The UW Oshkosh wrestling team crowned two champions and placed fourth among 13 teams at the Milwaukee School of Engineering Wrestling Invitational held on Saturday.

UW Oshkosh compiled 93 points to earn its fourth-place finish in the team standings while Central College (Iowa) tallied 163.5 points to successfully defend its team title.

Senior Mark Choinski and freshman Beau Yineman wrestled their way to the top of their respective weight classes at the weekend contest.
Choinski, who won the 157-pound title at last year’s tournament, ousted all four of his opponents to earn the 165-pound title, while Yineman was award the 197-pound crown with an overall score of 11-1.

Choinski, a two-time NCAA Division III All-American, pinned his first two matches of the night in under four minutes apiece. The West Allis native went on to record a 14-3 victory over Connor Hanson of UW-Eau Claire before edging Jeremy Vester of Central College 9-6 in the title championship.
Choinski remains undefeated on the season as he leads UWO with a 9-0 individual record.

Yineman opened his night with a dominating 15-1 performance over MSOE’s Ryan Snyder. Yineman then tallied victories of 10-6 over Hannibal-LaGrange University’s (Mo.) Drew McCollum and 5-2 over Central College’s Gavin Babcock.

In his final bout of the night, Yineman won by a decision of 7-4 over North Central College’s (Ill.) Tyler Vittal in the title match.
Other place winners for the Titans included a pair of third-place finishers in freshman AJ Schoenfuss at 125 pounds and sophomore Wesam Alabed at 141.
Schoenfuss compiled a 3-1 record on the night, including a tight bout in his 9-5 victory over UW-Platteville’s Issac Wiegel for third place.
Schoenfuss, who leads the Titans with an astounding seven pins this season, sandwiched a pair of pins around a 4-2 overtime loss to North Central College’s Ian Mullen.

Alabed won five of his six matchups with his final victory being a 7-6 result over North Central College’s Marc Fleenor in the division’s third-place match. His only loss of the night came from a 13-9 decision to Central College’s Dan Radcliffe in the opening bout.

Despite the loss, Alabed commanded his way to four consecutive wins of 20-1 over Hannibal-LaGrange University’s Kyle Allen, 15-0 over UW-Eau Claire’s Hunter Pierce, 17-5 over UW-Oshkosh’s Zak Nelson and 7-6 over UW-Platteville’s Chase Kastenmeyer.

Placing fourth for the Titans were Colten Cashmore at 184 pounds and Ben Kitslaar at 197.

Cashmore chipped in 12.5 team points with his fourth-place finish and 4-2 record overall. The Titans’ junior pinned his first opponent in 8:51 before being dealt a 11-2 loss to University of Chicago’s (Ill.) Nick Ferraro.

Cashmore responded to his loss with three straight victories of a 6-2 tiebreaker over Millikin University’s (Ill.) Arnold Fox, 5-3 over MSOE’s Helston Vandenbush and 4-3 over Elmhurst College’s Mark Miller.

Sophomore Kitslaar won his first two bouts of the night with pins in 30 seconds and 1:30 before losing by a pin in 4:17 to North Central College’s Vittal. Kitslaar then forced Hannibal-La Grange University’s McCollum to tap out in 2:04 before being defeated by Central College’s Babcock in the division’s third-place contest.

Head coach Efrain Ayala said his roster came to compete at the Saturday invite.
“This weekend was definitely a confidence booster for many of our young guys,” said Ayala. “They stepped out on the mat against ranked opponents and held their own.”

UW Oshkosh’s remaining place winner was senior Corey Knudsen, who finished sixth in the 149-pound weight class with a 3-3 record overall. Following an opening 6-0 loss to University of Chicago’s Maguire Pecci, Knudsen complied back-to-back wins of 9-4 over Millikin University’s Jesse Ellis and 7-1 over UW-Platteville’s Alexander Strueder.

Knudsen went on to edge UW-Platteville’s Trevor Harsh in 7-6 bout, but the Titans senior closed the night with consecutive losses to Pecci by pin and North Central College’s Anthony Rink by an 18-2 decision in the fifth-place bout.

Choinski said the weekend invite gave the Titans the drive they needed heading into their next conference dual against UW-Whitewater on Thursday in Kolf Sports Center.

“The MSOE Invite hosted some really tough wrestlers that made us compete,” Choinski. “This tournament gave us some momentum to get ready for the Whitewater dual.”

Cashmore backed Choinski and said the tournament hosted similar competition to the Warhawks roster.
“There was a lot of high quality matches and wrestlers at MSOE and that is something that UW-Whitewater brings to the table,” Cashmore said. “All of the matches [in the Warhawk dual] will be hard fought just like this past weekend.”

The Titans will host the Warhawks in their third WIAC dual meet of the season on Thursday at 7 p.m.
Ayala said UWO should expect big things from the Titans moving forward.

“Every day we are better than yesterday,” Ayala said. “This group of men continue to rise up and bring their best each day. This is an exciting year!”