June 4, 2012

AKRON, Ohio - Utah Valley University grappler Adam Fager led a group of nine Wolverine wrestlers that participated at the 2012 ASICS University Nationals this past weekend by placing sixth in the 96 kg Freestyle championship that was held in Akron, Ohio.

Fager started his placement run by winning his first four bouts to pit him into the semis against Dustin Kilgore, the reigning National Champion from Kent State. After falling to Kilgore, the Wolverine redshirt sophomore then won the first period over Minnesota's Scott Schiller in the consolation semifinal but Schiller bounced back and won the next two periods to take the match. Fager then finished sixth by falling to 2012 All-American Micah Burak from Penn in the fifth-place bout.

"It was great for our guys to have a chance to wrestle against this level of competition at this tournament, which included national champions and All-Americans" UVU head coach Greg Williams said. "It was a good tournament for Adam. It's exciting that he placed at this level of a tournament and he and all nine of our guys will go back and work on what they learned from being here."

Behind Fager, Napoleon Aniciete (74 kg), Monte Schmalhaus (79 kg) and Derek Thomas (84 kg) each went 2-2 at the tournament. Sam Mecham (66 kg) also finished 1-2, while Blake Mangum (60 kg), Andrew Orr (74 kg), Logan Addis (74 kg) and David Prieto (84 kg) went 0-2.