Ashland University's wrestling program honored its senior class on Friday (Jan. 17) night with a 30-17 win over Mount Union, the No. 5 program in Division III.
All three seniors – Chandler Minnard, Christian Price and Bret Romanzak - won their final career matches in Kates Gymnasium.
"Their stats and accomplishments are impressive, but with seniors there is always more than that," said Ashland head wrestling coach Josh Hutchens. "They've been the leaders of this program for three years. The three of them to go out like that was great."
Minnard won a thriller for Ashland at 141. The senior was trailing with less than a minute left in the third as defending Division III national champion, Jordin James, attempted to ride Minnard out for the win. Minnard snuck a reversal and turned it into a very advantageous position, as he pinned James to win.
"James is really tough, we know that," said Hutchens. "On bottom, he's riding him and Chandler has some special shoulders, and so he baited him a little bit there and popped him over to his back."
Price was dominant in his win, a clinical 15-0 tech fall at 165. Romanzak wrestled a similar match to Price, as he earned a 12-0 major decision at 174.
Junior Carson Speelman controlled most of his bout at 141 and got a late takedown to earn a 4-1 win against Luke Hernandez.
"We knew they had some tough guys in there, the 149 was a returning All-American and we knew that was going to be a close match. It came down to one big takedown to seal it," said Hutchens.
Junior Cameron Jenkins had three takedowns in the first period of his match at 157 and another in the second period before his opponent had to forfeit due to injury.
Junior Aidan Pasiuk had to battle until the end of his match to earn the win at 184. Pasiuk had takedowns in the first and second period and had to stave off a late burst by George Lassnick to win the match.
Redshirt sophomore Peter Abraham won 6-0 for AU at 197. Abraham worked diligently defensively and picked his spots on offense, securing takedowns in the second and third periods.
The Eagles will be back on the road after a long homestand. Ashland's next matchup will come at Urbana on Wednesday (Jan. 22) at 7 p.m.
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