LAKELAND, Fla. – The Fire placed in every weight class in which they wrestled on Saturday. Jackson Crawford and Jeffrey Geller captured titles as Southeastern University took eight top-3 places in the Southeastern Open wrestling tournament.
Overall, SEU's 19 competing wrestlers recorded a combined 55-29 record for a .655 winning percentage. The Fire had two five-win wrestlers and another six who won four matches with all 19 winning at least one bout.
"I was really happy with the way our guys performed today across all weights," said head coach Travis Patrick. "It's great to have the opportunity to compete at home and get quality matches in."
After the two first places, the Fire saw Austin Chung (149), Konner Schluckebier (157), Ty Rodriguez (165), Tyson Barnhart (174), Ralph Sanchez (197) and Bryce Wheatley (285) recorded the team's six third-place finishes.
Jaime Rodriguez (149), Michael Shannon (157) and Bruno Ingalls (174) added fourth place performances.
In a 3-wrestler field at 141, Crawford shut out his first opponent of St. Thomas' Lane Wishart via a 16-0 tech fall. In the round robin bracket, Crawford clinched the title when he pinned Brady Simmer of Florida Gulf Coast in 58 seconds.
Following an opening round bye, Geller won a major decision, 13-4, over Jairo Caceres of St. Thomas in his first action. He went on for a 7-3 decision over St. Andrews' Dakota Johnson. Geller took a 1-0 lead in the title match's second period on an escape against unattached August Batson. With 34 seconds left in the third period, Batson escaped and took a 4-1 lead. But Geller would not be denied. He escaped 12 seconds later for a point they immediately took Batson down for the winning three points with seven seconds left to claim the thrilling 5-4 win.
149
Teammates Chung and Jaime Rodriguez saw their eventual paths meet in the third-place bout. Chung (5-1) lost his first match after a bye and fell into the consolations. He recorded a pair of tech falls with an injury default win in between. Chung bested one fellow Fire wrestler, Joseph Kindred, who was 2-2, by an 8-1 decision.
Rodriguez won two decisions and then a tech fall (16-1) for his spot in the semifinals. He dropped a 7-1 decision to runner-up Bret Minor of Life. Rodriguez came back with a 13-3 major over SEU's Brody Brisker, who was 3-2, to set up his meeting against Chung.
In the third-place match, Chung recorded two of his six takedowns in the first period and went on to defeat Rodriguez by a 21-7 major decision.
157
With four Fire wrestlers in the class, it was the second of three with multiple placers for SEU with Schluckebier (4-1) and Shannon (3-2) meeting for third place.
Schluckebier pinned his first opponent in 1:24 and won the second via a 10-1 major decision. He fell into the consolation bracket after a semifinal loss to the eventual champ. Schluckebier prevailed over teammate Nikolas Trujillo (2-2) by a 5-2 decision.
Following a bye, Shannon lost a close 5-3 decision before he ran off three-straight wins – a decision (10-3), a major decision (10-1) and a fall (5:00).
In the third-place match, Schluckbier took down Shannon at 1:19 in the first period and the remaining three points came on escapes and a 4-2 decision.
165
Ty Rodriguez started tough with a 10-4 decision loss before he posted four wins in a row. He pinned his second opponent in 59 seconds, a 17-1 tech fall and a 13-3 major came before a medical forfeit sent him to the third-place match. Rodriguez scored the first points of the 3rd-place match before Keiser's Angel Hernandez escaped and had a takedown of his own for a 4-3 lead. Hernandez escaped to start the third period and took down Rodriguez, going on for a 9-4 win.
174
Barnhart and Ingalls combined for an 8-3 record as they were the third teammates to meet in the third-place match.
Barnhart won his first bout by a 13-8 decision and had a tech fall (18-3) before he dropped the Semifinal matchup. Barnhart pinned Life's Zion Smith in 6:30 to qualify for the third-place match.
Ingalls had a rough opening result before he ran off a major decision (16-5) and two falls at 1:40 and 4:56. A medical forfeit set up his meeting with teammate Barnhart.
Ingalls started strong against Barnhart with a 6-1 lead after a period. Barnhart reversed the momentum with an 8-0 second period and a 5-1 third frame for the 14-7 win.
197
Sanchez was two points from a perfect day in his 5-1 afternoon. He pinned his first opponent in 3:55, before he fell by a close 5-3 in the second round. In the consolations, Sanchez came back with a second fall in 6:28, an 11-2 major, and a big upset when he pinned No. 20 Jeff McCauley of Kesier. He went on to take third place via a forfeit by teammate Liam Leckie.
285
Wheatley added a sixth third place finisher for SEU. He could not have started better with back-to-back falls in 2:19 and 2:34. Wheatley saw his surge end in a 10-3 decision in the semifinal. He rebounded with a 4-1 sudden-victory win before he pinned St. Thomas' Maximilian Taboada in only 51 seconds to take third place.
SEU returns to action when they travel to Marshall, Missouri next weekend for the Missouri Valley Invitational.
