Wrestlers Caputure Title at UW-Eau Claire Invite

Nate Preslaski and Yan White captured individual titles to help the UW-Stevens Point wrestling team capture the team title at the 24^th annual UW-Eau Claire Invitational on Saturday, Feb. 2.

The Pointers finished with 87.5 team points, outdistancing Augsburg College which compiled 70.5 points. UW-La Crosse placed third with 69 points.

Preslaski defeated UW-La Crosse�s Tade Kemnitz, 7-1, to finish first at 157 pounds. White, ranked fourth in the nation at 197 pounds, pinned UW-Eau Claire�s Nick Campbell to win his weight class.

UW-Stevens Point also had four wrestlers finish second in their respective weight classes. Jared Esala dropped a 5-2 decision to Aaron Swartz of Concordia at 133 pounds and Joel Burdick fell 6-1 to UW-Oshkosh�s Luke Madsen in their championship matches. At 165 pounds, Cody Koenig dropped a 7-5 decision to Augsburg�s Tony Abbott, the number two ranked wrestler in the nation. Joe Bavlnka narrowly missed out on defeating the nation�s third ranked wrestler at 184 pounds, falling 2-1 to Augsburg�s Ricky Crone.

Jamie Schultz won the consolation title for the Pointers at 174 pounds, defeating Concordia�s Peter Benson, 6-0.

The Pointers will return to the mat on Friday, Feb. 8 when they travel to Augsburg to take on the top-ranked Auggies in a dual meet.