MARSHALL, Mo. – After injuries and other off the mat issues have curtailed his exploits this season, Missouri Baptist Wrestling's 149-pounder ET Rodgers finally got a chance to show what he's capable of. In a bracket full of NCAA DI and NAIA powerhouses, the junior from St. Louis claimed fourth-place at the Missouri Valley College Open on Saturday.
 
Rodgers easily dispatched of his opponent in the preliminary round by tech fall, then followed that up with another tech fall over Nolan Randles of No.1-ranked Grand View University (Iowa).  In his second-round match he outpaced Dailey Jennings of the University of Central Oklahoma 9-3 before gaining a victory by fall over Jaden Machado of Graceland University.  It wasn't until the semifinals that he suffered his first and only defeat of the meet, by fall to Easton Hilton of the NCAA No.5-ranked University of Missouri. However, Rodgers bounced back quickly with a 9-6 decision over Moses Torres of Oklahoma City University. At that point he had maxed out on matches for the day and conceded the third-place match via no-contest. Rodgers entered Saturday with just 16 matches to his credit this season but was able to shake off any rust to gain his best tournament finish of the season by going 5-1.
 
At 157 pounds, sophomore Joel Campbell also was able to give a good account of his potential. The native of New Plymouth, Idaho went 3-2 on the day and did not place. However, his losses came to the second-place finisher (by 5-0 decision) and to the fourth place finisher (by tech fall).
 
The Spartans will enjoy a week off before hosting the American Midwest Conference/Sooner Athletic Conference Championship Tournament on February 17.