Hawks Wrestle at Coe College Invite

Henderson, Bellis, and Santi all had strong showings at the Coe College Invite. (Jim Cummins)

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa. – While the Harper College wrestling team did not win any individual titles at the Coe College Turkey Invite on Saturday, they had some strong performances. Greshman Henderson (/Lake Zurich)took second place at 141 pounds while Jacob Bellis (/Bloomington) (125 pounds) and Blake Santi (Roselle, Ill./Lake Park) (149 pounds) each earned third place finishes.

After a first round bye, Henderson topped Cornell's Zach Becicka 6-0 to advance. In his quarterfinal match, he edged Grandview's Derek Miller 9-7. In the semis, Henderson won a thrilling 10-8 overtime match over Coe's Blair Kerkhoff to reach the final. Facing off against Coe's Beau Westpfahl, Henderson lost by injury default and settled for a second place finish.

Bellis began his day with a bye before beating Coe's Jan Rosenburg by fall in his first match. Bellis lost in the semis 14-5 to Coe's Tyler Endres but rebounded nicely with a third place match victory over Rosenburg by fall again.

Santi started his day with a 17-1 technical fall victory over Coe's Jacob Smith. In the semis, Santi was beaten 5-3 by Northern Iowa's Nosomy Pozo. Santi bounced back with a victory over teammate Jonathan Denikas (/Antioch) and took third place with a 16-1 technical fall victory over Missouri Baptist's Espen Conley.

Cody Brandle (Carol Stream, Ill./Glenbard North) (133 pounds), Kyle Bridgeman (/AFC) (184 pounds) and Daniel Draski (/Willowbrook) (197 pounds) each had 2-2 records on the day for fourth place finishes in their respective weight classes.