Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton wrestling program is hosting the 2024 Pete Willson-Wheaton Invitational this weekend inside King Arena. The event is the largest and oldest small-college wrestling tournament in the country.  The Thunder wrestling team currently sits in 22^nd place with 28.5 points in the 32-team field.

UW-La Crosse and UW-Eau Claire are in a tie for first place in the team standings heading into day two on Saturday with 88 points apiece. UW-Whitewater is in third place with 83.5 points, followed by Messiah College in fourth place with 74 points and Ohio Northern in fifth place with 63 points.

The host Thunder of Wheaton will have one wrestler competing on Saturday when wrestling resumes at 11:00 a.m. Senior Jackson Punzel will wrestle in the championship semifinals at 197-pounds vying for a spot in the prestigious finals of the tournament when the championship session begins at 2:30 p.m. on Saturday. His semifinal match on Saturday morning will be against Kasey Gish of UW-La Crosse.

Punzel opened the tournament with a 17-2 technical fall at 5:14 of his first-round match against Kaleb Gelter of Mount St. Joseph. He earned another technical fall in his second-round match with a 17-2 technical fall at 2:44 against Roman Jellick of SUNY Cortland.  Punzel advanced to tomorrow's semifinal match with a 3-1 decision over Jesse Kanatzar of John Carroll in the quarterfinals.

Anthony Zamora picked up three wins on Friday in the 133-pound weight class. Zamora opened with a 10-1 major decision against John Carroll's Ty Daugherty in the first round. Ty Bisek of Concordia-Moorhead won a 15-4 major decision against Bisek in the second round. In his first match in the consolation bracket against Nolan Frye of Mount Union, Zamora won a 12-6 decision. Zamora defeated Rocco Futia of SUNY-Cortland with a fall at the 6:54 mark of their matchup. Zamora bowed out of the tournament, losing a 5-1 decision against Zachary Weiler of UW-La Crosse.

Brendan Johnston opened up his participation in the tournament with a 12-7 decision against Hunter Heck of Millikin in the first round of the 125-pound weight class. In the second round, Mac Cafurello of Roanoke defeated Johnston in an 8-1 decision. Johnston won his first match in the consolation bracket with an 18-3 technical fall (7:00) against Jack Sullivan of UW-Platteville. Johnston bowed out of the tournament as he lost an 8-6 decision against UW-Stevens Point's Luca Palladino.