Mid-American Conference Championships
Lantry and Gunning Highlight Day One of the MAC Championships
3/4/2017 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
CEDAR FALLS, IA – Bryan Lantry and Jake Gunning will compete for Mid-American Conference titles on Sunday after impressive showings on day one of the 2017 Mid-American Conference Championships. In addition, seven other UB wrestlers advanced to Sunday with solid wins.
Lantry first earned a 6-1 decision over Central Michigan's Corey Keener to earn a spot in the semifinals. That is where the redshirt-sophomore earned UB's biggest win of the day. Lantry won a 3-2 decision over top-seeded Josh Alber of Northern Iowa, in front of Alber's home crowd, to punch his ticket to the finals.
Lantry will face second-seeded John Erneste of Missouri in the finals tomorrow afternoon. Erneste beat Lantry, 8-5, in a dual earlier this season.
Gunning, a five seed, upset fourth-seeded Newton Smerchek of Central Michigan, 2-1, to advance to the semifinals. A penalty point assessed to Smercheck proved to be the difference. Gunning was dominant in the semifinals with a 9-1 major decision over top-seed Zack Parker of Ohio.
Gunning returns to the MAC championship match for the second straight season looking for his first MAC title. The redshirt-sophomore will face sixth-seeded Gage Hutchison of Ohio in the finals. Gunning beat Hutchinson, 7-2, earlier this season.
In other action, Kyle Akins rebounded from a first round loss to upset second-seed Brent Fleetwood of Central Michigan in a 4-2 decision to advance to Sunday. He will wrestle fourth-seeded Noah Gonser of Eastern Michigan tomorrow. Akins kept his NCAA hopes alive, but will need one more win.
Brett Perry earned a sudden victory over Shane Mest of Kent State in his first consolation match to advance to Sunday. He will wrestle Central Michigan's Jordan Englewood tomorrow and if he can finish third will advance to the NCAA Championships.
Muhamed McBryde won a pair of matches in the consolation bracket to advance to Sunday. He will wrestle Missouri's Dylan Wisman tomorrow. Like Perry, if McBryde can win two more matches, he will punch his ticket to St. Louis.
Jason Estevez, Colt Cotten, Tyler Rill and Nate Rose will all compete for seventh place tomorrow.
"What a crazy day," head coach John Stuzman said. "We started slow and then picked it up. We have two in the finals and seven others wrestling tomorrow. We are performing well."
Click here for the entire results from Saturday.
Sunday action starts at 1 pm (EST).
