INDIANAPOLIS- Nick Crume led UIndy wrestling with a fourth place individual finish as five Greyhounds placed at the 38th annual Midwest Classic Saturday and Sunday.
The #15 Greyhounds amassed 72.0 total team points to finish seventh as a team at the 38-team event. Wisconsin-Parkside took the team title with 112.0 total points, followed by Maryville (94.0), Pitt.-Johnstown (90.5), Northern State (84.0) and Ashland (83.5) rounding out the top five.
Crume (8-3) took a loss in his first match of the day, a semifinal bout versus the nation's top-ranked wrestler at 141 in Seton Hill's Joseph Alessandro. The redshirt junior, currently ranked #2 in the nation, fell 3-1 to Alessandro to move to the consolation round at 141. Crume took a win in the conso semis, an 9-3 decision over Findlay's #3 Josh Wimer, but took a 3-1 loss to #4 Darren Wynn in a rematch of Saturday's quarterfinal to finish fourth. This is the third time in three years that Crume has placed at the event, as he also took fourth a season ago, and was runner-up at 133 as a redshirt freshman.
Dylan Faulkenberg (15-4) placed sixth in his first Midwest Classic, opening day two with a 10-3 win over Ashland's Deaken McCoy. The Greyhound heavyweight, currently ranked #11 in the nation, then took a loss to Upper Iowa's #8 Logan Hopp before falling 3-1 to Michael Lowman of Augustana in the fifth place match.
At 157,
Heath Lange (13-2) came away with a seventh place finish in his second Midwest Classic. The redshirt sophomore was pinned by Wisconsin-Parkside's Brett Scoles in his first match of the day, but then pinned Tiffin's #12 Sam Viegmany in :33 to take the seventh place finish.
Both
Barry McGinley and #6
Taylor DeLong took eighth place finishes for the Greyhounds. McGinley (11-7), wrestling in his second Midwest, placed for the first time, while DeLong (11-3) also placed eighth at 184 a year ago.
The Greyhounds are now on break for the holidays, and will return to the mat at National Duals and the NWCA Mat Mayhem Open in Fort Wayne, Ind., Jan. 5-6, 2017.
