LEXINGTON, Va. – Competing at the Southern Conference Championships for the first time in school history, the SIUE wrestling team had four wrestlers earn third-place finishes Saturday at Cameron Hall.
Sophomore Patrick Myers (133 pounds), freshman Jake Residori (174), and juniors Josh Wood (197) and David Devine (285) all finished third in their respective weight classes.
"It was great to have four guys finish their rounds with wins," Head Coach David Ray said. "Our guys beat opponents that they lost to earlier in the year which was great to see."
At 133, Myers defeated Campbell's Tanner Bidelspach by a 4-1 decision in the consolation final.
Myers started the day with a 7-1 victory over Andriy Onufriyenko of VMI, but fell 3-2 to top-seeded Aaron Hansen of Citadel in the semifinals. The sophomore regrouped, however, to pin Chattanooga's Alex Ward in 2:00 to earn a spot in the third place match.
Residori knocked off VMI's John Dommert in the consolation final at 174 via a 4-2 decision.
Residori lost 1-0 to Gardner-Webb's Hunter Gamble in the first round, but would not lose again the rest of the day. He pinned Collin Hedash of Appalachian State in 3:36 in the consolation quarterfinals before taking an 11-4 decision from Campbell's Cody Ryba en route to the third place finish.
Wood earned third-place honors with a 7-2 victory over Citadel's Marshall Haas in the 197 weight division.
He also defeated Gardner-Webb's Blake Salyer 6-0 in the consolation quarterfinals before dispatching Urayaon Garcia of VMI 8-3 in the consolation semifinals.
At 285, Devine defeated Gardner-Webb's Travis Porter 8-5 to take third place honors.
He also knocked off Joe Nolan of Campbell 4-2 before pinning Joe Cummings of Appalachian State in 1:13
SIUE finished fifth as a team with 29.5 points. Chattanooga took the SoCon Championship with 90.5 points.
"We know where we're at, and what we need to do," Ray added following the meet. "We'll take a look back at how we did this year, and look at what we need to do and get ready for next year."
