Will Balow, the lone Gopher representative at the 2017 Duhawk Open, earned third place at 197 pounds with a series of bonus point wins on Saturday.
The big wins started in the opening rounds for Balow. In the opening round, Balow shutout Maurice Wilburn (Upper Iowa) and picked up a tech fall, 15-0. With that momentum, Balow picked up a first-period pin over Chisian Messick (Central College) in his next bout, a fall that only took about two minutes.
Balow found himself in wrestlebacks after a tough overtime loss to the tournament’s top seed, Tyler Hoffman (Northern Iowa) in the quarterfinals. Once on the bracket’s backside, Balow immediately got back to winning big, knocking off Brady Wetter (Wisconsin) and missing the tech fall by a single point, 17-3.
After a medical forfeit in the consolation semifinals, Balow handled Izaak Shedenhelm (Northern Iowa) in the third-place match, 8-2.
The win gave Balow his third straight top-three finish. In early December, Balow took third at the Husky Open and just last weekend, Balow shared the Worthington Open title with Dalton Lunde.
A full match-by-match recap of Balow’s day in Dubuque is below.
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Match-by-Match Results
Champ Rnd 1: Will Balow tech fall Maurice Wilburn (Upper Iowa), 15-0
Champ Rnd 2: Will Balow fall (2:02) Chrisian Messick (Central College)
Quarters: Tyler Hoffman (Northern Iowa) dec (SV-1) Will Balow, 7-5
Round of 12: Will Balow maj dec Brady Wetter (Wisconsin), 17-3
Cons Semis: Will Balow med. for. Tim Young (Ellsworth)
3rd Place: Will Balow dec Izaak Shedenhelm (Northern Iowa), 8-2