Of the 32 wrestlers that the University of Minnesota wrestling team sent to Brookings, S.D., 17 came back with honors from the Daktronics Open. No. 4 Ethan Lizak, No. 6 Mitch McKee and No. 11 Nick Wanzek each came away with titles in their respective weights.
Minnesota also came away with five runner-up finishers. Steve Polakowski made it to the final of 133 before McKee took him out. No. 6 Tommy Thorn made a run but was tripped up in sudden victory in his finals match.
No. 7 Steve Bleise wrestled a full 11 minutes in his title match but came away just short of the title. No. 10 Jake Short also was narrowly a champion but was defeated in sudden victory time, 4-2. At 285, Rylee Streifel was the final Gopher in the top two and fell to his unattached opponent in a high scoring affair.
“I thought our guys wrestled well overall,” head coach Brandon Eggum said. “I liked the attitude our team wrestled with, from the upperclassmen all the way down to our redshirt guys. There is always room for improvement, but it is a long season so we will continue to get better.”
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