February 2, 1998
WRESTLERS PLACE FIFTH AT WABASH TOURNAMENT;
FOUR SCOTS FINISH WITH UNDEFEATED RECORDS
Crawfordsville,IN --The Monmouth College men
=s wrestling team traveled east this past weekend to the 14th annual Wabash College Wrestling Classic and turned in one of its best performances of the season. The Fighting Scots finished fifth in a 12-team field and had four individuals go undefeated through the two-day tournament. Manchester (Ind.) was the team champion, defeating Augustana in the finals, with Olivet (Mich.) and North Central placing third and fourth.Monmouth competed in five dual matches in the tournament and posted a 3-2 overall record, which evens its season dual mark at 10-10. The Monmouth wrestlers lost their opening-round match to North Central 21-12 but followed with two wins, 42-12 against Maranatha and 28-18 against the host Wabash team. A 40-3 loss to Olivet in the consolation semifinals put Monmouth in the fifth-place match, where the Scots turned in a 28-12 victory over Millikin. The Scots were the highest non-seeded team by virtue of their fifth-place finish. Manchester, Olivet, Augustana and North Central received the four team seeds.
Four Scots came through the competition without a loss. Senior Brian Ragar (Monmouth,IL/HS) [118 pounds] and junior Derek Harris (Romeoville,IL/HS) [158 pounds] each went 5-0 to lead the squad. Senior Andy Majetic (East Moline,IL/United Township) was a perfect 4-0 at 177 pounds and freshman Coco Acevedo (Elgin,IL/Burlington Central) won all three of his matches in the 126-pound division.
Heavyweight Scott Bayer (Schaumburg,IL/Hoffman Estates) was 4-1 in five matches and Jeff Harris (Romeoville,IL/HS) [142 pounds, 3-1], Donnie Malmquist (Lake Havasu,AZ/HS) [134 pounds, 2-1] and Matt Nelson (Morton,IL/HS) [150 pounds, 2-1] also lost only one time in three or more matches.
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It was one of our best efforts of the year so far,@ said Monmouth wrestling coach Mike Olson. AThe whole team wrestled well and produced a solid team performance. We finished as the highest non-seeded team against some strong competition.@ The Scots will hope to produce another strong showing next Saturday as the squad travels south to Jacksonville, Illinois for the MacMurray College Tournament in their final action before the holiday vacation break.