Greg Rhoads, Marc Escobedo, Austin O'Neal, Josh Boyer, and Logan Cooper all placed at the season-opening Loras College Wrestling Open on Saturday. Rhoads and Escobedo were third-place finishers in the Gold Division portion of the tournament, while O'Neal scored a fifth-place finish and Boyer took sixth place. Cooper took third place in the Silver Division.

Gold Division Results (pdf) | Silver Division Results (pdf)

Rhoads, a 2011 All-American, dropped his opening match at 184 pounds to John Vogt in a tight 3-2 decision, but returned to score five consecutive victories in the consolation bracket to earn his third place finish. He started with a 13-5 major decision over Jerem Weiderin, then picked up his first pin of the season at the 3:26 mark of his match against Travis Mundt. A 3-1 decision over Andrew Roberts sent Rhoads to the semifinals, where he faced Vogt for a second time. In the rematch, it was Rhoads who captured the 3-2 win, leading to a 1-0 victory in the third-place match against Mike Kelly.

Escobedo started his season with a pin in the first 1:54 of his 125-pound bout against Joe Lamer, then scored a 3-2 decision against Venel Rene in the next round. Another pin — this time 2:54 into his match against Jordan Ng — moved Escobedo into the championship semifinals. A 10-3 loss to eventual second-place finisher Jimmy Gotto dropped Escobedo to the consolation bracket where he faced teammate  Boyer. Escobedo scored a pin at 1:31 against Boyer to move to the finals and an 8-6 victory against Pat Pfantz.

Boyer socred a 9-6 victory over George Illioolous in his first match of the season, but fell to the consolation bracket after a technical fall against eventual 125-pound champion Jesse Delgado. Boyer rallied for an 18-4 win against Brand Mailberg, then added a 3-1 victory over Ben Rosen before losing to Escobedo. A 3-2 loss to Tim Hood in the finals gave Boyer his sixth place finish.

O'Neal lost 8-4 in his first match at 197 pounds before taking the four bouts. A 7-2 win against Espen Fredriksen in the first round of consolation bouts was followed by a pin at 1:57 against Andrew Hartshorn. O'Neal added a 3-1 victory against Josh Kirkland and a 2-1 win over Louis Pimentel. However, a 5-4 loss to Julian Smith in the quarterfinals sent O'Neal to fifth-place bout where he was declared the winner by forfeit.

Cooper competed in the 184-pound weight class of the Silver Division, starting with a commanding 10-1 victory against Aaron Satterwhite. A 3-1 loss to the eventual champion Ryan Sheldon led to two straight victories for Cooper in the consolation bracket. The first was by pin at 2:47 against Quinn Sedlak, followed by a 10-2 major victory in the finals over Satterwhite once again for the third place showing.

Wabash returns to action on November 19 at the Concordia Open.