Aaron Wernimont kept his No. 1-ranking by recording a major decision over Augsburg's No. 5 Jason Adams. Photo by Luke Shanno
MAC SLAVIN SPORTS EDITOR
Wartburg wrestling saw a weekend that pitted them against the top programs in the nation as the No. 2 Knights wrestled to a draw against No. 3 – ranked Delaware Valley Saturday night and dropped a match to No. 1-ranked Augsburg College Friday night.
“Obviously it was a disappointment, we didn’t really wrestle up to our potential, I don’t think, and it shows we have a lot to improve on,” Aaron Wernimont said.
On Saturday the Knights hosted Delaware Valley in a match that ended in a 17-17 draw.
The first match of the night pitted Delaware Valley’s No. 4 – ranked Chris Scheetz (125 lbs.) and
Wartburg’s No. 6 – ranked Mark Kist. Scheetz pulled off the decision to put the Aggies up 3-0.
No. 2 Matt Kelly (133 lbs.) was upset by No. 6 Brandon Clemmer to extend the Aggies lead to 6-0.
Wartburg’s No. 2 – ranked Zach McKray (141 lbs.) started the scoring off for the Knights topping Eric McCann, bringing the score to 6-3. Wartburg evened the score at six after No. 2 Jacob Naig (149 lbs.) brought home an 8-2 decision over Dale Fava.
Top-ranked Wernimont (157 lbs.) gave the Knights their first lead of the day after a technical fall over Robbie Hickman 7:00 into the match, putting the score at 11-6.
“I thought I did alright, I mean there’s some stuff I need to work on, but overall I was happy,” Wernimont said.
The Knights kept their momentum going as top-ranked Justin Hanson (165 lbs.) finished with a 12-7 decision, giving the Knights a 14-6 lead.
Grant Jenkins (174 lbs.) tried to keep the momentum going for the Knights but fell to No. 5 Rocky Mantella in overtime cutting the Knights lead to 14-9.
Romeo Djoumessi (184 lbs.) and Mike Wilcox met as a battle between No. 1 and No. 2 in the nation respectively. Wilcox pinned Djoumessi in 2:10 and snapped Djoumessi’s 34-match win streak.
During the Djoumessi and Wilcox match, Delaware Valley lost a team point because their coach argued with the referee, tying the score at 14.
Byron Tate (197 lbs.) used riding time to top Martin Porter 5-4 putting the Knights up 17-14.
The last match of the night pitted Delaware Valley’s No. 2 Kyle Bilquist (285 lbs.) and the Knights No. 4 John Helgerson. Bilquist managed to get an escape in the third period of the match giving him the win 2-1.
The win ended the dual in a 17-17 tie.
The Knights traveled to Minneapolis Friday night to take on top-ranked Augsburg, in a match that featured only three un-ranked wrestlers.
“I don’t think [wrestling back to back nights]was much different. It wasn’t that much different for me, as far as being sore and what not, I don’t think it really had a bearing on what we did or not,” Wernimont said.
Kist and Seth Flodeen set the tone for the close match, as they went into triple overtime, an overtime in which No. 5 Flodeen came out on top of No. 6 Kist. The decision gave Augsburg the lead 3-0.
Kelly and No. 1 Travis Lang met as the top-two ranked individuals in the nation in their weight class. Lang extended the Auggies lead to 9-0 after a pin 1:43 into the match.
No. 2 McKray helped the Knights get on the board after topping No. 7 Tony Valek 5-3. Naig and Willy Holst also pitted a one-two match-up as the top-ranked wrestler, Holst, came out with the 5-2 decision.
“I think Zach McKray wrestled pretty well this weekend, he had a hurt knee and still wrestled well,” Wernimont said. “Naig also wrestled well this weekend.”
Top-ranked Wernimont and Hanson helped the Knights get to their closest lead as they inched to a 12-10 deficit.
Wernimont recorded a major decision over No. 5 Jason Adams and Hanson helped the Knights with a 14-7 decision over Brandon Bahr.
Grant Jenkins dropped a 4-2 decision for the Knights against No. 7 Zach Molitor, but No. 1 – ranked Djoumessi helped the Knights back to a two-point deficit at 15-13, when he brought home a 6-4 decision over Brad Baus.
Augsburg’s No. 2 Jared Massey (197 lbs.) brought home the win for the Auggies as he pinned Wartburg’s Dylan Wrage in 1:16 making the score 21-13.
Helgerson did his part as the No. 4 – ranked wrestler in the country by topping No. 7 Andy Witzel 3-1 to make the final score 21 – 16.
“We’ve just got to come back in the wrestling room these next couple weeks before conference and we are going to really focus on getting in shape. Each guy has certain things he needs to improve on and we’ll just work on everything at an individual level,” Wernimont said.
The Knights will resume their conference dual schedule this week as they head to Cornell Tuesday night with wrestling scheduled to start at 7 p.m. and then host Central at 7:30 p.m. Saturday in Levick Arena.