Urban takes third place at the GPAC Championships

ORANGE CITY, IOWA – Marcus Urban (Plankinton, S.D.) collected a third place finish as the Dakota Wesleyan University wrestling team competed at the GPAC Tournament on Saturday in Orange City, Iowa.

 Urban began the day falling in the quarterfinal round to Laaig Hedrick of Concordia University to drop him into the consolation rounds. In the next two consolation matches, Urban picked up two wins by fall to advance to the consolation semi-finals.

 In the consolation semi-finals, Urban pinned his third consecutive opponent in the third period to advance to the third place match. Urban then matched up with Hedrick for the second time of the day in the third place match. The sophomore avenged the early loss by defeating Hedrick by fall to secure third place in the tournament.

 At 174 pounds, Tanner Wernsman (Arapahoe, Neb.) won his first match of the day over Joseph Rodriguez of Midland University to advance to the quarterfinals. After losing in the quarterfinals, Wernsman rattled off two-straight wins to advance to the consolation semi-finals.

 After losing in the consolation semi-finals, Wernsman fell in a close 5-3 decision to Rodriguez in the fifth-place match to finish the day with a sixth-place finish.

 Xylon Takata (Hilo, Hawaii) wrestled at 133 pounds dropping both matches of the day. Mitchell Messersmith (Lennox, S.D.) and Cole Halouska (Worthing, S.D.) also lost their first two matches to end the day.

 The Tigers wrestling season has completed following the GPAC Championships.