After taking a week off for Thanksgiving, the Wayne State College wrestling club was back in action at the Buena Vista Invite in Storm Lake, Iowa.

“We didn’t wrestle too bad,” assistant coach Aaron Schuett said. “We kind of had a slow start to the meet because the first three guys didn’t win a match.”

There were 287 total wrestlers for the meet, which included 24 total teams spanning the NAIA, NCAA Division II and DIII teams.

“Competition was pretty good and the kids competed pretty well, that’s the main thing,” Schuett said. “I always tell the kids believe you can do it, and they compete as hard as you can and they always seem to do that.”

The top performers for Wayne State were Caleb Thomas who went 3-1 and placed 3^rd, and also Gerald Kenkel who went 2-1 with a 4^th place finish.

“Thomas at 165lbs ended up third and lost in the semifinals, ended up losing in overtime so he wrestled well. I thought we competed really well with the competition,” Schuett said.

Spencer Trout, who went 1-2 at the meet, thought that the team also performed well at the Buena Vista Invite.

“As a team I thought we wrestled a lot better,” Trout said. “I think this was probably our best tournament of the year as a team and I think the level of competition was much better.”

The Wildcats will be back in action this weekend when they head down to Crete, Neb., for the Doane Open.