NORFOLK, Va. – Redshirt sophomore, Jack Dechow, led the Monarchs with a first-place finish at the 52nd Ken Kraft Midlands Championships on Tuesday night in Evanston, Ill. As a team, the Old Dominion Monarchs placed sixth out of 50 teams, accumulating 79.5 total points.
"This was a positive step forward for our team to place ahead of No. 17 Wisconsin and several Big Ten Teams," said Head Coach Steve Martin. "Jack Dechow continued to set the gold standard for our program by becoming ODU's first Midlands champion. It was good to see him win in front of his hometown followers! Chris Mecate wrestled well in beating nationally ranked wrestlers and Tristan Warner, Lenny Richardson and Jake Henderson also placed in one of the toughest tournaments in the nation. TC Warner and Kevin Beazley lost controversial matches in the All-American round, but looked great in all their matches. Our team is starting to realize how good we are. We are looking forward to competing at the Virginia Duals next week against nationally ranked teams in No. 6 Virginia Tech, No. 10 Edinboro, No. 16 UVA, No. 17 Rider and No. 25 Bucknell. I am proud of this groups effort and their ability to keep improving each day. We can't wait for the MAC and NCAA tournaments in March!"
In his first bout of the day, No. 4 Dechow recorded a win over No. 8 Sam Brooks from top-ranked Iowa by a 6-5 decision to advance to the championship bout in the 184 lbs. bracket. Dechow faced returning All-American No. 2 in the nation Lorenzo Thomas from Penn in the first-place match, where he defeated the NCAA qualifier by a 13-5 major decision. Dechow became the first ever Midlands champion for Old Dominion.
No. 9 Chris Mecate finished in fifth place for the Monarchs after defeating NCAA qualifier Stephen Rodrigues from No. 13 Illinois by a 6-2 decision. Mecate started the day dropping the semifinal round to No. 2 Mitchell Port from No. 10 Edinboro by an 11-7 decision. In the consolation semifinal round, No. 5 Josh Dziewa from No. 1 Iowa got the best of Mecate, winning by a 7-1 decision. Mecate secured the fifth-place spot after picking up his 10th win of the season in the fifth-place bout.
No. 12 Alexander Richardson and No. 14 Tristan Warner both placed seventh in their respective weight classes, while No. 18 Jake Henderson finished in 8th place.
In the consolation sixth round, Richardson won in tiebreaker one over B.J. Clagon from No. 17 Rider by a 2-1 decision. Richardson fell to All-American Rick Durso from Franklin & Marshall in round seven by a 5-1 decision, but bounced back to take down Seth Lange from No. 2 Minnesota by a 9-5 decision.
Warner won his first match of the day, winning by medical forfeit over Nestor Taffur (Franklin & Marshall) to advance to round seven. No. 16 Adam Fierro from CSU Bakersfield won by fall (2:28) over Warner, however, Warner won by fall over Pat Smith from No. 2 Minnesota in the seventh-place match.
Henderson also won his first match of the day by medical forfeit over Nicholas Gajdzik fro Harvard to advance to the consolation round seven. Henderson fell to NCAA qualifier and No. 13 in the nation Evan Knutson from North Dakota State in a close sudden victory match. In the seventh-place bout, Henderson fell to Garrett Ryan from Columbia by a 10-1 major decision to place 8th in the 285 lbs. bracket.
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141 – Chris Mecate – 5th place
Semifinal - Mitchell Port (Edinboro) won by decision over Chris Mecate (ODU) (Dec 11-7)
Cons. Semi - Josh Dziewa (Iowa) won by decision over Chris Mecate (ODU) (Dec 7-1)
5th Place Match - Chris Mecate (ODU) won by decision over Steven Rodrigues (Illinois) (Dec 6-2)
149 – Alexander Richardson – 7th place
Cons. Round 6 - Alexander Richardson (ODU) won in tie breaker - 1 over B.J. Clagon (Rider) (TB-1 2-1)
Cons. Round 7 - Rick Durso (F&M - Unattached) won by decision over Alexander Richardson (ODU) (Dec 5-1)
7th Place Match - Alexander Richardson (ODU) won by decision over Seth Lange (Minnesota - Unattached) (Dec 9-5)
157 – TC Warner
Cons. Round 6 - Chad Walsh (Rider) won by decision over T.C. Warner (ODU) (Dec 3-2)
165 – Tristan Warner – 7th place
Cons. Round 6 - Tristan Warner (ODU) won by medical forfeit over Nestor Taffur (F&M - Unattached) (MFF)
Cons. Round 7 - Adam Fierro (CSU Bakersfield) won by fall over Tristan Warner (ODU) (Fall 2:28)
7th Place Match - Tristan Warner (ODU) won by fall over Pat Smith (Minnesota - Unattached) (Fall 2:07)
184 – Jack Dechow – 1st place
Semifinal - Jack Dechow (ODU) won by decision over Sam Brooks (Iowa) (Dec 6-5)
1st Place Match - Jack Dechow (ODU) won by major decision over Lorenzo Thomas (Penn) (Maj 13-5)
197 – Kevin Beazley
Cons. Round 6 - Shawn Scott (Northern Illinois) won in sudden victory - 1 over Kevin Beazley (ODU) (SV-1 8-6)
285 – Jake Henderson – 8th place
Cons. Round 6 - Jake Henderson (ODU) won by medical forfeit over Nicholas Gajdzik (Harvard -Unattached) (MFF)
Cons. Round 7 - Evan Knutson (North Dakota State) won in sudden victory - 1 over Jake Henderson (ODU) (SV-1 3-1)
7th Place Match - Garrett Ryan (Columbia) won by major decision over Jake Henderson (ODU) (Maj 10-1)