Tom Gerszewski (Crystal Lake, IL/Crystal Lake South) captured the 149 pound title, leading four Warhawk place winners, at the Wisconsin Open hosted by UW-Parkside in Kenosha Saturday.

Final Bracket

Gerszewski was joined by teammate Elroy Perkin (Greenfield/Whitnall) in dominating the 149 pound class.  Gerszewski had a first round bye, then pinned Estaban Gonzalez of Triton Community College in 2:59.  He followed that with a 7-6 decision over Ramsey Beard.  Gerszewski edged Nathan Segal of North Central 3-2 in a semifinal.  That set up a match with Warhawk teammate Elroy Perkin (Greenfield/Whitnall), who had advanced through the other half of the bracket with three wins.  Gerszewski topped Perkin 5-3 in the 149 championship match.

Jake Fredrickson went 3-1 after a first round bye to take third place at 141 pounds.  In his second round match, Fredrickson defeated Blake Scanti of Harper Community College 7-5.  He lost to Arik Yde of UW-Parkside 7-5, but came back on the other side of the bracket with a 3-1 defeat of Roy Jones of Kennedy King Community College.  Fredrickson, in a rematch, scored a major decision, 12-2, over Santi for third place.

Justin Birschbach (Fond du Lac/Fond du Lac) lost his opening match at 184, pinned by Josef Rau of Elmhurst, then ran off four consecutive wins.  He beat Felipe Martinez with a pin in 4:03, then decisioned Jacob Berkowitz of Northwestern 6-5.  Next came a 5-2 win over Micah Ballew of Luther, and advancement by medical forfeit, which put Birschbach in the third place match.  Wrestling for the sixth time Saturday, Birschbach lost to Blaine Conner of UW-Parkside by a pin.

Kegan Arthur (Petoskey, MI/Petoskey) joined Birschbach the busiest Whitewater wrestler, also taking to the mat six times Saturday, and coming away with fifth place in the 157 pound class.  His first match was an 8-1 win over Robert Coukos of Northwestern, and in round two he beat Nick DiNardo of Elmhurst 8-4.  Arthur lost a quarterfinal match to Sawyer Hoffman of Minnesota State 3-1 to move to the other side of the bracket.  Arthur came back with two wins, pinning Jake Fox of Luther College in 2:35 and besting DiNardo for a second time by a four point margin, this time 4-0.  He was pinned by Dustin Schultz of Purdue in 1:59, but ended on a high note with a 4-2 win over Blake Olson of North Central in the fifth place match.

UW-Whitewater, ranked tenth in the NWCA Division III poll, will travel to Providence, Rhode Island for the JWU Tournament, December 21. The Warhawks' next home match will take place January 25 with WIAC opponent UW-Eau Claire visiting Williams Center for the annual Alumni Night beginning at 7:00 p.m.

TF/kk