UNI Wrestler Josh Alber Battles for Midlands Title

UNI Wrestler Josh Alber Battles for Midlands Title

12/29/2015 9:45:00 PM | Wrestling

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UNI Wrestling at 53^rd annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships

(12/29/2015) 2015 Midlands Championships

Welsh-Ryan Arena – Evanston, Illinois

Noon Dec. 30 – third session (semifinals, consolation, 7th-place matches)
8 p.m. Dec. 30 – final session (1st-, 3rd-, 5th-place matches)

Live stats (Trackwrestling)
Video: Stream information for Day 2
Watch the finals on Big Ten Network

EVANSTON, Ill. – Josh Alber will be competing for a Midlands Championships title at 133 pounds when wrestling resumes tomorrow at noon.

Five more Panthers are still in the hunt for a third-place finish:

149 pounds – Max Thomsen
157 pounds – Bryce Steiert
174 pounds – Jacob Holschlag and Taylor Lujan
285 pounds – Blaize Cabell

Alber, seeded sixth, posted a major decision in his first round this morning and grabbed two more decisions before the day ended. He will face No. 20 Anthony Giraldo of Rutgers in the semifinals. Alber beat Giraldo 3-1 at the Journeymen/Asics Northeast Duals mid-November.

Two unranked freshmen knocked off top-20 opponents in the first round of action this morning. Steiert, the first true freshman to start for the Panthers since 2010, beat No. 18 Tyler Berger of Wisconsin in addition to notching a major decision win over Cole Walter of Lehigh.

No. 12 seed Steiert remains unranked by Intermat but has beaten No. 12 Dylan Cottrell of West Virginia and then-ranked No. 17 Eleazar DeLuca of Northern Colorado. He was pushed into the consolation round with a 3-1 loss in sudden victory to No. 11 John Boyle of American University.

Freshman Holschlag is wrestling unattached and was set to redshirt this season. He knocked off No. 16 Matt Reed of Oklahoma in a 5-2 decision. Reed earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament after taking third at the Big 12 Championships last season. Holschlag fell in a 9-5 decision to #13 Jonathan Schleifer of Princeton.

No. 6 seed Lujan also was expected to redshirt this season for the Panthers. He notched a tech fall and major decision in the first session today wrestling unattached. He lost 6-5 to No. 12 Micah Barnes of Nebraska to be bumped into the consolation round.

Thomsen took a blow early in the tournament when he was edged out by riding time. No. 3 Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern racked up more than two minutes of riding time to go up 4-3. Tsirtsis is a two-time All-American, winning as a redshirt freshman and taking third last year.

BUMPED
No. 12 Cooper Moore was seeded fifth and started strong with a tech fall. However, injury forced him to end his second match early and medically forfeit the remainder of his matches.
Senior Trevor Jauch was seeded eighth and notched two pins before elimination.

TEAM STANDINGS
The Panthers were sitting in the top 10 at the end of the first day. They took fifth in 2013, the highest finish from UNI since 1974.
Team scores:

1.	Iowa	96.0
2.	Nebraska	78.0
3.	Rutgers	56.5
4.	North Carolina State	49.5
5.	Northwestern	42.5
6.	Oregon State	42.0
7.	Princeton	40.5
8.	Iowa State	38.5
9.	Northern Iowa	38.0
10.	Oklahoma	37.5