Three Bulls Place at The Midlands
12/29/2012 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
EVANSTON, IL - Led by John-Martin Cannon's fourth-place finish, all three Bulls sent to the 2012 Ken Kraft 50th Midlands Championships placed in the top seven, setting a program record for the team at the prestigious midseason national tournament. Despite sending just two attached wrestlers - Cannon and Mark Lewandowski - the Bulls "team" finished twenty-first out of the 45 total teams in attendance.
Lewandowski finished sixth at 165 pounds in his first-ever appearance in the tournament, and Jake Waste wrestled unattached from the team and placed seventh at 184.
Starting the tournament as the sixth seed at 174 pounds, Cannon won two quick matches to make the quarterfinal round, beating Tanner Weatherman of Iowa State 5-3 and Division III national champion and 11th-seed Kyle Kwiat of Ohio Northern 15-4. He would lose a tight 5-3 match to third seed Lee Munster of host Northwestern, but would rebound to beat Mike England of Iowa State and seventh-seed Bryce Hammond of CSU-Bakersfield before an overtime loss to top seed Jordan Blanton of Illinois in the consolation final ended Cannon's tournament with a fourth-place finish.
It matches his finish from last year's Midlands Tournament, which at the time was the highest individual finish in program history.
Lewandowski had a longer road to placing after losing to the ninth seed Taylor Massa of Michigan in the third round. Following his first round bye and a second round win over Penn's Pat Robinson, the loss to Massa forced Lewandowski to regroup and did so with a 15-7 major decision over Oregon State's Seth Thomas and secured a spot in at least the top eight with a 9-2 win over Harvard's Devin Gobbo and a 2-1 win over Jackson Morse of Illinois.
After beating 11th-seed Ramon Santiago of Rider, he lost to Steven Monk of North Dakota State to drop him to the fifth-place match. He would then lose to Conrd Polz of Illinois 3-1 in what was a rematch of Lewandowski's 2012 NCAA tournament run.
Wrestling unattached in his redshirt season, Waste started the tournament unseeded but earned a spot in the third round after a 12-2 major decision over Victor Pozsonyi of Hofstra and a 3-2 upset of 10th seed Alex Utley of North Carolina in round two. He would drop to the consolation bracket after losing to Iowa's Sammy Brooks, but remained locked in and won three straight matches to earn a top-eight placement.
He opened consolation action with a second-round tech fall over Drew Rebling of Columbia, 18-2 (4:42) and beat Clint Morrison of Rider 4-2. He won another upset, this time over eighth-seeded Elmhurst wrestler Joe Rau 6-1. After losing to fifth seed Ryan Loder of Northern Iowa, he finished his weekend with a convincing 7-1 win over Iowa's Brooks to avenge his first loss of the tournament.
The trio will aim to carry the weekend's momentum into future action, with Cannon and Lewandowski leading the Bulls to a Sunday home dual meet against rival Edinboro at Alumni Arena. The dual will begin at 1 pm.
