TEAM SCORES  ---  BRACKETS

Wheaton, Ill. – The Thunder wrestling team is hosting the 84^th Pete Willson-Wheaton Invitational this weekend inside King Arena. The Thunder wrestling team stands in 15^th place after day one.

UW-Eau Claire leads the 30-team field with 97 points, followed by UW-La Crosse in second place with 93.5 points, Roanoke is third with 89 points, UW-Whitewater is fourth with 87 points and University of Chicago rounds out the top-five with 77 points. Cornell College (Iowa) has 74.5 points in sixth place, Ohio Northern is seventh with 71 points, Case Western Reserve has 65 points in eighth place, Messiah is ninth with 62 points and Mount Union rounds out the top-10 with 40.5 points. MSOE and UW-Stevens Point are tied for 11^th with 39 points, Arcadia is 13^th with 38.5 points, Rhode Island College scored 33.5 points on Friday in 14^th place and Wheaton rounds out the top-15 with 31.5 points.

Taggart Kazmierczak's performance in the 165-pound weight class highlighted Wheaton's effort on Friday. Kazmierczak won all three of his matches on Friday to advance to the semifinals at 165-pounds. Kazmierczak will face the tournament's No. 3 seed, Keegan Demarest of Messiah College in the semifinals on Saturday morning shortly after wrestling resumes at 11:00 a.m.

Kazmierczak opened the day with one of the biggest upsets of the tournament so far as he won an 8-5 decision against UW-Whitewater's Brayden Peet, the No. 2 seed at 165-pounds. Kazmierczak then won via a fall at the 2:26 mark in the second-round match against Trev Halsey of Nebraska Wesleyan. Kazmierczak defeated No. 7 seed Ben Hegler in a 15-6 major decision in the quarterfinal to advance to tomorrow's semifinal.

Sophomore Zeke Harris earned three wins today in the 197-pound bracket. Harris opened by winning via a fall at the 3:49 mark of his first-round match against Imanol Taveras of Rhode Island College. Messiah's Tucker Seidel won a 12-3 major decision against Harris in the second round. Harris then earned a pin in the final minute of his first match in the consolation bracket. He picked up the win via fall against Ellott Black of Wilkes University at the 6:12 mark. Harris' next victory won an impressive win via fall just 30-seconds into his match against Connor Kelly of Elmhurst. Myles Johnson of Ohio Northern ended Harris' tournament with an 8-2 decision against the Thunder sophomore.

Garrett Boyd and Caleb Cox each earned two wins in the consolation bracket of their respective weight classes today. Boyd won a 10-7 decision against Nebraska Wesleyan's Emilio Chavez to open the consolation bracket at 174-pounds. He then earned a fall against Mount Union's Jake Starke with just 23-seconds remaining in their match. Cox opened his participation in the consolation bracket at 157-pounds with a victory via a fall at the 2:36 mark of his match against Mount St. Joseph's Rylee Nealeigh. He then defeated Ben Messier of MSOE in a 15-0 technical fall (7:00) before bowing out of the tournament in his next match.