Contact: Sam Fretto, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, sjfretto@noctrl.edu

WHITEWATER, Wis. (Nov. 15, 2025)- After beginning its dual season with a win over Wheaton College, the No. 10-ranked North Central College men's wrestling team defeated the No. 10-ranked University of Wisconsin-Whitewater 25-18 inside of Kachel Fieldhouse Saturday afternoon.

The first match of the afternoon featured the 165-pound weight class as Harrison Konder took on third-ranked Brayden Peet. Konder battled throughout the match but ultimately fell to Peet in an 11-9 decision to give the Warhawks a 3-0 lead. 

North Central took the lead, 6-3, in the 174-pound bout. Jake Luce squared off against Caden Kirchner in a dominant win for Luce, earning a 17-1 technical fall. Luce jumped ahead 9-1 after the first period and finished Kirchner off in 4:28. 

The Warhawks retook the lead, 7-6, in the back-and-forth affair with a major decision in the 184-pound match. Henry Rydwelski took on 13th-ranked Gavin Kohel, where he came up short in the 13-2 major decision. 

The Cardinals bounced back in the 197-pound clash as seventh-ranked Casey Aikman competed in his first dual match of the year against Tyler Haydon. Aikman picked up a 23-8 technical fall victory, picking it up in the final second of the match, with seven takedowns. The technical fall gave the Cardinals the lead back, 10-7, and they would never relinquish it the rest of the dual.

The 285-pound bout produced a low-scoring matchup that featured Luke Chrisse and Jordan Lewis. The match was scored 4-2 midway through the third period, but Chrisse sealed the match with a final takedown to make it 7-2, plus the point for riding time at the end for an 8-2 decision. Ultimately, Chrisse eked out the decision over Lewis for the 13-7 North Central advantage. 

The 125- and 133-pound matches both went North Central's way as top-ranked 125-pound Chip Guzman pinned Luke Berktold in one minute exactly, while 12th-ranked 133-pound Ethan Spacht pinned Jordan Rasof in one minute 43 seconds, to extend the Cardinals' lead to 25-7. 

The final three matches of the dual went UW-Whitewater's way, with Joshua Robison falling to 10th-ranked 141-pound Justin Fortugo by a 7-2 decision, the 10th-ranked 149-pound wrestler Tyler Starr fell to his fifth-ranked counterpart Dominik Mallinder by a 7-3 decision, and Tagg Miller losing by a 17-0 technical fall to Luke Swan in the 157-pound match. 

Both teams won five matches in the dual, with North Central getting the more impactful wins with two pinfalls and two technical falls to secure the 25-18 victory. The Cardinals (2-0, 1-0 CCIW) have defeated the Warhawks (2-2, 2-0 WIAC) in three consecutive dual meets. 

It will be a short turnaround for North Central as they have a College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin dual on the docket on Monday, Nov. 17, in Bloomington, Ill., as they face the Illinois Wesleyan Titans with a 7 p.m. start time in the Shirk Center.