Mendoza Leads Titans In Season Opener

STEVENS POINT, Wis.- JoJo Mendoza (So. • Racine) finished sixth in the 125-pound competition as UW-Oshkosh opened its 2023-24 wrestling season on Saturday (Nov. 4) at the UW-Stevens Point Pointer Open.

The non-scoring event featured participants from 21 collegiate programs, including NCAA Division I University of Wisconsin and WIAC members UW-Whitewater, UW-Platteville and UW-Eau Claire.

Mendoza took sixth in his weight class after beating Yusuf Zigan of Wisconsin Lutheran College in a 15-8 decision in the first round and Logan Harel (unattached) by a 15-3 major decision in the second. He placed sixth after North Central College's (Ill.) Christian Guzman won by a 15-1 major decision in the third round and he won by medical forfeit over David Vukobratovich from Central College (Iowa).

JP Culver (Fr. • Vicksburg, Mich.), also in the 125-pound weight class, went 0-2 in the competition after dropping the first match by a 7-6 decision to Colin Suyko of Central and being pinned by Harel in his second match.

Posting records of 2-2 were Andrew Schad (So. • Kiel) at 141 pounds and Adib Korabi (Sr. • Carlstadt, N.J.) at 165.

Schad dropped the first match to Greason Pankratz of UW-Stevens Point by technical fall, won against Aidan Baker of Morton College (Ill.) by 17-1 technical fall, and pinned Sebastian Roalses of Carthage College in 1:49, but lost by a 10-6 decision to Pointer Mohammed Abbosov.

Korabi opened the tournament by defeating Emanuel Diaz of Aurora University (Ill.) 20-5 in a technical fall. He went on to defeat Maxwell Schmitt of Carthage by a 13-4 major decision before being pinned by Bryce McDonough of Luther College at 1:47. He was pinned again by Isaac Riddle of UW-Parkside at 6:28.

At 285 pounds, Brodie Driessen (Fr. • West Allis) posted a 1-2 record in the tournament. He was pinned in 1:11 by Grady Iobe of Albion College (Mich.) in the opening match. He went on to win by a 10-3 decision against Chris Glow of Carthage before being pinned by Colton Cashmore, who was wrestling unattached.

Joey Spizzirri (So. • Palatine, Ill.) at 157 pounds and Camden Harms (Fr. • Mahomet, Ill.) at 285 pounds both finished the competition at 0-2.

Spizzirri opened the competition with a loss against Kevin Hogan of Central in a 5-0 decision. He went on to lose by an 11-3 major decision against Luke Christie of North Central.

Harms lost his first match to Brooks Empey (unattached) by a 16-0 technical foul and dropped his next match to Cain Koeppel (unattached) in a 2:16 fall.

The Titans return to action for a dual meet at UW-La Crosse on Thursday (Nov. 9). The match is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m.

Written by Emily Buffington, UW-Oshkosh Sports Information