Wrestling places 12th at Spartan Mat Classic

The Defiance wrestling team placed 12th out of 19 teams at the Spartan Mat Classic on Saturday after eighth-place finishes from senior Alex Smith at 141-lbs and senior Rigo Villa at heavyweight.

The Basics

• Location: Stauffer-Wolfe Arena - North Manchester, Ind.
• Wabash won the event with 189 team points. 
• The Yellow Jackets scored 20 points and finished 12th.

Notable Performances

• Smith won two matches by tech fall first defeating Bo Niewiadomski from Wisconsin-Eau Claire 20-4 and then beating teammate Kliever Joseph in the consolation round after dropping a 5-0 decision to Ohio Northern's Jacob Reed.
• Villa made his season debut at heavyweight and won three matches, two by decision and one by pin. Villa beat Alex Naylor from Wabash 8-3, then won a 4-1 decision over Gabriel Martinez from Heidelberg and pinned Baldwin Wallace's Drew Levis in 5:22 before losing the seventh-place match in a 7-2 decision.
• Senior Mason Morris won two matches at the event, defeating Sandro Bruni of Ohio Wesleyan 2-0 and pinning Ancilla's Jaybreon Litsey in 1:53 in the 197-lb bracket.
• Freshman Matthew Beard (157-lbs) and sophomore Deontae Davis (165-lbs) each won matches as well.

Up Next

• The Yellow Jackets will to Case Western Reserve on Saturday, January 22.