Matt Scott Wins 197lbs. Weight Class at Concordia Open

At the 19th Annual Concordia Open, the University of Wisconsin-Platteville wrestling team rose to the challenge of facing five top 25 programs with three individuals placing in the top eight.

The Pioneers were facing wrestlers from nationally-ranked programs including No. 1 Wartburg College, No. 11 North Central College (Ill.), No. 15 UW-Whitewater, No. 21 Augustana College (Ill.) and No. 23 Wabash College (Ind.).

UW-Platteville senior Matt Scott, who entered the tournament as the No. 7 seed, worked his way to a title at 197 pounds. Scott began the day with a 6-4 win over Davion Willis of UW-Parkside. Then, he posted a 5-2 win in the quarterfinals over No. 2 seeded Danny Vargas of Elmhurst. A medical forfeit in the semifinals sent him to the finals, where he recorded a 9-1 win over Punahele Soriano of Wartburg.

Also for the Pioneers, sophomore Mack Drees was fourth at 125 pounds. He started the day with a 23-second pin and followed that up with a 18-1 technical fall in the third round. In the quarterfinals, Drees defeated Jose Torres of Triton, 3-0 to advance to the semifinals. In the semifinals, he dropped a 1-0 decision to No. 2 seed Gilberto Camacho of Wartburg and lost another close decision in his third place match when he lost by the score of 4-3 in sudden victory to an unattached Zach Mueller.

Also finishing in the top eight for the Pioneers was Rob Maertz, who finished eighth at 157 pounds. The unseeded Maertz bounced back from a first round loss to post a 7-2 victory over Logan Meurer of Wheaton in the first round of the consolation bracket. He followed that up with a pin at the 1:40 mark of the first period over Griffin Weihe of Loras. In his third round conolation match, Maertz defeated his second-straight Loras opponent, this time by a 4-1 margin. Maertz won his fifth match of the day by medical forfeit to advance to the consolation semifinals, where if he won he'd advance to the fifth place match or if he loss he'd move to the seventh-place match. Unfortunately, he lost to Ben Strobel of UW-Stevens Point. In his seventh-place match, he dropped a 5-3 decision to Kegan Arthur of UW-Whitewater.