No. 26 Wrestling finishes seventh of 16 at Citrus Duals in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

By: Tim Glon

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — Junior two-time All-American Kyle Kwiat won the 174-pound weight class title, leading No. 26-ranked Ohio Northern to a seventh place finish at the Citrus Open wrestling tournament Thursday and Friday.

The Polar Bears finished with 103 points to finish seventh out of 16 teams.

Upper Iowa won the team title with 159 points, No. 7 Augsburg (Minn.) was second with 149.5, No. 5 Cornell (Iowa) was third with 124.5 and No. 6 St. John's (Minn.) was fourth with 115.5.

Kwiat, ranked No. 2 in the country and the top seed in the tournament, won his weight class with a perfect 5-0 record. He posted two pins, a tech fall and a major decision to improve his record to 16-0 on the season.

Senior Mick Letcher placed second at 157 pounds with a 3-1 record. He had two pins and a tech fall and is now 10-3 on the season.

Senior Billy Painter, who is ranked No. 5 nationally at 165 pounds, finished fourth in that weight class with a 5-2 record. painter had a tech fall and a major decision and improves to 13-5 on the year.

Freshman Cody Lovejoy and sophomore Michael Pawlitz also placed for Ohio Northern.

Lovejoy was sixth in the heavyweight division with a 2-3 record and is now 10-6 on the season and Pawlitz placed sevenh at 197 pounds with a 3-2 mark and is now 15-3 in 2011-12.

The Polar Bears will return to action Jan. 10 with an Ohio Athletic Conference dual meet with Baldwin-Wallace at the ONU Sports Center.