Indiana wrestling wrapped up the calendar year with the 61st annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships on Monday and Tuesday in Evanston, Illinois, and left with a second, third, fourth, sixth and seventh-place finish.
Twenty total Hoosiers traveled to compete in 10 brackets against representatives from 29 other teams. Seven of the 10 brackets featured two or more Hoosiers, with the 133, 149 and 174-pound brackets each including three Indiana wrestlers.
The 10 tournaments, each consisting of five rounds, commenced Monday morning. Three Hoosiers were awarded first round byes: freshman Ayden Bollinger in the 125-pound bracket, redshirt sophomore Logan Frazier in 133-pound bracket and No. 25 redshirt junior Henry Porter in the 141-pound bracket.
Twelve of Indiana’s 20 advanced past the opening round, highlighted by all three of Indiana’s 174-pound wrestlers — No. 31 graduate student Derek Gilcher, redshirt sophomore Orlando Cruz and redshirt junior Magnus Kuokkanen. Redshirt sophomore Joey Buttler commanded his opening bout of the 149-pound tournament with ease, pinning Illinois redshirt junior Charlie Fifield in one minute and 47 seconds.
The round of 32 resulted in five Hoosier victories, four of which were by a margin of five points or more. Buttler provided the lone squeaker, defeating Central Michigan University sophomore Colin Kacena 5-4. Indiana No. 13 redshirt junior Gabe Sollars earned his place in the 197-pound quarterfinals by way of a 15-0 technical fall victory against California Polytechnic State University graduate student Cole Jackson.
Porter was the first of four Hoosiers to punch his ticket to the semifinals, pinning Cal Poly freshman Aiden Simmons late in the bout to secure the quarterfinal victory by fall. Gilcher, Sollars and redshirt sophomore Bryce Lowery also advanced to the final four, all doing so through major decision victories with respective scores of 14-2, 14-2 and 15-2, with a combined 11 takedowns.
Action resumed Tuesday afternoon, with a 5-1 Lowery victory by decision clinching the only Hoosier championship match appearance. Porter, who forfeited his semifinal match due to medical reasons, joined Gilcher and Sollars in failing to advance to first-place bouts.
Lowery’s excellence was extinguished in the 157-pound title match, falling to No. 33 University of Pittsburgh redshirt sophomore Dylan Evans 4-2. Lowery started the first-place bout in a 4-0 deficit, but was unable to complete the comeback.
Redshirt senior Roman Rogotzke finished in seventh place, Porter finished in sixth place, Gilcher finished in fourth place and Sollars finished in third place. Sollars’ third-place title was settled by way of a 9-1 major decision victory over Stanford University freshman Brokton Borelli.
Indiana wrestling will resume dual meets with its first Big Ten matchup against Ohio State at 1 p.m. Jan. 11 in Columbus, Ohio.
