WICHITA, Kan.- It was a successful weekend for the No. 10 Ouachita Tiger wrestling team, as they returned from Wichita, Kansas with two champions, a pair of runner-ups and a third place finisher at the Jet Invitational to go along with their third place finish among the 10 universities in attendance.
 
Head Coach Kevin Ward seemed pleased with his team's performance, saying, “I thought we wrestled probably the best we have all year as a team.  We were without one of our leaders with returning All-American Garrett Evans out, but were still able to score over 70 team points.”
 
Josh Myers captured the championship in the 141 lb division, posting a 3-0 record during competition. He kicked off the day with a victory by fall, which he followed with decision victories of 14-0 and 3-2.
 
The Tigers' other champion was Dallas Smith, who won the 184 lb division with a 3-0 record, including a 12-0 decision in his first match, a win by fall in his second match and a 3-0 victory in the finals against Tanner Keck of the University of Central Oklahoma.
 
Smith and Myers both defeated opponents who entered the tournament ranked higher than them nationally.
 
Anthony Melillo finished as a runner-up in the 133 lb weight class, finishing the day with a record of 2-1. He captured decision victories of 8-5 and 5-3 in his first two matches before dropping the finals by technical fall to Casy Rowell of UCO.
 
Bobby Williams also finished the day as a runner-up in the 157 lb division, finishing 3-1 on the day. He recorded a win by fall in his first match, which he followed with decision victories by scores of 6-4 and 10-0. In the finals, Williams lost a nail-biter, falling by a score of 2-1 to Derek Koehn of Fort Hays State University.
 
Last but not least, Ouachita's Aaron Butler finished the day with a third place finish, finishing 3-1 on the day in the 174 lb weight class. Butler took his first match of the day by a score of 8-0 before falling by a score of 6-2. In the consolation bracket, he swept his last two matches by scores of 9-5 and 6-4.
 
Coach Ward thinks that the Invitational provided a bit of momentum to the team, saying, “As a team I think finished the semester with a lot to build on.  We have wrestled a very tough schedule, and next semester will be no different, so we needed to prove to ourselves we could finish strong after some very tough competitions the past few weeks.”
 
The Tigers will return to action on January 8, when they travel to Warrensburg, Missouri for duals against Central Missouri, Fort Hays and Ashland State.
 
-Josh Fink, Sports Information Director