Wheaton, Ill. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse wrestling team is in 11th-place after the first day of competition at the Pete Willson/Wheaton College (Ill.) Invitational Friday night.  The Eagles have 47.0 team points while UW-Parkside leads with 79.0 points.  The University of Mt. Union (Ohio) is in second-place (67.5) followed by UW-Whitewater in third (67.0), Olivet College (Mich.) in fourth (66.0) and the University of Indianpolis (Ind.) in fifth (65.0).  A total of 31 teams are competing.  Action concludes Saturday.

Three UW-L wrestlers, Grant Miller (184-pounds), Zach Strickland (197) and Billy Mayer (285), have advanced to the semifinals scheduled for Saturday. 

Miller, seeded seventh, went 3-0 Friday at 184-pounds.  He opened with a major decision (13-5) over Josh Crawford of Olivet (Mich.) followed by a major decision (14-4) over Kyle McKearn of UW-Oshkosh . Miller advanced to the semifinals with a win by decision (12-9) over second-seeded Timothy Stewart of Messiah College (Ohio).

Strickland, seeded third at 197-pounds, also went 3-0 in Friday's action.  He won by fall (6:20) over Luke Ortscheid of UW-Eau Claire followed by a major decision (10-2) win over Jim Nemunaitis of John Carroll University (Ohio).  Strickland defeated sixth-seeded Austin O'Neil of Wabash College (Ind.) by decision (5-3) in the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Mayer won all three of his matches at 285.  He won by major decision (10-0) over Davie Rice of Muskingum College (Ohio) to start the tournament.  Mayer then won by fall (:31) over Austin Karls of Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wis.) and advanced to the semifinals with a win by default over sixth-seed Jason LaPlante of UW-Oshkosh.

UW-L's Bobby Dorn advanced to the quarterfinals at 149-pounds Friday before finishing 2-2.  Seeded fifth, he opened with a win by fall (4:01) over Ricky Burns of Concordia University (Wis.).  Dorn then won by decision (4-0) over Joshua Wengerter of MSOE (Wis.) before falling by major decision (19-6) to fourth-seeded Gage Pederson of Olivet (Mich.).  Dorn lost by technical fall (19-3, 6:58) to second-seeded Cameryn Brady of Manchester College (Ind.) in the consolation bracket.

Other results for the Eagles Friday included Joey Nelson (125-pounds), Scott Hogan (157), Mike Minske (165) and Eric Twohey (174) each finishing 1-2 while Dan Beane (133) went 0-2.

Action concludes Saturday at Wheaton beginning at 9 a.m.