GRANTHAM, PA – Connor Powell placed fourth at 174 and Jake Hoffmann (165) and Samuel Gledhill (184) added fifth-place finishes to lead the way for the Johns Hopkins wrestling team at the season-opening Messiah Invitational on Saturday.  The Blue Jays, who had entries in only eight of the 10 weight classes, placed eighth in the nine-team tournament with 58.5 points.
 
Host Messiah won the team title with 162.5 points to edge Washington & Lee (161).  Ursinus (121), Elizabethtown (115) and McDaniel (110) rounded out the top five in the final team standings.
 
Powell went 3-2 on the day with a pair of wins by major decision and another by decision to secure his fourth-place finish.  After an opening-round bye, he topped Kenneth Moore of McDaniel, 11-2, and added a 4-1 win over Jacob Speed of Elizabethtown in the quarterfinals.  He then fell in the semifinals before bouncing back with an 18-2 win over Brockport's Kiam Coleman in the consolation semifinal before falling to Gavin McLaughin of Brockport in the third-place match.
 
Hoffmann also advanced to the semifinals as he won his first three matches, including two by technical fall.  He fell to eventual champion Keegan Demarest (Messiah) in the semifinals and Liberty's Drake Bowers in the consolation semifinal before winning the fifth-place match by medical forfeit.
 
Gledhill matched the best finish of his career with his fifth-place showing today as he also finished fifth at the Shenandoah Invitational as freshman last season.  Today, he went 4-2 to earn his fifth-place finish.  After an opening-round bye and a loss to Messiah's Ryder Slayton, the eventual runner-up, Gledhill went to work in the consolation bracket as he scored back-to-back pins against Tucker Bellanca (W&L) and E Abram (Ursinus) before scoring a decision over teammate Noah Graber.  He then fell to Tim Eddinger of Messiah in the consolation semifinals before ending his day with a 5-1 win over Wheaton's Sean King.
 
In addition to the three place-winners, the Blue Jays had several other notable performances:
 
• Freshman Duncan Stadler (125) won twice by fall and went 2-2 in his first collegiate action.
• Freshman Giorgio Difalco (141) won three of his five matches with one technical fall to his credit.
• Graduate student Chris Roybal (165) won his first two matches with wins by fall and major decision before being forced to medically withdraw.
• Nicholas Hwang (165) went 3-2 on the day with a first-period pin and two wins by decision to his credit.
• Noah O'Connor (165) scored a pair of bonus-point victories as he picked up wins by fall and major decision and finished 2-2 on the day.
• Kadin Khalloufi (174) matched Gledhill's four wins on the day as he went 4-2.  He picked up three bonus-point wins with a pin, technical fall and major decision to his credit.
• Colin Finney (197) got his career off to a solid start as he went 2-2 on the day with wins by technical fall and major decision.
 
In all, Johns Hopkins collected 12 pins and five technical falls on the day.
 
What's Next
The Blue Jays will return to action on Saturday, November 9, when they travel to Ursinus to participate in the Racich Rumble.