Bechtold Earns Spot on U20 National Team; Takats and Wirnsberger Place at U23 Nationals

LEWISBURG, Pa. — Dillon Bechtold highlighted the Bison this weekend earning a spot on the U20 US National Team after placing second at the U20 Freestyle World Team Trials at 92 kg. Myles Takats (79 kg) and Cade Wirnsberger (70 kg) also saw successful weekends as both were named All-Americans for U23 Freestyle Nationals with Takats placing third and Wirnsberger placing seventh in their weight classes.

Bechtold was the sole Bison competing at the U20 World Team Trials and earned a first round bye before having to step on the mat. In the semi-final round of the challenge tournament competition, Bechtold defeated Ohio State's Sonny Sasso by a 7-3 decision. He then had to take on Cody Merrill of Oklahoma State. Bechtold ended up defeating Merrill by a 5-3 decision thanks to a take-down in the final three seconds of the match putting him in the best-of-three finals and earning him a national team spot. Bechtold would end up dropping the best-of-three finals to Connor Mirrasola of Penn State to end his run.

Takats had a strong start to his U23 Nationals competition winning his first three matches all by tech fall before facing Arizona State's second seeded Nicco Ruiz and falling by an 8-0 decision. Takats was able to make a comeback in the consolation bracket winning six matches in a row including a 10-6 decision over fourth seeded Ethan Riddle, who recently took seventh at the senior open a few weeks ago, to earn himself third place.

Another highlight of the weekend from the Bison came from Wirnsbereger who competed at 70 kg in the U23 Freestyle Nationals and earned seventh place after dropping his first match. Wirnsberger lost his first round match to Cornell's Ethan Fernandez by a narrow 6-4 decision and then won eight matches in a row in the consolation bracket to put himself into the seventh place match with Connor Pierce, whom he defeated by a 4-2 decision.

The Bison also had several other wrestlers compete in the U23 Freestyle Nationals alongside Takats and Wirnsberger. Aiden Davis went 3-2 overall at 70 kg, making it to the fourth consolation round before being knocked out. Dylan Chappell (65 kg), Kaden Schaefer (70 kg) and Sean Walker (74 kg) each fell in the third round of consolation in their respective weight classes and along the way Chappell picked up a tech fall win over Jonathan Tanguma and Schaefer went 2-2. Logan Shephard (125 kg) and Riley Bower (74 kg) both fell in consolation round six with Shephard going 3-2 highlighted by a tech fall win over fourth seeded Chase Horne and R. Bower going 2-2 with a tech fall win over Kristian Blake from Indiana Tech. Braden Bower rounded out the bunch as he was knocked out in the second consolation round after winning his first match by tech fall over Gavin Jensen.