STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend men's wrestling had six wrestlers place to finish sixth out of 13 teams with 72.5 points at the PSUAC/USCAA Wrestling Invitational held at Penn State on Sunday.
The Lions had two second-place finishes, three earn third overall and one fourth-place finisher on the day. Behrend was seven-points shy of jumping three spots in the team results for third. Apprentice won the invitational with 182.5 points, followed by Alderson Broaddus in second (107.5) and Kent-State Tuscarawas in third (79.5).
Jake Paulson (Erie, PA/McDowell) and Jacob Lenhardt (McKean, PA/General McLane) were runners up at 184 and 285, respectively. Paulson began the day with a pin over Silas Dishong of Penn State Mont Alto, before using a 15-6 major decision over William Sorey of Apprentice to make his way into the finals. George Van Valen of Alfred State tallied a 16-0 technical fall against Paulson in the battle for the title.
Lenhardt recorded two wins by decision, a 4-1 victory over Ryan Monk and 4-0 win against Ryan Mattison of Alfred State to get to the championship bout. He fell 9-3 to Nathan Spinetti of Fayette for second place.
Jacob Parsons (Titusville, PA/Maplewood), Sam Svetz (North East, PA/North East) and Jacob Fankhouser (Warren, PA/Warren) placed third overall for Behrend.
At 184, Parsons pinned Cameron Dewey of West Chester before being knocked down to the consolation bracket by a 12-2 major-decision loss to Sam Soloman of Alderson Broaddus. The senior tallied three straight wins to collect third place. Parsons posted an 18-0 technical fall over Devon Meredith of Apprentice and then pinned Soloman, before earning a 6-4 decision against William Sorey of Apprentice.
Svetz, wrestling at 157, recorded two pins on the day and one major decision for third place. He pinned Jake Glasl of Pitt WC and then fell to Dan Vossbein of West Chester, 6-4. The freshman fought back to register an 8-0 decision over Lucas Shull of Penn State Mont Alto, before pinning Derek Schmidt of Alderson Broaddus in 2:37.
At 125, Fankhouser started out with his first fall of the season. He pinned Breandan Coughlin of Alderson Broaddus before falling by three points to Trey Boyd of Apprentice (9-6). Fankhouser did not give up a point his next two matches, winning 5-0 and 15-0 for third place.
Brandon Miller was able to take fourth place at 149. He advanced after his first bout with a 4-1 win, but then got bumped to the consolation bracket with a fall to Lane Householder of Kent State Tuscarawas. Miller then defeated teammate Jake Ognibene (Washington, PA/Chartiers-Houston) 9-2 and then fell in the third-place bout to Pedro Tavarez of Penn State Fayette, 6-5.
The Lions return to action next weekend at the NCAA Regionals hosted by Ferrum.