SJU travels to Iowa for season’s second tournament

The Johnnie wrestling team returns to action at the Luther Open this Saturday, Nov. 15. The tournament is scheduled for a 9 a.m. start in Decorah, Iowa. – Live Results.

A LOOK AT THE JOHNNIES: Saint John’s opened its 2014-15 season with four individuals in the top six at the Wisconsin-Stevens Point Open last Saturday (Nov. 8). Junior John Wells (Janesville, Wis./Milton) finished third at 125 pounds with a 3-1 record. He posted a major decision in the quarterfinal before falling by a 7-4 decision in the semis. He bounced back with an 8-4 decision before recording an 11-4 win over the Pointers’ Ben Vosters in the third-place match. Wells was listed as a “contender,” just outside the national top 10 by D3wrestle.com in its preseason rankings. Junior Ben Henle (Spicer, Minn./New London-Spicer), who is ranked as high as ninth by the National Wrestling Coaches’ Association (NWCA), took fifth at 141 pounds with a 3-2 record. Both of his losses were to non-Division III wrestlers: a 6-5 loss to Division I Wisconsin’s Luke Rowh in the semifinal and 13-8 to Division II Wisconsin-Parkside’s Pernevellon Shepperd in the consolation semifinal. Freshman A.J. Hannan (Elk River, Minn.) started his collegiate career with two pins and a fifth-place finish of his own at 197 pounds, while classmate Chris Ortman (Pierz, Minn.) claimed sixth at 133 pounds. He lost his semifinal match by a 4-2 decision to Parkside’s Joseph Her and medical forfeited his final two matches.

WHO WILL BE THERE: The Johnnies are expected to send 17 wrestlers to Iowa this weekend. The tournament will be broken up into two sets of brackets, Elite and Silver.

125
-Ben Kollaja

133
-Tevin Zavadil

141
-Evan Guffey
-Ben Henle
-Andrew Perry

149
-Branden Schorr
-Adam Sutlief

157
-Jack Edberg
-Chase Monger
-Jesse Rogers

174
-Teddy Erickson
-Devin Nanik

184
-Glenn Castro
-Nick Hoff
-Nick Pegelow
-Robert Tait

285
-Dino Saracco

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THE OTHER GUYS: In addition to SJU and the host Norse, other schools scheduled to be represented in the tournament include Buena Vista (Iowa), Coe (Iowa), Cornell (Iowa), Hannibal-LaGrange, Iowa, Iowa Lakes C.C., Iowa State (club), Itasca C.C., Knox (Ill.), Loras (Iowa), Milwaukee School of Engineering (Wis.), Minnesota, MSU-Mankato, North Central (Ill.), North Iowa C.C., Rochester T.C., Simpson (Iowa), Upper Iowa, Wartburg (Iowa), William Penn (Iowa), Wisconsin-La Crosse and Wisconsin-Whitewater.