#4 UW-La Crosse 38, UW-Eau Claire 6Eau Claire, Wis. - The University of Wisconsin-La Crosse wrestling team earned a 38-6 dual victory over UW-Eau Claire at the McPhee Physical Education Center Friday in the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) opener for both teams. The Eagles, ranked fourth in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), improve to 5-1 on the season and 1-0 in the WIAC while the Blugolds drop to 1-6 and 0-1 in the league.
UWL won the first two matches Friday as
Ryan Weinmann opened with a win by major decision (12-2) over Zackary Sirny at 125-pounds to give the Eagles a 4-0 lead.
Dustin Weinmann, ranked sixth at 133-pounds, followed with a win by technical fall (15-0, 4:07) over Scott Worlund to make it 9-0. Weinmann improved to 10-2 on the season.
UW-Eau Claire cut the lead to 9-3 at 141-pounds as Nathaniel Behnke defeated
Grant Sutton by decision (9-7 sudden victory).
The Eagles'
Aaron Sweeney then earned a win by fall (1:22) over Alex Kleinschmidt at 149-pounds to extend UWL's lead to 15-3.
"Both Weinmann's started the dual the right way with big wins," said UWL head coach
Dave Malecek. "
Grant Sutton wrestled well against a returning All-America, and had a chance to win the match before losing in overtime, and then Sweeney's win at 149 really set the tone for the whole dual."
UW-Eau Claire got its second victory of the night at 157-pounds with Roy Munroe defeating
Michael Murnane by decision (12-6), closing the gap to 15-6.
UWL then took the final five matches to secure victory.
The Eagles'
Andrew Dayland won by decision (8-3) over Ryan Behnke at 165-pounds and
Tyler Schneider defeated Travis Cripe by technical fall (20-5, 7:00) at 174 to increase the UWL lead to 23-6. Schneider is currently ranked first in NCAA Division III, running his overall record to 10-1 on the season.
The lead was to 35-6 as UWL's
Alex Friedman earned a win by fall (1:34) at 184-pounds over Alex Knutson while
Zach Tooley defeated Cecil Philson, also by fall (2:41) at 197-pounds. Tooley moves to 9-2 this year.
"We did a really good job of getting pins and bonus points for the team," added Malecek.
UWL's
Clay Broze finished the evening with a win by decision (4-1) over sixth-ranked Justin Karkula at 285-pounds, giving the Eagles the 38-6 victory.
"I feel like these guys responded to the challenge tonight after a big win last night against Luther," said Malecek. "We didn't let down and we came out with the same attitude and aggressive wrestling style."
UWL now leads the all-time series 44-7 with UW-Eau Claire.
UWL returns to action Saturday, January 2 against Upper Iowa University at 8 p.m. at Osage (Iowa) High School.
