WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University wrestling team finished in third place at the Monarch Invitational hosted by King's College on Saturday at the Scandlon Gymnasium. The Colonels saw two wrestler claim individual titles and six top-six finishes at the event.
 
Wilkes finished with 126 total team points on way to third place in the team standings. No. 8 Roger Williams won the team title finishing with 205.5 team points while SUNY Cortland followed in second place with 186.5 points.
 
Wilkes first individual title came at 141 where Jessie Lopez (Everett, WA/Everett) went 5-0 including two pins and one technical fall on way to the championship. Lopez began the tournament with a pin in 4:08 in round one before earning a 16-0 technical fall in round two to advance to the third round. Lopez then wrestled in his toughest match of the day posting a 9-7 sudden victory decision over Sean Lyons of NYU to move into the quarterfinals. From there Lopez posted a 6-1 decision win over the No. 1 wrestler in the class York's Gregory Warner before claiming his first Monarch Invitational crown with a fall in 4:49 over Da'mani Burns of Cortland.
 
Josh Evans (Palmerton, PA/Palmerton) was the other Colonel to capture an individual crown at the event going 5-0 on way to the title. Evans began the day with a 5-4 decision win before using three straight extra-point victories including two major decisions and a pin to reach the finals. There, Evans posted an 8-6 decision over Tyler Gazaway of Roger Williams for the championship.
 
Rookie Denzel Tovar (Wall, NJ/Wall) enjoyed an impressive first day of competition for Wilkes at the event finishing second at 125-pounds. Tovar started the day in his first collegiate match with a fall before a major decision and another fall in less than a minute to reach the quarterfinals. He won 4-2 in the semifinals over Scranton's Nick DePierro before falling 6-5 in a tough match against Roger Williams' Nick Barbaria in the finals to settle for second place.
 
Zachary Faust (Wilkes-Barre, PA/G.A.R. Memorial) claimed third place at 197-pounds for his first top-six finish at the event. Faust took two close one-point decision win in the first two round of the bracket winning 4-3 and 3-2 to reach the semifinals. Faust fell to eventual champion Ricardo Dawkins of Cortland in one of the semifinal bouts 9-2 before posting a 5-3 sudden victory win and 18-0 technical fall in the wrestlebacks and third place bout.
 
Freshman Kyle Medrow (West Chester, PA/West Chester Henderson) was the other top-six finisher at 141 taking fourth place to join Lopez in the class. Medrow started his collegiate career with two straight falls before falling the in the quarterfinals. From there Medrow wrestled through the consolation bracket using a technical fall and two more pins to reach the third place bout where he would eventually fall 11-2.
 
Nicholas Racanelli (West Creek, NJ/Southern Regional) was the final top-six finisher for Wilkes taking fifth place at 157-pounds. Racanelli lost his first match 4-3 but began a comeback in the consolation bracket. He used two major decisions, a fall and a technical fall to move through the bracket before losing 2-0 in a sudden victory bout. Racanelli rebounded for a 4-2 decision win the fifth place bout.
 
Wilkes travels to Riverdale, N.Y. to compete in the NY/PA Duals next Saturday. Wrestling begins at 12:00 p.m.