EAST LANSING, Mich.- This Sunday marked the beginning of Wisconsin Wrestling's 2017-18 season, where as assistant coach Kyle Ruschell stated, it was a great competition to "see where our guys are at, and gives us coaches something to look at to improve."

This open tournament did just that, as every wrestler competed in anywhere from two to six matches. Of the 30 student-athletes on the roster, 27 participated in the event (20 with UW, 7 unattached). The tournament consisted of two brackets: the open and freshman/sophomore tournaments, where six of the seven unattached Badgers participated in the latter.

Wisconsin ranked second among 22 teams for most match points with 602. 

Sophomore Hunter Ritter placed second, finishing 3-1 in the 197-pound weight class, the highest of the 20 wrestlers who represented the UW singlet. He opened with a 9-5 decision over Findlay's Armani Robinson, then winning via a 5-3 decision over Purdue's Kobe Woods in the quarterfinals. In the semis, Ritter defeated Jackson Striggow of Michigan, where he advanced and fell to sixth-ranked Kevin Beazley of Michigan.

Freshman Evan Wick made a promising debut in a cardinal and white singlet, going 3-1 en route to a third-place finish in the 165-pound weight class. Wick opened up dominating in his first two bouts, winning via tech fall, 20-5, over Richard Screptock of Tiffin and winning over Oklahoma's Dawaylon Barnes by a 7-1 decision. He then faced the third-ranked Logan Massa of Michigan and fell, but rallied over Austin Reese of Ohio 12-3, and took third by rule over Barnes of Oklahoma.

Senior Ricky Robertson started out strong as well recording a major decision 14-2 over Charles Wells of Findlay and pinning Jonathan Morales of Purdue in 2:00, but was halted by Jordan Ellingwood in a 8-3 loss. But just like Wick, Robertson handled the rest of the competition, winning via tech fall over Shwan Shadaia of Michigan State 16-0 and took third by a 4-0 decision over Mitchell Sliga of Northwestern. He recorded the third fastest tech fall of all wrestlers competing against Shadaia in 2:33. 

The only first-place finish came from freshman Paul Konrath, who made his collegiate debut wrestling at 133 pounds unattached in the freshmen/sophomore tournament, going 4-0. Konrath recorded 65 points in those four matches, winning two of them via tech fall 22-6 and 26-10. He earned the most match points (26) of any wrestler at the tournament. 

Other Notables

Freshman Ethan Rotondo took fourth in the freshman/sophomore bracket at 125 pounds, going 5-1 and taking fourth via rule to Michigan's Medley Jack.

Junior Jens Lantz took fourth out of 17 wrestlers at 133 pounds in the Open and went 4-2, including two wins over Michigan's Michael Volyanyuk.

Sophomore Eli Stickley took fifth at 141 pounds, going 4-2 in the open tournament, with one nail-biting loss to 11th-ranked Javier Gasca of Michigan State 9-6.

Freshman Garrett Model took fourth in the freshman/sophomore bracket going 3-1.

Senior Andrew Crone went 4-2 in the 157-pound weight class, tallying a pin and a major decision en route to taking fifth.

Junior Ryan Christensen recorded two wins and two setbacks as he took sixth at 174 pounds.

Freshman Jackson Hemauer wrestled unattached and went 3-1 and earned a trip to the finals, taking second place due to an injury in 4:18 into the final match in the freshman/sophomore bracket.

Freshman Trent Hillger also wrestled unattached at 285 in his collegiate debut, and went 3-1 including a tech fall over David Henson of Tiffin, eventually taking second in the freshman/sophomore bracket.