SAINT LOUIS – Continuing their run of positive results, the Missouri Baptist Men's Wrestling team claimed the top spot in four of ten weight classes at the Spartan Invite on Saturday at the Carl and Deloris Petty SRC.
 
Recent weather in and around the Midwest caused the number of teams to fall to six before the tournament started on Saturday morning. Due to the number of entrants, some classes were played out in a round robin format while others took the form a bracket.
 
Junior Dillon Witt took the top spot at 133 going a perfect 5 and 0 on the day with two wins by fall and three by decision to win the round-robin competition. In fact, his closest match of the day was against his teammate, MBU sophomore Daryl Mills. The two training partners and friends battled to a 2-0 decision in favor of Witt.
 
At 141 pounds, sophomore Jacob Sinn shook off an almost two-year absence from competition to get the better of two other competitors. The native of Ballwin, Mo. took no time making his mark with a victory by fall in 1:16 over Jakob Zawosky of the University of the Ozarks (Ark.). Sinn then returned to the mat a bit later to dispatch of Nolan Jones of Midway University in 3:41. With just three competitors in the weight class, Sinn was crowned champion at 141.
 
Sophomore Joel Campbell swept through his first two opponents at 157, the first by fall and the next by technical fall.  In the semifinals he had his hands full with Alzarius Boykins of Williams Baptist University, as the end of the third period was frenetic. With the match tied at three with 20 seconds left, Boykins scored a takedown that would seem to secure the win. Campbell was able to escape with 11 seconds on the clock, then Boykins was trying to ride out the clock with the two point lead. Unfortunately for him he allowed Campbell to push him out of bounds and was penalized a point for the second time in the match for stalling. As time expired, Campbell had a significant lead in riding time and with that point the match went to sudden victory, 6-6, with six points being awarded in the final 19 seconds. In the overtime, Boykins tried to shoot and Campbell was able to sprawl and get to Boykins back for the 9-6 sudden victory win, giving him the championship at 157.
 
Juco transfer Tony Connor had his most successful day as a Spartan, going 3-0 at 165 and winning the championship. The product of Labette Community College and native of Collinsville, Okla. won his first match by fall and his second by a slim 6-5 decision before getting the best of Jonathan Vizcarrondo of Williams Baptist in the final. This is the first tournament championship for Connor at MBU.
 
In addition to the four titles, the Spartans also had three other wrestlers finish as runner-up. They included John Davis at 125, Mills at 133, Blake Johnson at 184, and Spencer Fleming at 285.
 
The competition ticks up a few notches next weekend when MBU travels to Marshall, Mo. for Missouri Valley University Invitational, where the field will include some of the top programs in the NAIA.