LINCOLN, Neb. – Nebraska Wesleyan had their inaugural wrestling dual on Saturday competing against Wisconsin-Eau Claire and University of Dubuque.  The Prairie Wolves fell 37-6 to UW_Eau Claire and 39-6 to Dubuque in the first competition of the season.
 
NWU did pick up two exciting victories in each of the duals.  Against UW-Eau Claire, Ben Lodema became the first Prairie Wolves wrestler to earn a victory as he won 8-5 over Travis Cripe.  To close out the dual, heavyweight Justin Hennessy got a takedown with one second left in the match to earn a 4-3 thriller that brought the Snyder Arena crowd to their feet as NWU picked up wins in the final two matches of the dual.
 
Competing against Iowa Conference opponent Dubuque, it was Lodema and Hennessy that picked up wins again.  Lodema defeated Dominic Sterr, 7-3 and Hennessy won 3-1 in the tiebreaker period, getting a takedown in the third overtime to beat Jordan Hill of Dubuque.
 
Before the match, Nebraska Wesleyan recognized several former wrestlers who were on hand to celebrate the return of wrestling to the NWU campus.

Wisconsin-Eau Claire 37, Nebraska Wesleyan 6
125: Zackary Sirny (WEC) over Ryan Smales (NWU) (Dec 9-5)
133: Cody Vogel (WEC) over Jorge Hernandez (NWU) (MD 12-4)
141: Jordan Meyer (WEC) over Kendrick Frazier (NWU) (Fall 1:23)
149: Carter Focht (WEC) over Mitchell Hunt (NWU) (Dec 4-3)
157: Connor Hanson (WEC) over Dustin Monroe (NWU) (MD 17-6)
165: Marcus McKinley Blount (WEC) over Shane Buck (NWU) (Fall 2:09)
174: Tyler Vogt (WEC) over Matthew Fricke (NWU) (TF 20-2 5:00)
184: Robert Rocole (WEC) over Alex Kerr (NWU) (Fall 1:39)
197: Ben Lodema (NWU) over Travis Cripe (WEC) (Dec 8-5)
285: Justin Hennessy (NWU) over Justin Karkula (WEC) (Dec 4-3)

Dubuque 39, Nebraska Wesleyan 6
125: Javier Guillen (DUBU) over Brayden Dowding (NWU) (Dec 11-7)
133: David Ortega (DUBU) over Jorge Hernandez (NWU) (Fall 0:54)
141: Jeremy Melendez (DUBU) over Michael Gunther (NWU) (Fall 3:50)
149: Greg Krulas (DUBU) over Mitchell Hunt (NWU) (Fall 2:00)
157: Michael Huck (DUBU) over Dustin Monroe (NWU) (Dec 10-7)
165: Mark Griffin (DUBU) over Shane Buck (NWU) (Fall 0:34)
174: Patrick Mooney (DUBU) over Matthew Fricke (NWU) (Fall 3:53)
184: Roosevelt Smith (DUBU) over Alex Kerr (NWU) (Dec 5-4)
197: Ben Lodema (NWU) over Dominic Sterr (DUBU) (Dec 7-3)
285: Justin Hennessy (NWU) over Jordan Hill (DUBU) (TB-1 3-1)