WHEATON, Illinois -- The Baldwin Wallace University wrestling team finished 13th of 32 teams at the annual Pete Willson-Wheaton (Ill.) College Invitational Tournament.

The Yellow Jackets scored 53 team points and had three wrestlers place. 2nd-ranked University of Wisconsin Whitewater was the overall team champion with 155.5 points.

Leading the way were sophomores Jesse Gunter (Akron/ Coventry) at 125 pounds who finished second, David Shapiro (Beachwood) at 165 pounds placed third, and senior 133-pounder Andrew Taylor (Worthington/ Kilbourne) came in eighth place.

Gunter started the tournament with three pins against his opponents.  The first match was against Matthew Sugai of Knox College who fell in 0:45, then Scott Worlund of the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh fell at the 2:56 mark, and in the quarter-final match Gunter pinned Kyle McNulty of Elizabethtown (Pa.) College at 6:35.  In the semi-final match, he defeated Sean Ambrocio of Concordia University in a 6-4 decision to move on to the final. In the championship match, Gunter was defeated by No.6-ranked Lucas Malmberg of Messiah (Pa.) College in a 6-5 decision. He finished 4-1 for the tournament which improves his record to 21-3 for the season. 

Shapiro was 4-1 in the tournament, making him 28-9 on the season.  He defeated Dylan Lauffer of Manchester University by a 9-3 decision, then defeated Mitchell Fucile of Lakeland College 9-5.  In his next match Shapiro fell at 4:08 to Matthew Tuttle of Alma (Mich.) College.    He went on to pin his next two opponents,  Stephen Aiello of Wheaton College at 2:00 and Tyler Schneider of the University of Wisconsin La Crosse at 4:30.

Taylor finished 3-2 for the tournament to place 8th out of 32 wrestlers in the 133-pound weight class.  He defeated Cole Cochran of Ohio Northern University in a major decision 15-7, then Taylor won in a five minute overtime period against Colin McDermitt of Heidelberg University.  He then was defeated by Joseph Her of University of Wisconsin Parkside in a major decision 15-1.  Taylor bounced back and defeated Daniel Martinez of Alma College in a 8-5 decision, then lost to Martino Balsiger of 14th-ranked University of Wisconsin La Crosse in a 11-6 decision.  Taylor is now 18-13 overall for the season.

The Yellow Jackets are back in action on Tuesday, February 4 when BW hosts OAC-rival Muskingum University in the Rudolph Ursprung Gymnasium in the Lou Higgins Center at 7:30 p.m.  Media and fans are reminded that BW will host the 28th Annual John Summa Memorial Tournament in the Higgins Center Fieldhouse on Saturday, February 8.  Action is scheduled to start at 10:00 a.m.

In addition, the January 28 OAC match at the University of Mount Union that was postponed due to inclement weather has been rescheduled for Saturday, February 15 at 6:00 p.m. in Alliance.

FOR MORE BW SPORTS INFORMATION, please contact Sports Information Director Kevin Ruple by telephone at 440-826-2327 and e-mail at kruple@bw.edu or Assistant SID Jeff Miller by phone at 440-826-2780 and email at jefmille@bw.edu.  Fans can access the latest BW athletics information at www.bwyellowjackets.comand we invite you to join us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bwyellowjackets and Twitter athttp://twitter.com/bwathletics.