ELIZABETHTOWN,PA – The No. 19 Wilkes University men's wrestling team pushed its dual match win streak to four in thrilling fashion as the Colonels used the third criteria in total team points to slip past host Elizabethtown College 23-22 Friday night in Landmark Conference dual match action.
 
Wilkes moved its dual match record to 4-1 overall while Elizabethtown dropped to 1-1 on the season.
 
Cadden Kucek (Forty Fort, PA/Wyoming Valley West) opened the scoring for Wilkes with a 5-3 decision over Kale Quigley at 125-pounds to give the Colonels an early 3-0 lead. Elizabethtown answered at 133-pounds as Corey Cope earned a technical fall over Connor Kerwin (Totowa, NJ/Passaic Valley) in 2:28 as the Blue Jays held a 5-3 advantage after two bouts.
 
The hosts advantage grew to 8-3 after a decision at 141-pounds, before Colton Thorpe (Southington, CT/Southington) dominated in his bout at 149-pounds posting an impressive 16-0 technical fall in 6:00 over Braden Scott to tie the match at 8-8. Jaryn Hartranft (Catasauqua, PA/Catasauqua) gave the Colonels the lead back at 13-8 after a technical fall at 157-pounds winning 18-1 over Ethan Bliss.
 
The teams continued to match each other back-and-forth as Elizabethtown answered right back with a technical fall at 165-pounds to tie the match for a second time at 13-13 before Lucas Miller (Kempton, PA/Northwestern Lehigh) earned a hard-fought 8-3 decision at 74-pounds push Wilkes ahead 16-13 with three bouts remaining.
 
Nationally ranked Ganon Smith pinned Christopher Nuss (Gore, VA/James Wood) at 184-pounds as the Blue Jays led 19-16 before an upset sudden victory by Will Davis over No. 2 Cameron Butka (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) at 197-pounds put the hosts up by six 22-16 with just the heavyweight bout remaining to decide the match.
 
Caleb Burkhart (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) then came up with a huge fall in 2:31 to tie the match, his team-leading ninth pin of the year. That forced the review of criteria to decide the match winner. Needing to get to the third criteria, total team scoring, Wilkes totaled more points in the matches, 55-52, to get the additional team point to win the match.
 
Wilkes returns home Monday for a dual match against Delaware Valley University starting at 7:00 p.m. at the Marts Center.
 
No. 19 Wilkes 23, Elizabethtown 22
125: C. Kucek (W) dec Kale Quigley (EC), 5-3
133: Corey Cope (EC) tech fall C. Kerwin (W), 2:28
141: David Panone (EC) dec M. Richardson (W), 6-3
149: C. Thorpe (WIL) tech fall Braden Scott (EC), 6:00 (16-0)
157: J. Hartranft (WIL) tech fall Ethan Bliss (EC), 18-1
165: Justice Hockenberry (EC) tech fall M. Sutter (W), 16-0
174: L. Miller (W) dec Jacob Speed (EC), 8-2
184: Ganon Smith (EC) fall C. Nuss (W), 2:32
197: Will Davis (EC) dec (SV) C. Butka (W), 8-5
285: C. Burkhart (W) fall Ksawery Niewiadomy (EC), 2:31