Bulldogs place six in top four at Open

The men's wrestling team continues to improve as the Bulldogs finished fourth of 10 teams in the Missouri Valley College Open in Marshall last Saturday.

Six Bulldogs put themselves in the top four including sophomore Colton Schmitz who took first place in the 149-pound class.

Only two Truman wrestlers finished in the top four last year at the tournament. The year before only one Bulldog placed in the top four.

"A year ago, we're maybe getting one guy or two guys that place and nobody else places," head coach David Schutter said. "This year, our team is just wrestling harder. It's not necessarily wrestling over their expectations. They just go out and wrestle hard. They bring their hard hat and lunch pail and go at it every tournament."

Schmitz earned the tournament win after earning the No. 1 seed entering the tournament. After winning three matches during the Open, Schmitz now has 15 tournament wins this season.

Schutter said Schmitz battled back in the championship match despite being pretty banged up.    

"Seeds only mean that you've done well and you're getting some respect," Schutter said. "They don't mean anything. You've still got to go out and wrestle your matches.

Everybody's tough. Every match was really tough for Colton."

Sophomore Ryan Banning and freshmen Ryan Maus and Devon Fenstermaker each earned second place honors. Banning picked up his 14th overall win of the season. He finished with 22 total wins last season.

"In the semifinals, he had beat that OCU kid before and that kid was feeling sick," Schutter said. "[The OCU wrestler] told his coach that he didn't even want to wrestle. That's respect. Banning has a bad match and the other kid still doesn't even want to wrestle him."

Maus and Fenstermaker lead the team in total wins this season with 35 and both have two top two finishes in tournaments this season. Freshman Nick Shea also has done well this season, with a 10-5 overall record.

Schmitz said although the tournament mainly was made up of smaller schools, the competition still was some of the best he has seen this season.

"It was mostly NAIA schools, but the ones that were there were the top of the NAIA," Schmitz said. "I think everybody wrestled to their ability. I think we showed that we're capable of being a great team. Fourth out of 10 teams, I thought it was a good showing."

The other two Bulldogs in the top four were seniors Chad Kurovski and Andy Bader who both earned fourth place. Bader and Kurovski are the most experienced Truman wrestlers and have combined for a 22-15 record this season, including a perfect 4-0 in dual matches.

Bader said this season's team has really battled since the beginning of the year. He said the team is not practicing as hard at this point in the season, but they will pick up the intensity shortly.  

"This past weekend, we came in and took it real nice and easy," Bader said. "Myself and a number of other guys have some minor injuries that we kind of want to get healed up. I think that's the biggest thing right now, just making sure we're staying healthy. It's such a long season."

Truman has the Grand View Open and three more dual meets before their MIAA Duals. The Bulldogs also have one month before the NCAA Midwest Regional. Schutter said at the beginning of the season his goal was to get three All-Americans. While this is still the goal, Schutter said the team is only focused on its next opponent.

"We don't look at regionals," Schutter said. "We're looking at this weekend. We just keep working. We know what our schedule is every day throughout the week. Our kids come and they just go to work."