LAKELAND, Fla.—Following a successful weekend at the Patriot Open, the Fire wrestling team will head to Waleska, Ga. for its first two dual matches of the season against Truett-McConnell and Reinhardt on Saturday.
Last weekend, Southeastern had eight wrestlers place in the Top 6 in their respective weight classes during the Patriot Open led by
Blake Rypel's title in the 184-pound bracket.
Stephen Kelle and
Maxwell Kauffman were both second at 174 and 149, respectively.
Freshman
Kael Brisker had an impressive debut, finishing third at 141 which included a win over two-time All-American Trent Leon of Reinhardt.
Truett-McConnell is 0-1 in dual competition thus far having only faced defending national champion Life on November 4
th. Ethan Powel is the highest-ranked TMU individual of the three ranked Bears grapplers checking in at 16
th in the 285-pound rankings. Geowel Silvestre is ranked 16
th at 141 and Ian James 19
th at 174.
Reinhardt begins the season ranked sixth in the NAIA Coaches' Poll and open the year with nine wrestlers ranked in their respective weight classes. Leon is the highest ranked of the group at fifth at 141 where he could meet Brisker or 10
th-ranked
Chris Kelly of SEU. Another match to keep an eye on is at 125 where a pair of 2021 All-Americans could meet in Koby Milner and
Isaac Crowell.
The 197-pound match could be good as well with Jacob Henderson of Reinhardt ranked 11
th and Southeastern's
Gage Braun seventh.
The Truett-McConnell match will begin at 4:30 with the Reinhardt match to follow. For updates, follow @SEUFireWrestle on Twitter.
