Statesmen Battle at Luther Hill Invite

Indianola--The William Penn men's wrestling team made the short drive west on Highway 92 for its first tournament of the year at the Simpson Luther Hill Invitational Saturday.

In a tournament that featured both an Open division and a Freshman/Sophomore division, seven different individuals claimed a victory.

Francisco Espinoza (Jr., Oakley, Calif., Sociology-Criminology) led the navy and gold in the Open division, going 2-2 in the 197-pound bracket.  Espinosa was the only William Penn wrestler to claim a win in Open competition.

A team-best 5-1 record came from Brody Brisker (Fr., Wilton, Iowa, Sports Management) in the 149-pound Freshman/Sophomore division. Along the way to his five wins, the freshman had a fall, technical fall, and major decision.

Gentry Walston (So., New Sharon, Iowa, Human Resource Management) posted a 3-2 mark at 125 pounds with a team-high two falls.

149-pounder Luis Garza (Fr., Pharr, Texas, Exercise Science) claimed two wins as well, one of them being a major decision.

Three WPU wrestlers also came home with one victory via fall, including 165-pounders Isaac Messamaker (Fr., Centerville, Iowa, Business Management) and Jace Parent (Fr., Milton, Ga., Business Management) and 141-pounder Jacob Perry (So., Salisbury, N.C., Industrial Technology-Management of Technology).

"The guys wrestled a lot better today than what we saw on Thursday night," Head Coach Drew Sams said.  "We really like to use this tournament for a lot of our young guys to get matches and find things we need to work on moving forward. I think the guys answered the challenge of opening up and not wrestling complacent, and that really allows us to see what we need to improve on."

"I think it was a successful day all around, including a couple of guys making it to the medal rounds," Sams added.  "We are looking forward to having the next two weeks off from competition to really focus on jumping levels."

Up Next: The Statesmen travel to Des Moines on Saturday, November 15 to compete in the Grand View Invitational at 9 a.m.