LINCOLN, Neb. – The Nebraska Wesleyan wrestling team won their opening dual of the 2020 American Rivers Conference duals that were held on Saturday (Jan. 25) at Snyder Arena in Lincoln.  NWU dropped the next three matches, all to nationally-ranked opponents, to finish 1-3 on the day.
 
NWU opened the morning with a 30-18 victory over Simpson College.  They fell 41-8 to #17 Luther College, dropped a 34-12 match to #5 Coe College and ended the day with a 44-12 loss to #3 Loras College.
 
Freshman Zeth Gerkensmeyer won all four of his matches on the day at 157 to highlight the Prairie Wolves performance against the toughest conference in NCAA III wrestling.  Gerkensmeyer won by fall over Simpson, got a 6-3 decision over Luther then battled hard to win 9-7 in a tiebreaker over Coe.  He won by DQ in the final match of the day against Loras.
 
In the opening win over Simpson, six Prairie Wolves recorded victories.  Van Schmidt started off with win by fall at 133, followed by Ryan Smales winning a 5-3 decision at 141.  Gerkensmeyer got the fall at 157, and fellow freshman Derek Wortman also had a fall in 0:45 at 165.  Senior Alex Kerr won 12-8 at 197 and Justin Hennessy got the first of his two falls on the day at 285.
 
Eron Haynes was 3-0 on the day at 133 for the Prairie Wolves.  He won by tech fall, 21-4, over Luther College then got an 8-5 hard fought decision in the Coe dual.  He won by medical forfeit in the final match against Loras.
 
Hennessy was the other NWU wrestler to earn two wins by getting another fall in the second period over Coe.
 
Nebraska Wesleyan is now 5-6 overall and 2-5 in American Rivers conference duals.