biggest win of the day in a 12-1 Major Decision. As he moved on to round five, he would get his third pinfall victory of the day, this time pinning Thiel's Zak Dillingham in 1:09. His day would come to an anticlimactic end as he picked up  a medical forfeit win to make it to the 3rd place match and then his day would conclude with a medical forfeit in the 3rd place match to give him fourth overall.

Following Powell was freshman Brian Crevar, who had a multi-win effort, finishing 2-2 in the 165 pound weight class. He received a bye to start things out and came back with a 7-3 Decision against Case Western's John Conover to move to 1-0. He would come back in his second match and fell to Ohio Wesleyan's Tyler Bodovetz in a 9-1 Major Decision and ended his day in an overtime loss against Thiel's Dominic Hartman. Fellow freshman Alex Finsley was right behind him at 1-2 in the 197 pound weight class. He received a bye to start things out and then took a tech fall to move to the consolation bracket. From there he would get his first win of the day with a 7-6 decision over West Liberty's Keaton Grider. His day would then come to an end as he fell via pinfall in 41 seconds to Blake Ilges from Alfred State.

The final Wheeling wrestler was Caden Canning, who rounded out the day in the 141 pound weight class. He opened his day with a bang, picking up a Major Decision over Otterbein's Andrew Sas to move to 1-0. However, he would run into a pair of DI wrestlers from Ohio Northern and would fall in a tech fall and a pinfall. With the newly added Akron Scramble, the Cardinals will have two more tournaments until the regional championships and look to continue their success down the stretch.
The Wheeling University Wrestling team returns to action on Saturday, February 17th, when they head to the Akron Scramble at 10 AM.