Vikings' Ewart medals at UCM

WARRENSBURG -- Heavyweight Travis Ewart captured the lone medal for the Missouri Valley College men's wrestling team Sunday at the power-packed University of Central Missouri Open in Warrensburg.

The sophomore from Riverside, Calif., unranked in the NAIA preseason poll, came back to avenge a 4-3 overtime loss in the quarterfinal round by beating Truman State's Loyde Braidlow in the fifth-place match, 3-1.

Ewart won two other bouts by decision and another with a first-period pin.

The Vikings only held out one of its ranked wrestlers -- junior all-America Brian Graham, No. 2 at 149 pounds -- but seemed to run into foes from NCAA Division I powers at critical moments. Valley lost eight bouts to Oklahoma and five more to Oklahoma State, which had 13 finalists, eight of them winning titles.

Second-rated senior Billy Exline (125 pounds), banged up last week at the season-opening Lindenwood meet, won two of his first three matches before being eliminated by a Sooner grappler. Senior Jon Gerhold, No. 6 at 133, beat his first two foes before being knocked to the back side by second-ranked Wade Lowe of McKendree (Ill.), then was stopped by another Bearcat.

Junior Eric Graham, the third-rated 141-pounder, also got through his first two rounds unscathed before being disposed of by Oklahoma. A Mizzou opponent did the same to red-shirt freshman Brandon Perkins (141) after a pair of Valley wins.

The Vikings' remaining ranked wrestler, No. 8 sophomore Charlie Gibbs (197) of Moberly, was defeated in his second bout by unrated McKendree entry Chas Maloch and didn't get any traction in the wrestleback.

Besides Ewart, Graham and Perkins, freshman Jacob Guernsey (165) of Joplin had the most wins with the Vikings with three. A pair of freshman heavyweights -- Michael Johnson and Mark Skogrand -- each won twice, but were both eliminated by the same Oklahoma wrestler, Johnson in a 5-4 overtime tilt.

Also winning twice for Valley were sophomore Jesse Hulett (141) and freshmen Gian Travarso (165) and Jake Warner (165). Of the 32 Vikings in the field, 23 had at least one win -- with freshmen Jesse Knott (133), Matt Taylor (174) and James Alter (197) opening the meet with victories.

The Vikings are likely to encounter the same level of competition, if not higher, Sunday when they go to Columbia for the Mizzou Open.