HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. – In the first Midlands Championships for Wisconsin under head coach Chris Bono, the team placed fourth overall with 97.5 points, the highest finish for the team since they took second in 2010. Wisconsin had seven wrestlers finish on the podium, the most for the Badgers at Midlands since the team placed seven in 1975.

The only Badger in the finals was sophomore and No. 1 seed Evan Wick at 165 pounds, facing No. 2 seed Alex Marinelli of Iowa. Wick got the better of Marinelli last year, defeating him by major decision at the NCAA Championships, but it was Marinelli who had the last laugh today. He scored two takedowns in the first and then stalled out the match to win 4-3, giving Wick the second place finish and a 5-1 record at Midlands.

Junior Mason Reinhardt came into Midlands as the No. 6 seed, but punched above his ranking all tournament. After defeating the No. 3 seed Kevin Parker of Princeton on Saturday, Reinhardt dropped a tough battle to No. 2 seed Cash Wilcke, but rebounded in the third place match by beating Jackson Hemauer of Fresno State 4-1 to earn third place and also posting a 5-1 record.

Another No. 6 seed made some noise for Wisconsin at 125 pounds, as sophomore Connor Brown earned a spot in the semifinals, where he was defeated by eventual champion Sebastian Rivera of Northwestern by tech fall. Brown dropped the third place match to highly touted Pat Glory of Princeton, giving him the fourth place finish and a 4-2 Midlands record.

Senior Ryan Christensen came in as a No. 4 seed and lived up to the billing, racking up three straight wins before running into No. 1 seed Zahid Valencia in the semifinals. Christensen suffered an injury in the consolation semifinals and had to medical forfeit the rest of the way, finishing in sixth place with a 3-2 record.

Competing in his first Midlands for the Badgers, junior Tristan Moran had three pins throughout both days of the tournament, and picked up a big win on No. 4 seed Vince Turk of Iowa. However, a couple untimely losses sent Moran to the seventh place match, which he won by major decision over Ben Freeman of Iowa. Moran finished with a 6-2 record.

Another first came for senior Jens Lantz, who battled his way to an eighth place finish, his first Midlands placement in his career. Lantz lost in the Round of 16, but won three straight in the wrestlebacks to get to the seventh place match, which he lost by decision to Colin Valdivez of Northwestern. Lantz went 4-3 for the tournament.

The final Badger to place was freshman Trent Hillger at heavyweight. Hillger suffered his first loss of the season in a tough 9-6 decision to Mason Parris, but was still poised for a strong finish to the tournament. Unfortunately, Hillger had to medical forfeit after a win over Robert Heald of Army, and he took eighth with a record of 3-1.

Next up, the Badgers will return to Big Ten dual play as they go on a weekend road trip to face No. 25 Rutgers (6-1, 0-0 B1G) on Jan. 11 and Penn State (4-0, 0-0 B1G) on Jan. 13.

Straight from the mat
Head Coach Chris Bono

On the team performance
"Really proud of the guys' performance, they worked hard, wrestled hard. I'm really happy we got a ton of matches in, it's really good to get a bunch after break and it was really competitive. Everybody did a great job and we're excited to take fourth place and keep building. Tough road trip coming up in a couple of weeks, we got to get everybody healed up and ready. The team is hungry and we're ready to get this Big Ten season started."

On standout individual performances
"I was really proud of the way Connor Brown wrestled coming off an injury, Mason Reinhardt had an outstanding tournament, Ryan Christensen was having an outstanding tournament, and Evan Wick in the finals was a little disappointment that we took a loss there but it's only going to make us better."