Wrestling team splits four matches at Desert Duals

LAS VEGAS, Nevada -- The Olivet College wrestling team split four matches today at the 2010 Desert Duals, hosted by Wartburg (Iowa) College and inside the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas. The Comets, ranked No. 27 in the NWCA poll, started the day with a 28-9 loss to No. 3 Coe (Iowa) College and then upset No. 5 St. John's (Minn.) University, 18-13. Olivet fell to Grand View (Iowa) College, 25-23, before bouncing back to beat Baldwin-Wallace (Ohio) College, 22-18, in its final match.

Against Coe, Olivet won three matches via minor decision. At 141 pounds, senior Vince Tucker (Clio) won 6-4 over No. 6 Chris LeClere. At 184 pounds, senior Jim Neal (Marysville) also earned a two-point win, 12-10, over No. 6 Seth Rehn. Junior Justin Leonard (Webberville) recorded a 7-1 victory over Matt Ferlitsch at 197 pounds.

The match against St. John's was back and forth, with the outcome not decided until the final bout. Junior Justin Fleeson (Belleville) started the match with a 6-3 win at 125 pounds. After a pair of close losses at 133 and 141 pounds, junior Steven Mena (Martin) evened the match score at 6-6 with a 6-4 win at 149 pounds.

Sophomore James Myers (Wintersville, Ohio/Indian Creek) put Olivet ahead 9-6, winning 10-6 at 157 pounds. The Johnnies answered with a major decision win at 165 pounds to go back up 10-9. Junior Trevor Tyler (Roscommon) and Neal followed with 11-9 and 7-6 wins at 174 and 184 pounds, which made the score 15-10.

St. John's won a major decision at 197 pounds to make the score 15-13 and force the heavyweight bout to be the deciding one. Sophomore Logan Renas (Big Rapids) came through with an 8-4 win, which allowed the Comets to pull off the upset victory.

The match versus Grand View featured just three decisions among the 10 bouts. Of the seven other bouts, four were by pin and three were by technical fall. For Olivet, Myers, Renas and senior Justin Jaynes (Richmond) all won by pin in 1:32, 6:20 and 5:23, respectively. Tyler posted a technical fall victory.

Against B-W, the two teams split the 10 bouts, but three pins resulted in nine bonus points for the Comets, which were the difference in the match.

The Yellow Jackets started the match with two pins to go up 12-0. Olivet quickly gained the lead three consecutive pins by Tucker over Grant Seward, Mena over Tim Hamm in 59 seconds, and Myers over Danny Huffman in 26 seconds.

B-W tied the match at 18-18 with two minor decision wins. The Comets closed the match with three straight wins by Neal (5-4), Leonard (9-3) and Renas (11-3).

Olivet is now off until Jan. 4, 2011, when it travels to Cincinnati, Ohio, to wrestle against College of Mt. St. Joseph at 7 p.m.

NOTE: Numbers before a wrestler's name is where he is ranked in the NCAA Division III Individual rankings.