Diaz Reaches FR-SO Finals at GVU Open

William Penn University Athletics

Altoona–The Statesmen wrestling team recorded several strong efforts with its tournament squad as it competed at the Grand View Open Saturday.

In an event that was broken into two separate divisions (Freshman-Sophomore and Open), William Penn had eight grapplers tally at least one victory.

Open Division

Kirkland Crocker (Sr., Tampa, Fla.) had his hand raised once at 125 pounds.

Freshman-Sophomore Division

Heavyweight Maxwell Diaz (Fr., Miami, Fla.) headed the youngsters as he advanced to the finals. The freshman pinned his first four opponents (three in the first period) to get to the championship bout. Unfortunately, he fell 7-1 to Blake Zalapi of Hannibal-LaGrange for the gold.

141-pounder Preston Wiest (Fr., Troutsville, Va.) claimed a pair of big wins (one fall, one major decision) en route to a 3-1 record and a third-place finish.

Matthew Landsperger (Fr., Knoxville, Iowa, Sociology) reached the third-place match as well at 197 pounds, but came up short to be fourth overall with a 2-2 mark. 149-pounder Joe Eads (So., Morrison, Ill., Biology) was also 2-2 with one fall Saturday.

Heavyweight Cameron Mitchell (Fr., Houston, Texas) both posted a pin, while Brise Bennett (Fr., Morganstown, W.Va.) earned a major-decision win at 133 pounds. McGwire Bottorf (Fr., Mackinaw, Ill.) was also a one-time victor at 141 pounds.

Next Up: William Penn travels to Minneapolis, Minn. next Saturday to compete in the Augsburg Invitational. Action begins at 9 a.m.