Contact: Alex Mielcarz, Athletics Communication Graduate Assistant, ajmielcarz@noctrl.edu

STEVENS POINT, Wis. (Nov. 7, 2026) – In its season-opening event, 30 North Central College men's wrestlers traveled to the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point to take part in the Pointer Open. Over half of Coach Grant Zamin's squad placed, with 18 Cardinals finishing in the top five of their respective brackets and six earning bracket victories.

AJ Frescura, Ethan Spacht, Matthew Maldonado, Parker Graveman, Paul Woo and Xavier Villalobos each stood at the top of their respective podiums at the end of the individual-based event.

The 125-pound gold bracket saw an all-North Central final, as Villalobos battled teammate Joey Sikorsky in the championship bout.  Villalobos snuck by with a 7-4 decision in his opening quarterfinal bout, then pinned Wisconsin-Parkside's Gavin Wolters (4:24) in the semifinal.

Sikorsky began his senior campaign with back-to-back tech-fall wins in his opening round match (18-1) and quarterfinal match (20-3). Sikorsky, like his teammate Villalobos, defeated a wrestler from Wisconsin-Parkside via major decision (18-8) to secure the Red and black championship bout. Villalobos used a four-point nearfall and a takedown to take a 7-1 lead over Sikorsky in the opening period. He would add an escape point in the second period for his 8th and final point. Villalobos conceded a point to Sikorsky in the third period after being penalized for stalling.

Spacht tore through the 133-pound gold bracket, winning four straight matches by pin. The senior opened with a pin of Aurora University's Zane Elly (1:56), then dispatched the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater's Tyler Tiangco (2:40) in the quarterfinal round and defeated Manchester's Kaleb Salazar in 1:48 in the semifinal bout. Spacht finished his defense of the 133-pound title from last year's Pointer Open with a second consecutive pin of a Manchester wrestler, doing so in 2:31.

Maldonado topped the 141-pound gold bracket podium, defeating a fellow Cardinal along the way. He started his journey through the bracket with an 18-2 technical fall over an opponent from Wisconsin-Whitewater, before finding himself in a tight quarterfinal contest against Wisconsin-Parkside's Landen Fick. With the match tied at one, Maldonado executed a takedown to take a 4-1 lead, holding on to win 4-2 and advance to the semifinal, where he matched up with Jad Alwawi, who reached the semifinal with victories by major decision and decision. Maldonado defeated his teammate 7-1 to advance to the championship match, where he took home another win by decision, this time over Aurora's Jake Penzato, using a late takedown in the second period to take a 3-1 lead that he would expand to a 7-2 final score.

Alwawi finished the bracket in fifth after winning his consolation bout 8-2.

Woo began his North Central career with a 149-pound gold championship. An opening-round pin (3:54) set up a major decision victory over a wrestler from the host school (14-3) in the quarterfinal. In the semifinal, Woo broke a 1-1 tie after being awarded a point for stalling by his opponent, Brody Arthur (Manchester). Woo put the match out of reach with a reversal and a four-point nearfall in 16 seconds to extend the lead to 8-1 before winning 8-2. The Ohio transfer finished his ascent to the top of the podium with a 4-2 win in the championship bout, breaking a 1-1 tie with just 17 seconds left with a takedown of his opponent, Alex Morales (Milwaukee School of Engineering).  

Another new face to the Cardinal roster began his career with an impressive showing: Maguire Hoeksema, who dropped his quarterfinal bout via major decision (13-2), wrestled all the way back to earn third in the 165-pound gold bracket. Diaz defeated teammate Giovanni Diaz by technical fall (19-2) in the second round of the consolation bracket, before claiming victories by decision (4-2), forfeit and decision (3-2) to claim the bronze.

Henry Rydwelski and Jake Luce wrestled their way to top-four finishes in the 184-pound gold bracket. Rydwelski earned a major decision victory in the opening bout before defeating conference foe Mataeo Blessing of Elmhurst University in the quarterfinal 3-2 in three overtimes to get into the semifinal, where he suffered a technical fall loss (16-0). He regrouped, beating another Elmhurst student-athlete, using a takedown with 25 seconds left in the third period to pull off a 12-9 win. He was then pinned in the third-place match by a wrestler from MSOE at the 2:29 mark.

Luce won his first match via pin, and followed it up with a 17-1 technical fall victory in the quarterfinal bout. In the semifinal, Luce, tied at one with under a minute left in the third period, executed a takedown to take a 4-1 lead, holding on to win the bout 4-2 and advance to the championship.

Luce fell behind 3-1 in the first period, but built a 5-1 lead in the second period after performing an escape and a takedown to go up 5-3. His lead wouldn't hold, as a five-point third-period lead by Stevens Point's Easton Hull led to his 8-6 victory, giving Luce the silver.

Frescura brought home the Cardinals' fifth gold bracket championship, doing so in the 197-pound event. Frescura cruised through his matches, winning by technical fall in the quarterfinal (20-4) and fall in the semifinal (1:49). The sophomore finished his rampage through the bracket with a 14-5 major decision in the championship bout against Wisconsin-Parkside's Kasey Gish.

In silver action, Parker Graveman and Blake Arsenau finished first and third, respectively, in the 133-pound bracket, while Dean Wainwright and Clint Plotner-Legg finished second and third, respectively, in the 141-pound bracket.

Jack Strezo finished third in the 149-pound bracket, Grady Hull finished fourth in the 165-pound bracket, Austin Coleman finished third in the 174-pound bracket and Xavier Bitner claimed fifth in the 285-pound bracket.

The Cardinals begin their dual schedule on Tuesday, opening the year inside Gregory Arena at 7 p.m. against conference foe Illinois Wesleyan University.