INDIANAPOLIS Western Colorado's Jason Hanenberg and Cole Hernandez wrestled their way to top-eight finishes Sunday at the 43rd Annual Midwest Classic. Hanenberg placed fourth in the 149-pound bracket and Hernandez finished seventh in the 174-pound bracket.

The Mountaineers concluded the Classic in 23rd place with 37.0 points

JUST THE FACTS
Event: 43rd Midwest Classic
Location: Indianapolis, Ind.
Top Teams: 1 – Central Oklahoma (178.5 points), 2 – Pitt-Johnson (95.0), 3 – Lander (S.C) (92.0)

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Both Hanenberg and Hernandez reached the quarterfinals of their main brackets Saturday, where Hanenberg dropped an 8-2 decision and Hernandez was felled in the second period, sending the pair into the consolation side of their brackets.
• Winner by fall and an 8-2 decision before the quarters, Hanenberg began his trip through the consolation bracket with a 5-1 decision, then romped through his next match with a 14-1 major.
• He advanced into the third-/fourth-place match with a harrowing 3-1 sudden victory over Central Oklahoma's Brik Filippo. Both wrestlers earned their regulation-time point by way of escape, sending the match into a sudden victory period. Hanenberg closed out the win with a takedown 52 seconds into the extra period.
• That set up a match with Josiah Rider from Adams State. Neither scored in the first period, but Rider gained the advantage in the second with a takedown and 4-point near fall while Hanenberg claimed singular points on a pair of escapes.
• Rider started on the bottom in the third, managed an escape and then a takedown to lengthen his lead, and surrendered only a late escape to Hanenberg, whose defeat still allowed a fourth-place finish in the overall bracket.
• Hernandez had advanced into the quarters with 5-2 and 13-6 decisions. He responded to his main bracket loss with a 16-5 major to open his trek in the consolation bracket, but surrendered a first-period pin in the next bout to get pushed into the seventh-/eighth-place match.
• A takedown at the midpoint of the first period gave him a 2-0 lead entering the second over Mercyhurst's Dillon Walker. Though Walker halved his deficit with an early escape, a Hernandez takedown upped his lead back to 4-1 as the duo entered the third.
• A penalty point issued against Walker opened Hernandez' scoring in the third, and another takedown and the ride time point eventually gave him the 8-2 victory to secure seventh place.

OTHER MOUNTAINEERS

• Devin Gomez dropped his opening match at 125 but won his next two bouts in the consolation bracket before bowing out in a tech fall in his third match.
• At 141, Dean Noble won in the first round by a second-period pin, but dropped a high-scoring second match, 24-17, to get pushed onto the consolation side of the bracket. His Classic ended there with a first-period fall.
• Ryan Wilson earned an opening-bout 13-8 decision at 157 but dropped an 8-4 decision in the second round. His tournament ended with a 10-6 decision in his first consolation match.
• At 165, Hunter Mullin scored a 19-1 tech fall to open his tournament before losing an 11-5 decision. His Classic ended in his first consolation bout, a 6-5 decision with the final point scored on an escape with 41 seconds left in the third period.
• Porter Fox opened at 197 with a 7-3 decision but suffered a heartbreaking 3-2 defeat in the second round. He advanced in the consols with a 5-3 decision followed by a thrilling 4-2 win over University of Mary's Matt Kaylor in the second tie-breaker period. His trip through the wrestle-backs was halted, though, with a 6-5 loss to Ashland's Walker Uhl, whose escape with 49 seconds remaining in the third iced his victory.

LOOKING AHEAD
The Mountaineers will host the Western Colorado Open on Friday, January 6, 2023, followed the next day by the Tracy Borah Duals. Both events will be hosted in the Mountaineer Field House.