WILKES-BARRE – First-year Austin Fashouer (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) (125) and junior Colton Babcock (Sweet Valley, PA/Northwest Area) (184) led eight Colonels with top-six finishes as Wilkes finished with 105.5 team points at the Wilkes Invitational Wednesday afternoon at the McHale Athletic Center (MAC).

Full Results
 
It marked the first time wrestling has been held at the MAC as eight teams wrestled on six mats in the Invitational-style format event.
 
At 125-pounds, Fashouer continued his fine wrestling as the first-year used back-to-back falls to reach the finals. There Fashouer took home the title with an 11-5 decision over No. 15 Terry Adams of Ursinus College moving his season record to 17-2 overall.
 
The top seed at 184-pounds, Babcock made little work of his opening round opponent winning by fall in 1:33. He followed that with an 11-5 decision over Gavin Claro of Long Island University before reaching the finals with a 5-2 decision over Ohio Northern's Gavin Layman in the semifinals. Babcock completed the sweep with a dominant 11-1 major decision over Gary Nagle of Ursinus in the finals on way to the title moving his season mark to 18-1.
 
At 197-pounds, first-year Cameron Butka (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) wrestled his way to the finals with two consecutive falls in 1:19 and 2:19 respectively. In the finals Butka fell by a 10-4 decision to the top seed Nunzio Crowley of Long Island University to settle for second place.
 
Christopher Nuss (Gore, VA/James Wood) was the second runner-up finisher for Wilkes at 174-pounds. Nuss began the day with a 6-1 decision in the opening round before winning 4-0 to reach the semifinals. In the semifinals Nuss posted a 6-1 decision over Shenandoah's Hunter Thompson before falling to the top seed Kade Kravits of King's College in a hard-fought 5-2 decision in the finals.
 
At 285-pounds Sean McCurdy (Philadelphia, PA/Academy of the New Church) was the lone third place finisher for Wilkes at the event. McCurdy started with a 6-1 decision win followed by a fall in 1:13 to reach the semifinals. There he would fall to eventual champion Logan Painter of Ohio Northern. McCudry wrestled his way back to the third place bout where he claimed the win with a 3-2 overtime decision.
 
Hunter Lowe (Westminster, MD/Winters Mill) (197-pounds) and Charles Everdale (Freeland, PA/Hazleton Area) (165-pounds) both finished in fourth place in their respective classes at the event. Lowe dropped a tough 10-9 decision in the first round only to wrestle back and win three straight all in extra-point fashion (two falls and a technical fall) to reach the third place bout. There Lowe fell by fall to settle for fourth. Everdale earned two extra-point victories in his first two matches including a technical fall (16-1) and major decision (13-0) to reach the semifinals. After falling 11-3 in the semifinals, Everdale took an 8-2 decision to reach the third place bout only to drop a 5-2 decision there to settle for fourth.
 
Wilkes' final place finisher Liam Flaherty (Needmore, PA/Southern Fulton) claimed sixth place at 165-pounds. Flaherty won back-to-back matches to start the day cruising to 16-0 and 15-0 technical fall wins to reach the semifinals. Flaherty then lost 11-6to eventual champion James Johnston of LIU before being unable to continue due to injury where he would settle for sixth.
 
Wilkes takes the Holiday break off before returning to the mat Friday and Saturday January 7-8 to compete at the Budd Whitehill Duals hosted by Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa. Wrestling begins at 10:00 a.m. each day.