Duals Preview:
A set of duals at a tri-meet in St. Louis with a pair of NAIA schools in St. Louis is how the Westminster Blue Jays kicked off the 2024-25 season. They would face-off against St. Ambrose University (Iowa) and the host school, Missouri Baptist University. Westminster entered the season with two pre-season ranked wrestlers. Junior Michael Roberts (#10 at 165 lbs.) and Sophomore Austen Wetzel (#30 @ 184 lbs). Their opponents would also have several early season ranked wrestlers featured in their lineup. St. Ambrose has 3 ranked wrestlers at the NAIA level, while Missouri Baptist boasts 5 ranked wrestlers in those same set of rankings. Last season Westminster finished 3rd in the SLIAC Conference tournament and had a season dual record that was just under .500 at 6-7.
Photo Gallery – Photos by Scott Roberts
Recap:
The Blue Jays had the luxury of waiting a full round of wrestling before having to compete against St. Ambrose in round 2. The dual would start off at 133 lbs. And Henry Warfel would get Westminster off to a solid start with a bonus point victory and give the Blue Jays an early 4-0 lead. However, St. Ambrose would do plenty of scoring of their own as they would score 3 bonus point victories in a row (from 141-157 lbs) to take a ten point lead (14-4) entering the 165 lb. match and Michael Roberts.
From 165 lbs-197 lbs. The Blue Jays mounted a comeback on the scoreboard and would secure 4 straight victories (3 of them bonus point wins; 2 pins and a major) to take the lead back heading into the last two matches of the dual and a lead by the score of 23-14. However, at heavyweight, Michael Carpenter gave up a quick takedown and pinned early on in the first period. St. Ambrose would take the last match of the dual by forfeit and the dual win by a score of 26-23.
In the final dual of the day, the Westminster Blue Jays would face the home team and the home crowd of the Missouri Baptist University Spartans. The Spartans started off strong with two bonus point wins (1 tech fall and 1 pin) at 141 lbs and 149 lbs. Westminster got on the scoreboard with a barn burner of a match where the two wrestlers scored a combined 22 points, with JT Roberts (Westminster) coming out on top by a score of 12-10.
