Champions Knox, Abas, Norman lift Stanford to first Ken Kraft Midlands Championships team title

HOFMANN ESTATES, Ill. – Stanford staged a remarkable day two effort on the strength of three individual champions and 10 top-eight finishers to emerge with the program’s first team title in the history of the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships. It’s the 60^th year of the prestigious holiday event.

Collecting the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestler Award was 133-pound champion Tyler Knox, who was the first Stanford athlete of the day to grab a win in the finals. The redshirt freshman finished with a 5-0 record for the weekend, including an impressive 10-3 decision over Rutgers All-American Dylan Shawver in the championship bout.

Knox improved to 14-2 on the season with some major bullets already on his resume. He finished in fifth place at the tough CKLV Invitational and owns a win over NCAA finalist Drake Ayala of Iowa. Now with a Midlands title in tow, he his building momentum for a deep run in March.

Also earning top prize for Stanford were All-American Jaden Abas at 149 pounds and redshirt freshman Lorenzo Norman at 174 pounds.

Abas outlasted Cross Wasilewski of Penn, 10-9, in a finals battle of the top two seeds at 149. He finished with a 5-0 record on the weekend, pushing his season record to 16-4. Abas was third at the CKLV Invitational earlier this year.

Norman was presented the Jack Leese Champion of Champions Award following his decisive run at NOW Arena that culminated with an 11-5 win over No. 1 seed Nick Incontrera of Penn in the finals. Norman’s 5-0 mark at the Midlands increases his season tally to 14-1 with his only loss coming in the CKLV Invitational finals to Oklahoma State’s Dean Hamiti, 4-3. Hamiti was the Midlands champion at 165 pounds last year, as well as the Outstanding Wrestler and Champion of Champions recipient.

Stanford, led by second-year head coach Chris Ayres, was the only program to earn three individual titles, which catapulted them atop the team podium with 157 team points. Rutgers, who held the lead after day one with eight semifinalists, finished in second place with 147 team points. Penn, Indiana and Pittsburgh rounded out the top five teams.

Rutgers grabbed the first champion of the day with Dean Peterson edging Blake West of Northern Illinois, 8-7, at 125 pounds. The Scarlet Knights had three more finalists—Shawver, Joesph Oliveri at 141 pounds and Shane Cartagena-Walsh at 184 pounds—all of whom came in second place.

Reece Heller and Mac Stout gave Pittsburgh a pair of champions in the upper weights. Heller finished his run at 184 pounds with a 9-6 victory over Cartagena-Walsh. Stout took out Gabe Sollars of Indiana, 13-9, in the 197-pound finals. Pittsburgh was the only program outside of Stanford to collect multiple champions.

No. 1 seed CJ Composto of Penn found some Midlands redemption with a 4-1 sudden victory win over Oliveri in the 141-pound championship match. Composto finished as runner-up last season.

Also earning tournament titles were Johnny Lovett of Central Michigan at 157 pounds, Tyler Lillard of Indiana at 165 pounds and Josh Heindselman of Michigan at 285 pounds.

Final results and complete brackets of the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships are available on Trackwrestling.com. Replays of the event are available online with a Big Ten Plus subscription.