MEQUON, Wis. – Heavyweight
Jacob Barnes capped the inaugural NCAA wrestling season for Linfield with a 4-1 wire-to-wire win over Brett Schoenherr from Wisconsin-Platteville in the fifth-place final Saturday at the NCAA Upper Midwest Regional. Barnes finished with a 27-4 record to lead the Wildcats in wins, pins and total matches on the year – all of which now stand as Linfield school records.
Micah Worthington finished in eighth place at the regional, capping an 11-6 campaign at 149 pounds.
The 19-team tournament was held at the R. John Buuck Fieldhouse on the campus of Concordia University.
"Micah and Jacob competed at an extremely high level against some of the top Division III competition in the nation," said Linfield coach
Chad Hanke. "Our whole team, in fact, showed up and battled hard. Despite being a first-year program, we had five wrestlers win matches and go deep into the bracket at the most difficult regional in Division III. I'm proud of them all, and everyone who helped make this season possible."
Kellen Hanson (133 pounds),
Price Pothier (174) and
Darrius Walker (197) advanced to the "blood round" at the tournament, coming within one win of placing. Barnes and Worthington are redshirt freshmen, while Hanson, Pothier and Walker are true freshmen.
"We're just getting started with Linfield wrestling," Hanke said. "We're going to keep recruiting hard and we're going to keep building, and we'll be back here next year with an even deeper and stronger team. The future is bright."
Linfield finished in 13
th place at the regional, with 30.5 points. Augsburg University (Minn.), ranked No. 3 in Division III, won the regional for the 20
th consecutive season. The tournament included three top-10 teams and six programs ranked in the top 25 nationally.
SATURDAY RESULTS
NCAA DIVISION III UPPER MIDWEST REGIONAL
At Concordia (Wisconsin) University, Mequon, Wis.
149
Ryan Fleck (University of Chicago) won by tech fall over
Micah Worthington (Linfield), 16-0
7
th-place final – Veliko Kochiu (Concordia University Wisconsin) pinned
Micah Worthington (Linfield), 2:37
HWT
Tyler Kim (Augsburg) won by decision over
Jacob Barnes (Linfield), 9-4
Cole Fibranz (University of Chicago) pinned
Jacob Barnes (Linfield), 0:42
5
th-place final –
Jacob Barnes (Linfield) won by decision over Brett Schoenherr (Wisconsin-Platteville), 4-1
