Wrestling: Northwestern earns three top-five finishes at Midlands Championships

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To wrap up 2025, Northwestern wrestling competed in its final tournament-style competition before entering the Big Ten dual meet season, sending 17 wrestlers to the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships from Dec. 29 to 30. The event was hosted inside NU’s Ryan Fieldhouse and consisted of 33 teams on the men’s side.

Northwestern’s biggest standout of the invite was No. 24-ranked Sean Spidle, who finished third in the 133 lbs. category. He racked up wins over Indiana’s Blaine Frazier and Central Michigan’s Andrew Austin in the first two rounds, then suffered a narrow 3-1 loss at the hands of No. 25 Marcel Lopez of SIUE in the quarterfinals.

However, Spidle bounced back by winning the consolation finals, which earned him his top-three finish. He beat out his NU teammate Massey Odiotti in the fourth round before upsetting No. 20 Dylan Shawer of Rutgers in the quarters, defeating the Scarlet Knight 6-2 in the first tiebreaker period of overtime (the first of two 30-second periods following a two-minute sudden victory overtime period). That round proved to be the most difficult for Spidle, who would beat Oregon State’s Gabe Whisenhunt by three in the semis before cruising to a 7-2 win in the third-place match/consolation bracket final over Spartan Combat RTC’s Isaiah Cortez.

Both No. 30 Billy Dekraker and No. 28 Eddie Enright also notched top-five finishes, with Dekraker competing in the 141 lbs. category and Enright in the 174 lbs.

Dekraker, a first-year competitor in his Midlands Invite debut, dominated in his first-round match against Northern Illinois’ Tee Ward to win 18-1 by technical fall (when one scores 15+ points to automatically end a match). Although he lost in the subsequent round, he then made a run to the consolation bracket semifinals, where he was defeated 5-3 by Bucknell’s Dylan Chapppell. Dekraker’s fifth-place match opponent, No. 25 Henry Porter of Indiana, medically forfeited, automatically giving the Wildcat a victory.

When Enright won, he won big. He wrestled his way to the consolation bracket semi-finals after a second round exit from the championship bracket in a 14-5 defeat at the hands of No. 31 Derek Gilcher of Indiana. His tear through the consolation ladder culminated in an 8-4 win over Cal Poly’s Cash Stewart in the fifth-place match.Two of Enright’s wins, round one of the championship bracket and round three of the consolation bracket, were by technical fall. In addition, he also scored a dominant 12-0 victory over Pittsburgh’s Bode Marlow in the consolation quarterfinals.

The Midlands were Enright’s second top-five invite finish of the 2025-26 season, as he previously placed fifth at the Las Vegas Invitational. The sophomore also won the freshman/sophomore division of the Michigan State Open for his weight class.

Northwestern’s highest-ranked wrestler, No. 21-ranked Dedrick Navarro, was also a championship bracket quarterfinalist. After victories by 10+ points in the opening two rounds, he battled with Pitt’s Tyler Chappell in a quarterfinal that went into overtime. However, Chappell won 4-1 in the sudden victory period.

Navarro then medically forfeited the fourth round of the consolation bracket, giving Chappell’s teammate Colyn Limbert the victory.

Jacob Bostelman made the championship bracket quarterfinals as well, beating SIUE’s Landen Johnson and Indiana’s Chris Crawford before suffering an injury default loss to Bucknell’s Noah Mulvaney. Later, Bostelman medically forfeited the fourth round of the consolation bracket.

Odiotti (133 lbs.), Sam Cartella (149 lbs.), Gunnar Myers (157 lbs.), Alex Smith (197 lbs.) and Gabe Christenson (285 lbs.) picked up a few wins for the Wildcats, with all four reaching at least round two of the championship bracket and round four of the consolation bracket.

Northwestern will next head into Big Ten play, where it faces Maryland in a Welsh-Ryan Arena dual meet on Jan. 9 at 7:00 p.m. CT. The match will be streamed on B1G+.

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