Leavenworth, Kan.--Spire wrestling hosted the Graceland University Yellow jackets on Thursday, November 6^th in the Ryan Sports Center in Leavenworth. The dual came down to the final heavyweight match, however the Yellow jackets prevailed victorious over the Spires with a final score of 19-24.

USM women's wrestling only had one match, with freshman Faith James being the lone Spire and dropping her match to the Yellow jackets in the 138-weight class.

CJ Anderson started USM off in the 125-weight class against GU's Christian Trujillo-Quintana. Anderson opened strong, but Trujillo-Quintana proved too much and CJ fell to GU early in the second period.

The next two Spire wrestlers would put USM in the win column with Roman DeLaCruz (133-weight class) and Bobby Burke (141-weight class) were dominant in their match-ups winning by decision 16-4 and 10-4, respectively.

Ryan Buccat at 149 lost a tight one at 7-8 while fellow Spire teammates Josey Jernegan (152) and Michael Ager (174) boosted USM both with wins, however freshman Graham Kilpper and sophomore Luke Hancock would face tough matches in the 165 and 184-weight class and both be pinned and give the Yellow jackets a chance to prevail. It all came down to the heavyweight match between Devin Lolar and GU's Varela battled tensely into the third period, with Varela finally coming out on top 0-3 and securing the Yellow jackets nail biter of a win at 24-19.

Your Spire wrestling teams will regroup as they hit the road with the men at the Grand View Open on Saturday, November 15^th in Des Moines, Iowa and the women facing off in the Ottawa Open this Saturday, November 8^th in Ottawa, Kansas with matches set to begin at 9:00 a.m.