Wheaton, Ill. – The Wheaton wrestling team hosted the prestigious Pete Willson Wheaton Invitational this weekend in King Arena. This year marked the 83^rd edition of oldest and largest small college wrestling tournament in the nation. The host Thunder currently finished in 27^th place in the 30-team field.

UW-Eau Claire won the program's second Pete Willson Championship with 150.5 points this weekend. UW-Whitewater scored 142.5 points in second place and UW-La Crosse finished third with 112.5 points. Cornell (Iowa) scored 94.5 points in fourth place and Messiah finished fifth with 89.5 points.

Jared Stricker of UW-Eau Eau Claire won the tournament's championship at 174-pounds and was named the George Olson Outstanding Wrestler as selected by a vote of the tournament's coaches. Cameron Lee of Millikin was honored as the recipient of the Pete George Sportsmanship Award as selected by the tournament's referees. Messiah University's Dolton Monger won the Jack Swartz Award for most falls in the least amount of time as he recorded three falls in the tournament in a span of 3:21

On Friday, Wheaton's Anthony Zamora, the No. 2 seed at 133-pounds opened the tournament by winning an 11-7 decision over Ferrum's Trent Proctor. Zamora then won an 18-0 technical fall in just 1:56 against Wilkes' Ethan Washburn. In the quarterfinal round Zamora faced Wyatt Magolski of UW-La Crosse. Zamora built up an 8-1 lead in the match and Magolski rallied with a pair of near falls, and he defeated Zamora with a fall at the 4:38 mark of the match. Zamora withdrew from the tournament with a medical forfeit following the quarterfinal match.

Jackson Punzel, the No. 2 seed at 197-pounds, won his opening match with a 17-1 technical fall against Ozarks' Jadaan Anderson. Punzel defeated UW-Whitewater's Evan Danowski in a 13-5 major decision in the second round. Punzel faced UChicago's Gunnar Garriques in the quarterfinal round. Punzel suffered an injury in the match against Garriques and the Thunder graduate student withdrew and lost via a medical forfeit.

Wheaton wrestling is off until February 15^th when the Thunder compete at the 2025 CCIW Championships in Decatur, Illinois.