Contact: Ben Nordman, Sports Information Graduate Assistant, 630-637-5302

Results

NAPERVILLE, Ill. (Jan. 19, 2019) - Starting the afternoon off with festivities to celebrate their seniors, the no. 11-ranked North Central College men's wrestling team took care of business throughout the day in their dual against College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin (CCIW) foe Wheaton College, quieting the Thunder on their way to a 31-9 victory on Saturday.

Ian Mullen was first up for the Cardinals, taking on Carlos Fuentez of Wheaton (1-5, 0-2 CCIW) who owned a 21-1 record coming into the bout. The score was back and forth for the match, with Fuentez coming out on top in the end by an 8-6 final. The Cardinals struck back at 133 though, with Jaime Suarez claiming the 7-4 victory against Wheaton's Ethan Harsted.

The Cardinals then rallied off three more victories in a row. Starting at 141, Marc Fleenor scored a 12-2 major decision over Yosep Lee to widen the Cardinal lead to four. Following was Anthony Rink at 149, easily pinning his opponent to grab six more team points. Ben Williamson followed the trend of victories at 157, taking an 8-1 decision.

At 165, North Central's Danny Harris and Wheaton's Jonavan Huggins found themselves in a battle, with Huggins coming out on top with a close 6-5 decision.

Wheaton's positive momentum was stopped in it's tracks though when Cam Hayes took the mat at 174. Hayes dominated his match, winning with an easy 6-1 decision. Wheaton was able to nab one more victory on the afternoon when Isaac Odell was able to keep North Central's Cody Baldridge at bay for the match, squeaking out a 3-0 decision.

The Cardinals were able to finish the dual in style at 197, with Tyler Vittal grinding out his match before recording the fall at 3:49. Audel Ochoa received a forfeit victory at 285 to make the final score 31-9. 

In addition, there were two exhibition matches wrestled at 174 and 184. At 174, Eric Hominac made quick work of his opponent, pinning him 26 seconds into the match. In the other exhibition match on the afternoon, Josh Bouie was pinned at 2:37.

The Cardinals (8-2, 4-0 CCIW) take part in the Wheaton College Pete Willson Invitational on Jan. 25-26 as well as the Harper Open on Jan. 26 before heading to Elmhurst College to defend their CCIW Championship Trophy on Feb. 7.