Friday night at Kate’s Gymnasium, in front of one of its biggest crowds ever, the AU wrestling team defeated Pitt-Johnstown in a dual match, 29-6.

It was alumni night for the wrestling program and the men celebrated 50 years of competition. Coming into the match, the Eagles were ranked No. 12 in the nation and were facing a familiar opponent in the Mountain Cats.

There were close to 500 fans piled into Kates Gymnasium cheering on the men and their coach, Tim Dernlan, who called this match the biggest of his four-year career at Ashland.

In attendance were 25 former AU wrestlers that came to celebrate their night and root on the men from Ashland in the match.

“We wanted to make the alumni proud,” Dernlan said.

They did by dominating the Mountain Cats. The Eagles won eight of 10 matches and never lost by more than four points in any match.

The Eagles were victorious in the first four weight class matches; the highlight of those matches was at 133 pounds when sophomore Adli Edwards, from Gahanna, Ohio, won by decision against his opponent Ryan Link.

Link finished fourth in the country last year and is ranked third in the nation this year. Edwards said he was looking forward to the match.

“I’m glad to have it done with and win,” Edwards said. “We looked at a little bit of film and the game plan was to go out and wrestle my style.”

Many people don’t know about Edwards’s style since he has redshirted twice already in his young career, and with the 13-9 decision win over Link, Edwards put the Eagles in the right direction to beat UPJ.

The Eagles are 8-1 in dual meets and have put together a very impressive win streak of seven straight. There is no doubt that the Eagles are “for real” this year, with key victories over nationally ranked schools including No. 8 UPJ, No. 11 Wisconsin-Parkside, No. 14 West Liberty, No. 16 King and No. 17 Minnesota State-Mankato.

Other highlights of the night included victories by true freshman Bryson Hall at 174 pounds, senior Mark Hoff over Nathan Link at 149 pounds and senior Jake Southwick when he pinned Josh Krupa at 285 pounds.

Southwick is now 17-2 on the season with his team-leading ninth pin this Friday. Coach Dernlan is happy with his team’s progress and results so far this season.

“I’m really proud of the guys, they’re doing all the extra things on their own,” he said.

Ashland hosted the 12th Annual Simonson Open Saturday, with several Eagle wrestlers placing in the tournament.

Jacob Garringer finished in fifth place in the 141 weight class. Corby Running finished in fifth place too, at the 197 weight class, and the best finish of the day was Tyler Houska, who lost in the final to Alex White from Purdue in the 285 weight class and finished second.