Cal Poly Wrestling Returns to Action at Midlands Championships

Friday, December 29

Hoffman Estates, IL / NOW Arena

All Day

Ken Kraft Midlands Championships

Abe Hinrichsen attempts to earn a takedown against Oregon State's Cleveland Belton at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1.

Photo by: Photo by Lawrence Slater

Cal Poly Wrestling Returns to Action at Midlands Championships

12/28/2023 8:30:00 AM | Wrestling

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. — For the first time in four years, the Cal Poly wrestling program will take center stage at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois, on Friday and Saturday to compete in the historic Ken Kraft Midlands Championships hosted by Northwestern.

Cal Poly is one of 42 teams set to wrestle in the 59th edition of the prestigious tournament. The Mustangs, 24th in the latest edition of the FloWrestling Team Tournament rankings, will encounter 11 teams ranked inside the top 25 in the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll, including No. 2 Missouri, No. 6 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State and No. 11 Virginia Tech, and Pac-12 foes No. 17 Oregon State and No. 21 Arizona State. The event will feature Eight Big Ten schools and defending men's team champion Northwestern.

The tournament gets underway at 7:30 a.m. PST Friday with opening round matches, quarterfinal bouts begin at 5 p.m. PST. The final day of the event starts at 9 a.m. PST Saturday with championship matches slated for 4:05 p.m. PST. Live results throughout the tournament are available on TrackWrestling and you can follow Cal Poly wrestling on Twitter/X (@CalPolyWrestle) for live updates. A livestream is available on Big Ten Plus with the purchase of a subscription.

For the Mustangs, the Midlands will mark the team's first action since taking part in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1-2.

This week marks Cal Poly's first appearance at the Midlands Championships since 2019 after COVID-19 forced the tournament to be canceled back-to-back years in 2020 and 2021. That year, the Mustangs placed 25th.

Twelve Cal Poly wrestlers are entered in the tournament, including four nationally ranked wrestlers — eighth-ranked 174-pounder Adam Kemp (8-1), 24th-ranked 285-pounder Trevor Tinker (0-0), 30th-ranked 125-pounder Dom Mendez (6-4) and 31st-ranked 133-pounder Zeth Romney. You can find the Mustangs' full lineup for the two-day tournament below.

Tinker will be making his season debut for Cal Poly at the Midlands Championships. Last year, the St. Louis, Missouri, native earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Championships, placed second at 285 pounds at the Pac-12 Championships and went a perfect 5-0 in Pac-12 dual matches to help the Mustangs secure their first Pac-12 dual meet title in program history.

Last time out for the Mustangs, three wrestlers advanced to the quarterfinals at the 41st Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, including Kemp, who is 8-1 on the season. Kemp's lone defeat came in his quarterfinal bout at Cliff Keen where he fell to Oregon State's Travis Wittlake, currently the seventh-ranked 174-pounder in the country, by a 5-4 decision.

Following this weekend's tournament, Cal Poly returns home to host a pair of duals against American University and Northern Colorado on Friday, Jan. 12 at the Mott Athletics Center. The duals are scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m. and 7 p.m. respectively. You can purchase tickets here.

No. 24 Cal Poly
Rankings Intermat/FloWrestling
125: 30/NR Dom Mendez (6-4)
125: Koda Holeman (8-5)
133: 31/32 Zeth Romney (7-4)
141: Abe Hinrichsen (5-5)
157: Devin Alexander (4-1)
165: Michael Goldfeder (1-5)
174: 14/8 Adam Kemp (8-1)
174: Blake Hinrichsen (6-3)
184: Kendall La Rosa (3-6)
197: Jarad Priest (1-2)
HWT: 24/NR Trevor Tinker (0-0)
HWT: Cole Jackson (12-6)