STEVENS POINT, Wis. – Ben Vosters (Hatley, WI/Wittenberg-Birnamwood) was the champion at 125 pounds to lead the No. 23 UW-Stevens Point wrestling team to third in the six-team field at the 2016 Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (WIAC) Championship on Sunday at Quandt Fieldhouse.

Brackets – 125 | 133 | 141 | 149 | 157 | 165 | 174 | 184 | 197 | 285
Place Winners
Team Scores

In a four-wrestler bracket at 125 pounds, Vosters needed only two victories to earn the title. The sophomore won his semifinal by 12-4 over UW-Eau Claire's Zackary Sirny. In the championship match, Vosters earned a narrow 3-2 decision against UW-Whitewater's Zac Denny to become UW-Stevens Point's second 125-pound champion going back to 1999 and the first since Jake Calhoun in 2007.

Logan Hermsen (Amherst Junction, WI/Amherst) finished as the runner-up at 165 pounds, falling 10-3 in the championship match to ninth-ranked Tom Gerszewski of UW-Whitewater. Following a bye, the junior won by technical fall over Lance Arendt of UW-Oshkosh and pinned UW-Whitewater's Nate Mlodzik at 2:01 to advance to the title match.

Dan Squires (Muskego, WI/Wisconsin Lutheran) finished second at 174 pounds, going down by major decision 10-0 to UW-La Crosse's fourth-ranked Tyler Schneider in the championship match. The sophomore advanced to the title match with a technical fall versus UW-Platteville's Jacob Carpenter, a 14-8 decision over Sean O'Neil of UW-La Crosse and a 5-3 win in the first tiebreaker against Connor Price of UW-Whitewater in the semifinals.

Jared Kust (Shawano, WI/Shawano) placed third at 141 pounds after going 3-1 on the day. After a bye, the senior picked up a 6-5 decision over Grant Sutton of UW-La Crosse before falling in the second overtime to No. 7-ranked Matt Adcock of UW-Whitewater in the semifinals. He rebounded by pinning UW-Oshkosh's Craig Mason and went on to earn another 6-5 decision over Sutton in the third-place match.

At 149 pounds, Joe Crook (Spring Green, WI/River Valley) bounced back from losing his first-round match to finish third. The sophomore picked up three pins and a technical fall, including pinning UW-La Crosse's Mason Geary at 4:56 of the third-place match. Crook also won via technical fall over UW-Platteville's Mason Bohm, who defeated Crook in the first round, on his way to third.

Cody Nielsen (Oconto Falls, WI/Oconto Falls) won his third-place match at 184 pounds by pinning UW-La Crosse's Austin Cook after 5:00. After receiving a first-round bye, the sophomore recorded an 18-12 decision over Cook before falling 9-5 to UW-Whitewater's Nicholas Bonomo. Nielsen proceeded to pin Christian Dischler of UW-Whitewater at 4:00 to advance to the third-place match.

At heavyweight, Donny Ralston (Ladysmith, WI/Bruce) suffered a slender 3-2 loss by decision to UW-Eau Claire's Justin Karkula in the third-place match to finish fourth. Ralston recorded a 4-1 decision over UW-Whitewater's Jordan Festge and pinned UW-Oshkosh's Lee Friedl at 1:24 before losing 3-2 to eventual champion Clay Broze 3-2. He rebounded with a 6-3 decision over UW-Oshkosh's Elijah Burdick to get to the third-place match.

Jaden Boivin (Marinette, WI/Marinette) placed fifth at 157 pounds, winning the fifth-place match via injury. After losing his first match to eventual champion Brandon Arteaga of UW-Whitewater, the sophomore tallied a pin and an 8-1 decision over UW-Eau Claire's Carter  Focht, before being pinned by Michael Murnane of UW-La Crosse.

As a team, UW-Stevens Point finished third for the fifth consecutive year with 119.5 points. UW-Whitewater won the event with 161.5 points, followed by UW-La Crosse with 156.0.

Following the meet, Squires was named to the WIAC All-Sportsmanship Team and Kust was honored as the Max Sparger Scholar-Athlete.

Next up for the Pointers is a dual against seventh-ranked Augsburg in Minneapolis, Minn. at 7 p.m. on Friday, Feb. 19.