The UW-Eau Claire wrestling team split a pair of WIAC dual meets Saturday, losing to nationally ranked UW-La Crosse 40-3 but bouncing back to topple UW-Whitewater 24-15.

Sophomore Davey Starks was the only Blugold to win both of his matches as he posted a 5-4 decision over La Crosse’s Nick Mueller and a technical fall over Whitewater’s Sean Michaels. The pair of wins improves Starks’ season to 17-8.

Junior Travis Buchholz, senior Ben Podoll and sophomore Adam Kolo all wrestled in close matches against La Crosse. Each of them lost in two-point decisions.

“I thought we wrestled very good in both matches,” said head coach Don Parker. “When you wrestle La Crosse, you’re competing with some of the top kids in the nation.”

La Crosse is ranked No. 2 in the nation and Whitewater sits at No. 24.

“You can only get better when you’re wrestling the best,” Parker said. “I think La Crosse has a good enough team to be national champs.”

Wrestling in the 184-pound weight class, Kolo took the defending national champion to overtime before losing in a two-point decision, 6-4. Kolo pushed his team-high fall count to 12 and his season record to 17-6.

“He wrestled his best match of the season by far,” Starks said. “The rest of us didn’t look as good as we wanted against La Crosse.”

Against Whitewater, Kolo pinned Nate Anderson in one minute and 51 seconds. Senior heavyweight Pete Peterson decisioned Whitewater’s Dave Berglund 6-0.

“Adam had a big pin for points,” Parker said. “Peter’s decision really sewed it up for us.”

Buchholz earned a major decision wrestling at the 165-pound weight class while senior Jake Cimino and freshman Jon Watson earned decisions at 149 and 157, respectively.

The ‘Golds are 5-4 overall and 2-2 in WIAC duals. La Crosse improved its season record to 24-1 and its WIAC record to 5-0. Whitewater stands at 6-6-1 on the season and 2-2-1 in the WIAC.

The Blugold wrestlers will have their work cut out for them against defending national champion Augsburg College (Minn.) in the annual UW-Eau Claire Invitational. Augsburg is ranked No. 1 in the nation.

The meet will be held at 9 a.m. Saturday in McPhee.