Six Badgers earn spots on podium at 54th Midlands Championships

Thursday, December 29

Evanston, IL

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Wisconsin Badgers

Midlands

Photo by: Pam Ruschell

Six Badgers earn spots on podium at 54th Midlands Championships

December 30, 2016 | Wrestling

Final Bracket Results

Robertson and Wick place fourth at 197 and 157, respectively

Final Brackets | Results

EVANSTON, Ill. – A total of six members of the Wisconsin wrestling team earned spots at the podium at the 54th-annual Midlands Championships. The Badgers finished in seventh place with 70.5 points.

True freshman Evan Wick and junior Ricky Robertson had the highest placings for the Badgers, finishing in fourth place at 157 and 197 pounds, respectively.

Wick recorded back-to-back decisions against over Alex Griffin of Purdue (5-2) and Collin Hefferman of Central Michigan (10-7) but dropped a tough 8-0 major decision to Joshua Shields of Arizona State in the third-place match.

Robertson tallied three decisions on the day to propel him into the third-place match where he lost a thrilling 2-1 match in tiebreaker-1.

Robertson recorded his sole point by escaping at the start of the second period in the third-place bout, but Northern Illinois' Shawn Scott leveled the playing field by escaping the third period. The two were forced into overtime when Scott escaped in overtime 2 to take the lead, while Robertson could not slip out his grasp in overtime 3.

That wasn't his only exciting match of the day. Robertson's match before that (against who) was also action-packed as he came back from a 5-0 deficit with four points in the second period. He stole the lead a late escape and takedown in the third period while tacking on the final riding time point for the 9-6 decision.

Senior Connor Medbery (heavyweight), Wisconsin's only semifinalist was forced to forfeit both of his matches due to illness and finished in sixth place. Cole Martin was also forced to forego his match in the consolation rounds due to illness in the second session.

Ryan Christensen (174 pounds) blanked Josef Johnson of Harvard 6-0 in his opening match of the day. He clinched sixth place after dropping a 9-2 decision to Indiana's Devin Skatzka.

125-pounder Johnny Jimenez took seventh after defeating Oklahoma's Christian Moody with a 12-9 decision in the seventh-place match. He snagged a close 7-5 decision over Brent Fleetwood of Central Michigan in his first match of the day.

Eli Stickley, UW's 133-pounder, finished the tournament in eighth place after scoring 11 team points. He tallied a 16-0 tech fall over Anthony Cefolo of Rider and an 8-2 decision over Buffalo's Bryan Lantry before dropping his next two matches.

Andrew Crone, TJ Ruschell and Mason Reinhardt were all knocked out of the tournament in consolation round six. Crone was pinned by Ryan Deakin in 1:22 at 149 pounds. Ruschell was defeated by teammate Wick 15-3, while Reinhardt dropped an 8-2 decision to fellow Badger Robertson.