The Lindenwood wrestling team fought a tough battle against InterMat's No. 8 University of Indianapolis, but lost by a nail-biting score of 19-17 in the Lions' home debut dual.
Carlos Jacquez, the Lions' 125-pounder, controlled the majority of his match against Ana Abduljelil as he led 9-5 heading into the third round. Jacquez put the icing on top of his performance by pinning Abduljelil 24 seconds into the round, giving the Lions six points.
Hunter Haralson lined up next at 133 pounds and had to work his way through the entire match to defeat Joe Kieffer. Both wrestlers remained neutral for most of the match, but Haralson managed to gather enough points to clinch a 4-1 decision-win. The Lions led 9-0.
An anticipated match coming into this dual was the 141-pound matchup between
Greg Jacquez, who was making his season debut and had not competed since last spring, and No. 3-ranked Nick Crume in InterMat. Jacquez held his own throughout the first round against the alpha-dog Crume when he only allowed two points. However, Crume pulled away in the third round to collect a major decision for the Greyhounds, cutting the Lions' lead to 9-4.
The Lions lost their next two matches via decision and a pin that gave the Greyhounds a 13-9 advantage heading into the 165-pound contest featuring No. 8
Kyle Jolas and Barry McGinley. The match ran neck-in-neck as each wrestler would negate any takedown attempts. However, Jolas came through towards the ends of both the second and third rounds. He recorded a takedown with six seconds left in the second round to tie the match up at 4-4 then took down McGinley again with 12 seconds remaining in the third. Jolas sealed the match with a 6-4 decision victory to make the dual a one-point differential.
Batchka Zulkhuu needed just one escape to register a win at 174 pounds. He got a point in the second round then managed to stop his opponent Austin Robbins from getting escapes himself. Zulkhuu had enough run-time to give him an extra point, solidifying a 2-0 decision to give the Lions a 15-13 lead.
David Hamil would record the last win for the Lions when he out-worked his opponent Luke Kriech by a final score of 5-3.
The Lions competed hard in the last two matches at 197 and heavyweight, but the Greyhounds came out on top with a tie-breaking win and a decision respectively.
The Lions will take a week off before heading Indianpolis' way and competing in the Midwest Classic hosted by the Greyhounds on Saturday, December 17 starting at 9 am.
