ST. LOUIS, Mo. - No.7 McKendree University men's wrestling closed out the final day of the 2022 NCAA DII Wrestling National Championships at Chaifetz Arena on Saturday evening, placing two wrestlers with 165lb redshirt freshman Cory Peterson finishing third and 184lb graduate senior Daniel Filipek earning fourth in class. The Bearcats finished ninth as a team with 30.5 team points from six total wrestlers at the national championship event. 

The Bearcats entered the tournament with six total wrestlers with two earning a top-eight finish to collect All-American status. Peterson, a native of Valmeyer, Illinois, led McKendree with 13.5 points with a 4-1 record to finish third overall. The finish was the Bearcats' highest at the championship of 2022 and made the redshirt freshman Peterson a two-time All-American. Narrowly behind Peterson was Filipek, who added 11.5 points in his fourth-place finish. The graduate senior tacked on his third set of All-American honors with his 3-2 record in the national championship tournament.

165 CLASS
 The De Smet Jesuit product, Peterson (37-5), kicked off the championship with a pair of decision victories over UMary's Leo Mushinsky (6-3) and Belmont Abbey's John Dean (3-2). In the championship semifinal, Peterson narrowly dropped a 3-1 decision to Parkside's Shane Gantz after controlling the majority of the bout. After the dropped semifinal, Peterson fired back with a 16-5 major decision victory over Evan Pisler of Gannon. He then went into the third-place match, facing off against John Dean once again and won on a 5-3 decision to finish third at the championship event. It marks his highest finish at the national championship after he finished fourth in 2021.

184 CLASS
Filipek, a native of Warrenton, Missouri, worked through his first pair of matches with two decision wins over Noah Curreri of Queens (3-1) and Caden Steffen of Southwest Minnesota State on a 10-3 count. The semifinal put Filipek against former national champion and 2021 runner-up Connor Craig of West Liberty. Filipek fired a multitude of shots while holding favorable position throughout the match but came up just short in a 3-1 decision loss. He then moved into the consolation semifinal with a win over Fort Hays State's Martin Verhaeghe. Filipek dropped the third place bout in overtime on sudden victory to Billy Higgins of 2022 national champion Nebraska-Kearney. The fourth-place finish earned Filipek a third set of All-American honors to cap-off a successful McKendree career. 

COMPLETE RESULTS
Team
1. Nebraska-Kearney, 127.0 points
2. Central Oklahoma, 86.0 points
3. West Liberty, 75.5 points
4. St. Cloud State, 67.0 points
5. Adams State, 65.0 points
6. Indianapolis, 48.5 points
7. Minnesota State, 39.0 points
8. Colorado Mesa, 31.0 points
9. McKendree, 30.5 points
10. Gannon, 30.0 points

Individual
125lb | Christian Mejia (21-5) | 1-2, 1.0 team points
141lb | Brody Norman (16-8) | 1-2, 0.5 team points
165lb | Cory Peterson (37-5) | 4-1, 13.5 team points - 3rd Place Finish, All-American (2x)
174lb | Joshua Jones (19-10) | 0-2
184lb | Daniel Filipek (22-4) | 3-2, 11.5 team points - 4th Place Finish, All-American (3x)
285lb | Ian Kuehl (20-4) | 2-2, 4.0 team points

UP NEXT
McKendree will returns to the mats in the fall for team competitions, looking to improve upon a successful season which featured a GLVC title, a Wrestler of the Year and Coach of the Year honor, along with eight all-league performers.