INDIANAPOLIS- Five Greyhounds found themselves in the top eight as the 40th annual edition of the Midwest Classic came to a close Sunday in Nicoson Hall.
Highlighted by a bracket championship at 285 from redshirt senior
Dylan Faulkenberg, #11 UIndy finished fourth as a team with 82.0 total team points. The fourth-place finish marks the best by a UIndy team since the 2014 Greyhounds tied for runner up in the event. #4 McKendree ran away with the team title with 127.5 team points, with Maryville taking runner up honors with 87.0 team points. #10 Lindenwood finished in third place with 85.0 points, while Tiffin rounded out the top 5 with 76.0 points.
In addition to #4 Faulkenberg, redshirt sophomore #9
Cayden Whitaker placed for the first time as a Greyhound, taking third at 174. #4
Brody Conner finished sixth at 184, while both
Kyle Barkovich (149) and
Shelden Struble (164) took seventh place finishes in their bracket.
Faulkenberg successfully defended his heavyweight bracket title with a 5-0 run through the field, including a pair of pins and a major decision along the way. The Greyhound big man put an exclamation point on his individual title with a pin of Central Oklahoma's Blake Berryhill in the championship match in 3:38, after a major decision in round one, a first-period pin in round two, and a pair of decisions in the quarterfinal and semifinal matches.
Whitaker, wrestling in his first Midwest Classic, went 5-1 at 174 to take third. The #9 ranked Whitaker made it to the bracket semifinals before suffering a loss, falling to eventual champion Phillip Springsteen of Mary 8-6 in SV-1 to move to the consolation bracket where he rebounded with a pair of wins to take third. Conner, currently ranked #4 at 184, finished sixth via medical forfeit after a 3-1 performance through the bracket.
Barkovich went 5-2 to place for the first time in his career, taking fifth. The redshirt junior counted a fall, a tech fall and a major decision among his five wins, which also included a 7-6 win over two-time national qualifier Pernevlon Sheppard of UW-Parkside. Struble, who also placed for the first time at Midwest, took seventh behind a 5-2 performance which featured two falls.
The Greyhounds will enjoy the Christmas break before competing again in the New Year, at the 2019 Cliff Kean National Duals in Louisville Jan. 4-5.
