Hoosiers place 10 in top 4 at Missouri Open

During only its second tournament of the season, the Hoosier wrestling team added a few more wins to their record this weekend at the Missouri Open. \nIn one of the more exciting matches of the night, No. 2-seeded sophomore Andrae Hernandez (133 pounds) overcame three opponents to eventually face the No. 1 seed Matt Keller from University of Tennessee-Chattanooga. Keller is ranked fifth nationally, according to themat.com, and Hernandez fought him into overtime before he was defeated, taking second place. \nFreshman Kurt Kinser went on to take second place in the 149-pound weight class after pinning nationally-ranked Josh Wagner of the host Missouri during his first dual of the day. Freshman Nathan Everhart was forced to settle with fourth place after giving up a medical forfeit during the match to determine third place. Senior Josh Buuck and junior Dave Herman were named co-champions in the heavyweight division. \nThe freshmen and sophomores proved just as skillful as their older counterparts, bringing home five players who placed third or higher during the freshman/sophomore counterpart to the Missouri Open. Nick Walpole placed first in the 141-pound weight class, while Nick Avery and Kyle Samuels each took second in the 174 and 157-pound weight classes. Justin Kuhn and Elijah Cook each took third. \nCoach Duane Goldman said that many starters sat out this weekend so that they would have a chance to get healthy and prepare for upcoming regular season meets. \n"This weekend was a good tournament," Goldman said. "It provided an opportunity to get some matches under our belt and for the team to get healthy and prepare the starters for the tough competitions coming up." \nNext weekend, IU will host the Hoosier Duals at the University Gym, which will draw competition from Bucknell, Ohio, Oregon, Appalachian State and University of the Cumberlands.