Cornell’s wrestling team came away from a rigid two-day weekend with four placewinners at the Lower Midwest Region Championships, which concluded Saturday at the Five Flags Center.
Senior Casey Allen scored Cornell’s highest finish, placing fourth at 165 pounds and coming up one spot short of an NCAA berth.
Sophomore Treyten Steffen took fifth at 197 in his regional debut. Junior Evan Husko was seventh at 133. Senior Jacob Sherzer placed eighth at 174.
Cornell finished eighth out of 18 teams with 51.5 points.
No. 2-seeded Allen (30-10), a 2021 NWCA All-American, opened the day with a tough 3-2 semifinal loss in the first tiebreaker to Loras’ 13th-ranked Gabe Fiser. Allen regrouped to post an 8-1 win over North Central’s Payton Geigner in the consolation semifinals.
Allen faced Coe’s Will Esmoil in the third-place bout for a trip to the NCAA Championships. Allen got caught early in a headlock and lost by fall in 33 seconds.
Allen concluded a fine four-year run with 72 career wins and 43 pins.
Steffen (26-21) won his first match Saturday by injury default and then fell 8-3 in the consolation semifinals to Central’s Gabe Linahon. Steffen secured fifth place with a pin of Coe’s Mathieu Arsenault in 2:13.
Husko (26-18) also ended his season with a win, defeating Luther’s Brier Babin, 5-3, for seventh place. Husko lost 11-2 to Loras’ Aiden Evans in the consolation quarterfinals.
Sherzer (23-16) lost by fall in 6:52 to Millikin’s Dejon Glaster in the seventh-place match. The Ram senior dropped a 6-1 decision in his first bout Saturday.