DECATUR, Ill. – After having his 2017-18 Augustana season cut short by a leg injury, junior Adarios Jones (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) made a successful debut at the Millikin Open on Saturday, November 10 in Decatur, Illinois. Jones won the 285 pound weight class in fairly easy fashion to lead the way for second year head coach Tony Willaert's charges.
 
While Jones was winning at his weight class, the Vikings had a total of six place winners in the non-scoring event. Senior Dale Charlier (Cary-Grove HS, Cary Grove, Ill.) was second at 141 pounds as was senior Jacob Poole (Marist HS, Chicago, Ill.) at 165. Junior T.J. Lunney (Conant HS, Schaumburg, Ill.) won the consolation bracket at 174 pounds while senior Travis Pulse (Davenport Assumption HS, Milan, Ill.) at 141 and sophomore Daniel Terronez (Moline HS, Moline, Ill.) at 157 were both third. Senior Freddy Terranova (Jackson Memorial HS, Jackson, N.J.) placed seventh at 157.
 
Jones, who was 17-1 and the top-ranked wrestler in his weight class in NCAA Division III a year ago before injury shortened his campaign, showed to be in top form in his first outing of 2018-19. He won five matches with the championship bout against Chris Murino of Central College lasting only 1:16 before Jones completed the fall. He opened his day with an 18-0 technical fall over Deshaun McNair of Joliet and followed that with a pin at 2:57 of his match against Cody Cannon of Millikin. He romped over Demetrius Crisanto of MacMurray 20-3 in the quarterfinals and won in a medical forfeit against Frank Tomaskovic of Millikin in the semi-finals. That set up his championship match with Murino.
 
A week ago Charlier placed second at the Wisconsin-Stevens Point Open at 141 pounds and this time around he repeated that performance at the same weight class. He opened the tournament with a 7-5 win over Devion Yancey, who was wrestling unattached. He then pinned Ron Wanda of Millikin in 3:15 and beat Jacob Smith of Huntingdon 10-2 in the semi-final to advance to the championship match. He fell to Nick Sablan of Millikin 5-2 and settled for second place for the second week in a row.
 
Poole opened his tournament at 165 with a forfeit win over Oswald Hountondji of MacMurray and then he beat Gavin Smith of Millikin 3-1. Poole pinned Jake Spoehr of Concordia in 6:09 before winning a tight 3-2 sudden victory overtime clash with Alex Montbriand of Concordia in the semi-finals. That propelled Poole into the championship match where he was pinned by Eric Martinson of Concordia in 1:18.
 
Lunney won the consolation bracket at 174 after he lost his first match against Chance Benadum of Central College 2-1. He bounced back with three pins. He decked Cameron Caldwell of Concordia in 1:26, then took care of Mylin Mosley of Concordia at 3:31 and finally he pinned Ethan Johnson of Central College at 1:38 of the consolation championship.
 
For the second week in a row both Charlier and Pulse placed at 141 pounds. While Charlier was finishing second, Pulse took third. He lost his opening match to Caleb Osborn of Truman State by a narrow 4-3 margin before winning four straight matches to finish 4-1 and grab third. He defeated unattached Bradley Burbes 7-3, Michael Mort of Huntingdon 13-7; Jacob Smith of Huntingdon 6-3 and finally Pulse took care of Sam Dietz of Lincoln 8-5 to claim third.
 
Terronez wrestled a total of six matches en route to his third place finish at 157 pounds. He opened the day with a pin at 3:31 of his match against Anthony Abney of Joliet but lost his next bout to Jordan Challen of Central 14-2. He rebounded with a pin in less than a minute (:57) of his match against Shamar Pugh of Triton and then defeated his teammate Terranova 13-5. He pinned his way into the third place match in just 1:25 against Jackson Gissell of Central and then avenged his earlier loss to Challen with an 8-4 victory for third.
 
Terranova dropped his first match to Collin Groleau of Central 10-2 but came back with an 18-3 technical fall of Justin Cosby of Millikin and  a 10-8 overtime win against Kaleb Fontenot of Huntingdon. That put him up against Terronez and he lost 13-5 but bounced back to pin Christian Dangle of Lincoln at 2:03 of the seventh place match.
 
Augustana will open the dual meet portion of its season this week with a home match against defending College Conference of Illinois & Wisconsin champion North Central on Wednesday, November 14 in the Carver Center. The first bout begins at 7:30 p.m.