After a long season of competitions, the Case Western Reserve University wrestling team has found some success in their recent postseason events. Multiple Spartan wrestlers put on fantastic displays at the John Carroll University Open on Feb. 11 in preparation for the UAA Championships that were held this past Saturday, Feb. 17 in New York City. The Spartans came in at third place with 45.5 points led by first-year sensation Simon Bishop.

At the JCU Open, second-year Thomas Wagner took a podium position in the 157-pound bracket. He reached the semifinals with two straight wins. He first bested Ryan Forrest after notching his fourth technical fall of the season to take the 17-2 victory. He followed this up with a win over Justin Ritchie through a major decision 12-1. In the semifinal, however, Wagner fell to a 10-9 decision against Iain Escobar. In the consolation semifinals, Wagner bounced back with a 6-1 decision over Forrest to reach the third-place match. He faced off against Ritchie again, earning 3 points via a takedown and 4 points from a near-fall. After the last two rounds, Wagner took the third place match 12-0 from major decision. He thus concluded the day with a 4-1 record to improve his season to 13-8.

First-year Mathew Gummere and graduate student Stephen Andryc also reached the consolation semifinal rounds of their respective weight classes. In the 174-pound bracket, Gummere won two close matches. The first was a sudden victory by 9-6. After falling in the quarterfinal by 2-1 decision, he won the next two matches 19-2 and 11-2 to reach the consolation semifinals. Gummere took the consolation semifinal 3-2. Andryc meanwhile won his first match by fall in 3:41 in the 197-pound bracket and then defeated his next opponent 5-1. Andryc lost his next match by major decision and ended up losing the consolation semifinals by decision, ending the day 2-2.

Bishop stole the show at the UAA Championships this past weekend, placing second in the 174-pound weight class. The competing athletes went through a round-robin format against a maximum of six other wrestlers. Bishop started off the day with a win by major decision, setting up his first ever UAA title match. He ended up losing by technical fall and placed second to finish the day 1-1. Gummere, who also wrestled in this weight class, placed third via major decision.

For his impressive performances throughout the season, Bishop was named the UAA Rookie of the Year. So far, he has won 19 matches, including 18-10 in the 174-pound weight class and 1-0 in the 197 bracket. 8 of these wins were by pins and 3 were by technical falls. This is the eighth time a Spartan wrestler has received this award, the previous time being given to CWRU alumnus Adam Kates in 2019.

Contributing to CWRU’s third place overall performance at the conference championships was second-year Art Martinez, who competed in the 141-pound bracket. He first defeated New York University’s Danny Lightfoot 19-1 by technical fall in 4:55. He then bested University of Chicago’s Keaton Mayernik by fall in 2:10. Martinez then took on UChicago’s Sean Conway for the UAA title. Though Martinez led 4-1 in the second period, Conway tied it at 4-4 with a takedown. Conway then earned an escape to push the match into overtime following the third period, eventually handing Martinez second place by a point on sudden victory.

To round out the day, graduate student Mitchell Arch competed in the 165-pound weight class, finishing the day with a 1-2 record after winning against NYU’s Hassan Khan in 3:30 with his 24th pin of the season. With this win, Arch now stands at an overall career record of 105-55, becoming the 14th wrestler in Spartan history to cross the 100-win milestone.

CWRU finished the day with 45.5 team points for the overall third place. NYU earned the UAA title with 146.5 team points while UChicago took second with 118.5 points.

The Spartans will travel to Ada, Ohio to compete in the NCAA Central Regional Championship from March 1-2. Competitors that placed in the top three of their weight class will advance to the NCAA Championships held on March 15-16 in La Crosse, Wisconsin.