ROANOKE, Va. – Nine Campbell wrestlers placed Saturday at the Hokie Open inside the Berglund Center.
Wrestling at 133 pounds in the open bracket, Gonser advanced through the first three rounds with winning decisions over competitors from NC State, Campbellsville and Virginia Tech. He fell to the day's runner-up, Codi Russell of Appalachian State, before defeating UNC's Zach Shermon in a 2-1 decision to finish third.
In the freshman/sophomore bracket, Hopkins, who wrestled unattached at 174, advanced through the first two rounds on back-to-back pins, first over Mylse Williams of Emmanuel College (2:14) and the second over Cooper Youngblood of The Citadel (1:44).
The freshman followed those performances with a 2-1 decision over Indiana's Dillon Hoey before picking up another pin, this time of West Virginia's Josh Ramirez (2:37). A 14-3 loss to NC State's Trent Hidlay gave Hopkins his second-place finish.
Josh Heil placed fourth for the Camels at 149 in the open bracket, dropping a 13-2 decision in the third place match to Austin O'Connor of UNC. The Brunswick, Ohio, native opened his day with an 18-0 technical fall over Anthony DeMartino of Duke.
At 174 in the open bracket, Andrew Morgan also finished fourth. The redshirt junior defeated UNC's Elijah Kerr-Brown, 3-2, to start the tournament, then fell to Duke's Matthew Finesilver, 8-2. Morgan added a 5-2 win over Neal Richards of VMI before succumbing to UNC's Clay Lautt, 12-4.
All Campbell Placers at the Hokie Open:
Open Division
133: Noah Gonser, 3rd
149: Josh Heil, 4th
157: Zach Barnes, 6th (unattached)
174: Andrew Morgan, 4th
174: Quentin Perez, 5th (unattached)
184: Chris Kober, 6th
Freshman/Sophomore Division
149: Devin Rivet, 4th (unattached)
157: Allen Swanson, 4th (unattached)
174: Caleb Hopkins, 2nd (unattached)
The Camels will return to Buies Creek on Nov. 10 to host Ohio for a 1 p.m. start.
