Season begins with wins over York, Missouri Baptist
St. Ambrose started its fifth season of men's wrestling with a pair of home dual victories inside the WRC Saturday afternoon. The Bees defeated York 48-3 and Missouri Baptist 23-16.
SAU earned bonus points in all nine wins against York. Jean-Luc Guerra needed just 19 seconds to pin his opponent at 184 pounds. And two Bees won via tech fall. Vinny Tindal won 20-3 at 165 pounds and Brody Schmidt followed that with a 17-2 win at 174 pounds.
Mitchell Murphy claimed a 12-2 major decision at 133 pounds, and at 149 pounds, Josh Zeman earned an 11-3 major decision.
Tyler Clarke (125 pounds), Georgino Moraga (157), Jeremiah Morris (197) and Tyler Casey (heavyweight) won by forfeit.
Clarke then got St. Ambrose off to a fast start against Missouri Baptist. The freshman pinned his opponent at 2:24 in the 125-pound bout to give the Bees a quick 6-0 lead. Murphy followed with an 11-2 major decision at 133 pounds and Guiseppe Guerra upped the team lead to 13-0 with his 5-4 victory at 141 pounds.
The Spartans bounced back with a pair of decisions, those coming at 149 and 157 pounds, to close to within 13-6. Tindal's 8-0 major decision at 165 pounds built a 17-6 SAU lead.
After an MBU major decision, Nicolas Makwala and Morris sealed the Bee victory. Makwala earned a 9-4 decision at 184 pounds and Morris prevailed 8-5 at 197 pounds.
St. Ambrose will host William Penn Thursday.