A junior from Apple Valley, Minnesota, Gross concluded a dominant two-day performance by becoming the first SDSU wrestler to win an individual title at the Midlands. Neither of Gross' two matches Saturday lasted more than a period. In semifinal action during the afternoon session, Gross recorded a 16-1 technical fall over Dylan Duncan of Illinois.
Facing Buffalo's Bryan Lantry in the championship match Saturday night, Gross built a 10-0 lead before pinning his opponent with 13 seconds remaining in the first period. Gross was later named the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestler as he won four matches by technical fall and two more by pin, racking up tournament bests of 93 match points and 31 team points.
Also reaching the finals was 174-pounder David Kocer. A senior from Wagner, Kocer blanked Purdue's Dylan Lydy, 13-0, in semifinal action before dropping an 18-7 major decision to top-ranked Zahid Valencia of Arizona State.
SDSU's two other semifinalists, 157-pounder Luke Zilverberg and Nate Rotert at 197 pounds, fell short in their bids to reach the finals. Rotert lost an 8-1 decision to Penn's Frank Mattiace in the semifinals before posting a 6-4 decision over Pat Brucki of Princeton to earn the right to wrestle for third place. However, Rotert did not wrestle a scheduled rematch with Purdue's Christian Brunner in the evening session for medical reasons, ending his tournament run with a fourth-place finish.
Zilverberg dropped each of his two matches in the afternoon session before coming back with a fifth-place finish Saturday night. A senior from Belle Plaine, Minnesota, Zilverberg dropped a 4-0 decision to Arizona State's Joshua Shields for the second time this season in the semifinals, then dropped a 9-6 decision to John Van Brill of Rutgers in the consolation semis.
In the evening session, Zilverberg recorded a 5-0 shutout of Brown's Justin Staudenmayer to place fifth.
Jackrabbit wrestlers Logan Peterson and Martin Mueller split their seventh-place matches. A junior from Lake Lillian, Minnesota, Peterson placed eighth at 165 pounds. He moved into the placing matches with a 7-6 decision over Brown's Jonathan Viruet to open the day, but fell 8-3 to Iowa's Kaleb Young and came up short in a 7-5 sudden-victory decision to Purdue's Jacob Morrissey.
Mueller, meanwhile, claimed seventh place in the 184-pound weight class with a 2-1 record on Saturday. The sophomore from Rapid City began the day with a 7-5 decision over Mitch Bowman of Iowa before falling to Pittsburgh's Nino Bonaccorsi in the next consolation rounds. Mueller closed his tournament showing by defeating Eastern Michigan's Kayne MacCallum, 10-4, in the seventh-place match.
Of the seven SDSU wrestlers to advance to the second day of competition at the Midlands, freshman 125-pounder Connor Brown was the lone Jackrabbit to not reach the placing rounds. Brown's four-match winning streak was ended by Purdue's Luke Welch, 13-4, in Saturday's opening round.
As a team, the Jackrabbits tallied their highest finish at the Midlands, ending the tournament in fifth place with 99 points. Iowa claimed the team title with 156.5 points, followed by Rutgers (109.5), Central Michigan (108) and Arizona State (106.5).
UP NEXT
The Jackrabbits return to dual action, hosting Oregon State Friday (Jan. 5). Start time is 7 p.m. at Frost Arena.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now