LEBANON, Ill. - Fifth-ranked McKendree men's wrestling earned an eighth-straight win on Wednesday night, beating No.7 Indianapolis and moving to 4-0 in the Great Lakes Valley Conference in the process. McKendree won six of the 10 weight classes, earning its 18-14 victory with all decision-wins. 

Redshirt sophomore  and second-ranked Christian Mejia kicked off the evening with a 2-0 decision victory over the Greyhounds' Noah Cantu in the 125. Mejia, a native of Elkhart, Indiana, connecting on a shot early in the period to get Cantu onto one leg. Mejia was unable to capitalize on his early attempts but still managed to tack on a pair of points, including a late-match escape that put the redshirt sophomore up 2 points on Cantu. With the win, McKendree gained a 3-0 dual lead. 

The Greyhounds fought back quickly with a decision victory in the 133 with Ryan Ripplinger dropping the matchup with Breyden Bailey by decision (4-0). The 133 class result knotted the top-10 dual up at 3-3 each. 

Freshman Brody Norman put the Bearcats back into the driver's seat (6-3) in the 141 match with a victory by 2-1 decision over Ray Rioux, gaining another three points for the Bearcats. Norman earned a point via escape, which tied his dual matchup at 1-1 but broke the tie via riding time after taking control in the second period. 

In the next two matches, the seventh-ranked Greyhounds manage to gain nine points between a decision in the 149 and a sudden victory by fall in the 157. The 149 class featured freshman Noah Villarreal and UIndy's ninth-ranked Logan Bailey. Villarreal opened early with a flurry of attacks but was unable to cap-off any with a takedown. Bailey went up 3-0 on Villarreal but the freshman fought back, getting it to a one-points match late in the third and final period. The 157 matchup, which put senior Jose Champagne against fourth-ranked Dawson Combest and was neck-and-neck throughout. Regulation periods finished with a 1-1 tie with each recording an escape. Combest exited the match with a sudden victory fall at the 8:23 mark. 

After dropping three-straight matchups, the fifth-ranked Bearcats went on to win three-straight in the 165, 174, and 184 classes. Redshirt freshman and fourth-ranked Cory Peterson gained a 10-3 decision with ample takedowns to assure his victory, including two in the third and final period. Peterson added on a major riding time advantage with an escape to push his score to 10 points. The win by Peterson put McKendree down just three points to the visiting Greyhounds. In the 174 match, junior Joshua Jones faced off against top-ranked Andrew Sams of the Greyhounds. Sams owned he advantage over the first two periods with a 1-0 lead going into the third but Jones fought back, scoring four points in the two-minute bout. The junior capped off his third-period efforts with a takedown to lock up the matchup and tie the dual up at 12 points each. Due to an unsportsmanlike call against the visiting Greyhounds, the Bearcats gained a one-point advantage as they entered the 184 match (12-11). In the 184, graduate senior adn third-ranked Daniel Filipek earned another victory this week with a 5-1 decision over Gleason Mappes. Filipek fired off early with a takedown in the first period to put him up 2-0 but Gleason kept it close with an escape to begin period two. The third period featured the graduate senior collecting an escape which he flipped into a takedown, which solidified his win in the dual. The Filipek victory put McKendree up 15-11 over the visitor, UIndy.

The 197 matchup pitted graduate senior Vincenzo Scaletta versus the sixth-ranked Derek Blubaugh. The first two periods became a wash with no score and only a handful of shots taken between the competitors, Scaletta and Blubaugh. Period three brought the sole pair of points to the matchup with Blubaugh capturing one via escape and a second by riding time over Scaletta. The win in the 197 put Indianapolis just one point behind the Bearcats, 15-14. 

McKendree's third-ranked heavyweight and redshirt freshman Ian Kuehl was put to the test with a crucial final matchup in the GLVC dual, which he exited on top with a 5-2 victory oer Cale Gray of UIndy. The first three minutes fetured a flurry of attacks between Kuehl and Gray but no points scored. Period two put the Bearcats on top in the final contest of the evening with Kuehl nabbing two points behind a reversal while Gray collected one with an escape. The third and final period for the dual put McKendree in the lead with a takedown by Kuehl, which allowed him to amass riding time over Gray. The final timer zeroed and Kuehl added three final points for the fifth-ranked Bearcats, beating GLVC-rival UIndy by a count of 18-14. 

The victory for McKendree marked eight-straight dating back to January 8 at the NWCA National Duals and an undefeated slate in the league as well. The high-tension dual between the Greyhounds and Bearcats featured eight ranked individuals and a top-10 matchup for the large crowd at Melvin Price Convocation Center. 

UP NEXT:
McKendree men's wrestling will travel out to Liberty, Missouri to take on conference-foe William Jewell on Sunday, January 30. Following the dual in Liberty, McKendree will head back to Indianapolis for a two-day affair with the Greyhound Duals and then the Greyhound Open on February 5-6. 

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