Butch McCartney

One day after losing a dual meet to UW-Whitewater, the Eau Claire wrestling team had an important tune up for the WIAC championship Saturday with the 24th annual UWEC Invitational.

Top-ranked Augsburg College (Minn.) and Concordia College (Minn.) joined seven WIAC schools in the invite.

No. 25 UW-Stevens Point won the invite after sending six wrestlers to the championship round.

The Blugolds finished fifth overall, behind Augsburg, No. 3 UW-La Crosse, and UW-Oshkosh, despite not sending anybody in the 141-pound weight class.

Eau Claire was led by junior Davey Starks and sophomores Troy Seubert and Nick Campbell, who each finished second in their weight class.

In the 125-pound weight class, Starks, ranked eighth nationally, faced Augsburg’s Darin Bertram in the final.

Bertram entered Saturday’s competition as the top-ranked wrestler in the nation in his weight class, and had beaten Starks 3-0 in a match earlier this year.

The championship match Saturday was scoreless after the first period, but Bertram outscored Starks 4-2 in the second and held on for a 4-3 victory.

Coach Don Parker said he was pleasantly surprised with the way Starks wrestled against Bertram.

“He is the defending national champion, and Davey wrestled him well,” Parker said. “That was a good confidence builder.”

Seubert, wrestling at 174 pounds, lost to Whitewater’s Jeff Zastrow for the second day in a row on Saturday, losing the championship match 8-3 after falling 17-8 Friday in Eau Claire’s 25-15 loss to the Warhawk.

Campbell, competing in place of injured junior Adam Kolo, was pinned by UW-Stevens Point’s Yan White in the final at 197 pounds.

White entered the meet ranked fifth nationally in his weight class.

With the conference championship coming up on the 17th, the Blugolds saw this as a good opportunity to see what kind of team they are.

“This pretty much was the conference championship, with all the teams that were here,” Starks said. “You really find out where you are in a meet like this.”

Parker said this was pretty close to a preview of the conference championship, but mentioned that Eau Claire wasn’t the only team that was shorthanded.

“There were a lot of teams that didn’t have their top guys,” he said. “Whitewater and Platteville didn’t send everybody, and La Crosse sent basically their second unit.”

The final tuneup for the Blugolds before the conference championship will be a dual meet against Stevens Point on Saturday.