Pelkey Fourth, Titans Eighth At NCAA Regional
Joe Pelkey placed fourth in the 157-pound weight class as the UW-Oshkosh wrestling team finished eighth with 39.5 points at the NCAA Division III West Regional on Saturday (Feb. 27) in Minneapolis, Minn.
Host Augsburg College won the 11-team meet with 155.5 points. The 12-time national champion Auggies were followed in the team standings by Concordia College (Minn.) in second place with 124 points, UW-Platteville in third with 104, UW-Eau Claire in fourth with 90, Saint John's University (Minn.) in fifth with 78, Concordia University Wisconsin in sixth with 46 and Lakeland College in seventh with 42.5.
Rounding out the regional team scores were ninth-place St. Olaf College (Minn.) with 38.5 points, 10th-place Milwaukee School of Engineering with 25.5 and Pacific University (Ore.) with 17.5.
Pelkey won his first match by forfeit and defeated St. Olaf College's Sameh Almousa, 14-10, in the quarterfinal round. Pelkey fell, 11-3, in the semifinals to Grant Parker from Augsburg College, but bounced back with a 4-3 decision over UW-Eau Claire's Carter Focht in the consolation bracket.
In the third-place match, Pierce Holtfreter from Concordia University Wisconsin downed Pelkey, 11-3. The top three finishers in each of the 10 weight classes qualify for the national meet to be held on March 11-12 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
The Titans also had Mark Choinski place fifth at 149 pounds, and Dellas Vandenberg and Austin Loos finish sixth at 133 and 141 pounds, respectively.
Choinski scored a 13-6 decision over Branden Schorr from Saint John's University in the quarterfinal round before losing, 6-0, to UW-Eau Claire's Roy Munroe in the semifinals. Choinski suffered a 7-1 defeat to UW-Platteville's Mason Bohm in the consolation bracket, but rebounded to pin Schorr in 27 seconds during the fifth-place match.
Vandenberg was pinned by Saint John's University's Michael Pleski in 4:50 during their 133-pound quarterfinal match. In the consolation bracket, Vandenberg was stuck by UW-Platteville's Scott Arneson in 5:58 during the semifinals and suffered an 8-7 defeat to Bryce Fitzgerald from Milwaukee School of Engineering in the fifth-place match.
Loos lost his opening match in the 141-pound division by a 7-2 score to Allen Henle from Saint John's University. Loos advanced with a pin in 4:01 against Joshua Curcio from Concordia University Wisconsin before falling to Augsburg College's Aaron Wilson (1:30) in the consolation semifinals and to Lakeland College's Marcus McCauley (0:34) in the fifth-place bout.
UW-Oshkosh's competitors also included Lance Arendt at 165 pounds, Julius Smith at 174, John DePersia at 184, Chris Yaros at 197 and Elijah Burdick at 285.
Arendt produced a 2-2 record, winning by fall (3:47) over Ryan Snyder from Milwaukee School of Engineering and an 11-2 major decision over Seth Barkosky from St. Olaf College in the second consolation round. Augsburg College's Eric Hensel sent Arendt into the consolation bracket with a pin in 38 seconds during the quarterfinal round, and UW-Eau Claire's Ryan Behnke defeated Arendt, 7-0, in the third consolation round.
DePersia owned a 1-2 record, winning by medical forfeit in the consolation bracket, while Smith, Yaros and Burdick each suffered losses their two matches.
The individual weight class winners were Augsburg College's Sam Bennyhoff at 133 pounds, Rashad Kennedy at 149, Eric Hensel at 165 and Donny Longendyke at 285; Concordia College's Jakob Stageberg at 125 pounds and Ben Cousins at 157; Concordia University Wisconsin's Mason Baumgartner at 197 pounds; Saint John's University's Allen Henle at 141 pounds; St. Olaf College's Garrett Beaman at 174 pounds; and UW-Platteville's Grant Wedepohl at 184 pounds.
Longendyke was named the tournament's Most Valuable Wrestler.
Sharing West Region Coach of the Year honors were Jim Moulsoff from Augsburg College and Matt Nagel from Concordia College.