ST. CHARLES, Mo. - No.5 McKendree University men's wrestling earned its fourth Great Lakes Valley Conference title on Saturday afternoon with a competitive and hard-fought victory in the championship dual against UIndy by a count of 19-14. The Bearcats were the top seed in the bracket and the only program in the league with an unblemished GLVC record at 5-0.  

Round 3 - CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH | #1 McKendree vs. #2 Indianapolis | 19-14, McKendree
The championship match featured a rematch between the Bearcats and Greyhounds, who faced off in Lebanon on January 26 and featured a win by McKendree, 18-14. 

In the Dual Championship for the GLVC, McKendree fired off early with a major decision by Mejia over Noah Cantu, 15-4, which put the Bearcats up 4-0 on the Hounds. In the 133 class, Ripplinger dropped a decision but 141lb freshman Brody Norman recovered for the Bearcats with a 3-0 decisionover Ray Rioux, propelling the Bearcats to a 7-4 lead. in the 149, freshman Noah Villarreal was unable to force a decision victory against Logan Bailey, as the Bearcats dropped a major to the Hounds. In the 157 and 165, McKendree recovered six points to lead 13-7 behind a pair of decision victories from Champagne (4-1) and Peterson (3-1). The next four weight classes split between the #1 and #2 seeds with the Hounds taking the 174 and 197 while McKendree nabbed the 184 and 285. In the 174, Jones faced off against Andrew Sams once again with Sams taking this matchup by a hard fought 7-4 count. Filipek fired back with a decision win, which took the lead to 16-10 for the Bearcats. The Hounds took a major in the 197, putting the score to 16-14 in favor of the top-seeded Bearcats. Heavyweight redshirt freshman Ian Kuehl shot back with a hard fought decision victory on a 7-2 count. Kuehl scored seven-straight points to capture the win after going down 0-2 to start the match. 

No.5 McKendree captured its fourth GLVC title with the win, adding 2022 to its collection of 2018-2019-2020 trophies and taking back possession of the title from 2021 champion, Lindenwood. 

Round 2 (Semifinal) | #1 McKendree vs. #4 Lindenwood | 31-13, McKendree
The No.5 Bearcats then took on the hosting-Lions in the second round, which kicked off with Mejia collecting a tech fall win on a 21-6 count. McKendree added a pair of falls and majors in the match as well, which begain with 133lb senior Ryan Ripplinger earning his pinfall at the 4:22 mark and Champagne nabbing another fall win in the 157 class at the 1:36 mark. 184lb redshirt sophomore Rozell Baker tacked on the first major decision (17-5) while 184lb graduate senior Daniel Filipek wrestled up in the 197 and earned a 14-2 victory. 

Round 1 (Quarterfinal) | #1 McKendree vs. #8 Davenport | 56-0, McKendree
Top-seeded McKendree kicked off the league's championship duals with an impressive win of 56-0 over eighth-seeded Davenport, a dual which featured four pins by the No.5 Bearcats. 125lb redshirt sophomore Christian Mejia started everything with a fall victory at 3:00 minutes in his match against Manuel Leija. The next pin for the Bearcats came in the 157 class with senior Jose Champagne in the second period at 4:32, which led the way for two more fall wins. 165lb redshirt freshman Cory Peterson (1:30) and 174lb junior Joshua Jones (2:49) each collected a pin victory.