Kearney, Neb. – The 12th-ranked Nebraska-Kearney wrestling team flew by the Newman Jets,
45-6, Sunday afternoon at the Health & Sports Center to wrap up another MIAA regular season title.
The Lopers (21-1, 6-0) have won the league dual title three times (2018, 2016 and 2014) since joining the MIAA prior to the 2012-13 season. All toll, UNK is 28-3 in MIAA duals in that span.
Today against NU (3-4, 1-3), UNK had three tech falls and three falls and pulled mild upsets at thee weight classes.
At 157 pounds, redshirt freshman Matt Malcolm (Clarinda, Ia.) tallied five points in the third period to beat junior Tyler Mies, 9-6. The match was tied a four thanks to a buzzer beating takedown by Malcom to end the second period. He added two more to beat Meis, who was the 2017 MIAA runner up at 149 lbs. Three weight classes later, junior Issac Deaton (Valdez, Alaska) beat 11th-ranked Noel Torres, 5-3, thanks to 2:09 of riding time and a first period takedown.
Finally, at heavyweight, sophomore
Jarrod Hinrichs (Geneva) pinned eighth-ranked Dalton Weidl with 13 seconds left. Weidl was up 1-0 when he suffered an apparent leg injury early in the third period. While he came back to record a takedown and reversal, Hinrichs was up 11-4 at the time of the fall. Hinrichs is now 32-6 (19-0 vs. D2 wrestlers) on the year and has beaten six ranked wrestlers during a 19-match win streak that dates to early December.
On Saturday, 10 Lopers took part in the annual
Sioux City Dave Edmonds Open. The group won 32 matches and placed at three different weights. That included 141 pounds where sophomore
Jonathan Killingsworth (Grand Island) won, sophomore
Jacob Wasser (
Kintnersville, Pa.) was runner up and redshirt freshman
Wesley Dawkins (Ashland) came in third. In going 4-0, Killingsworth had three second period falls.
Next, Chadron senior
Chance Bila won at 197 pounds, Maryland senior
Kevin Barrett had five falls to place third at 285 pounds and South Carolina redshirt freshman
Talon Seitz came in third at 165 pounds.
Newman hosts the MIAA Championships, a tournament the Lopers have won the past five years, next Sunday in Wichita.