Charleston, S.C. - Headlined by freshmen Justin Kozera and Davante Andujar, who each posted multiple wins, the Gardner-Webb wrestling program had eight sophomores and freshmen compete at The Citadel Open on Sunday, November 6th, in Charleston, S.C.

At the heavyweight position, Kozera started the tournament off with three straight wins - a 13-6 decision over Will Robinson of Belmont Abbey, a 10-3 victory versus Tracy Jewett of Darton and an 11-5 win against David Lopez of Limestone - to advance to the semi-finals of the championship round.

In the semi-finals, Kozera battled for all three periods, yet fell to Chris Rowland of Shorter College, the eventual champion, 4-3 to fall into the wrestleback bracket where he took a medical forfeit to eventual third-place finisher Chris Giddens, Jr. of UNC-Pembroke.

GWU's Andujar posted a 4-3 decision over Curt Jones of UNC-Pembroke and then pinned Lorenzo Gonzalez of Georgia Southern 29-seconds into the match in the second round to begin his day at 2-0 at 149-pounds.

After suffering a 1:47 fall of his own to Immanuel Kerr-Brown of Duke, the eventual champion at 149-pounds, in the third round, the freshman bounced back to record a 14-2 major decision win over Collins Creech of Appalachian State to continue in the wrestleback bracket.

Andujar then drew Jones of Pembroke once more, this time defeating him 3-1 to advance to the wrestleback semi-finals, where he then suffered a 10-7 loss to Seiji Borja of Newberry, who took third-place overall.

At 133, sophomore Jake Reinemund bounced back from a first round loss to Shon Topper of UNC-Pembroke 6-2, to earn an 11-1 major decision win over Matt Dunton of South Florida of South Florida in the fourth round of the wrestleback bracket.

However, in his next bout, Reinemund was shutout by Adrian Thomas of Chattanooga, 7-0, to end his day at 1-2 overall.

At 174, Aaron Rabin went 1-2 overall on Sunday, earning a forfeit win over Brent Silva of Central Florida before by being eliminated Ethan Ruby of Duke by way of a pin at 3:20 in the fourth round of the wrestleback bracket.

Fellow newcomer Julian Ming also competed on Sunday, dropping back-to-back decisions to finish the day at 0-2 at 184-pounds.

Wrestling unattached for Gardner-Webb were freshman Scott Reilly, Josh Burns and Matt Kowalski.

Seeing his first action of the season, Reilly went 3-2 at 174. After a first round by, Reilly was handed a 13-6 loss to Trey Adamson of Duke in the third round of the 174-pounds championship bracket.

The freshman then went on a tear, posting an 8-3 win over Jacob Fahlfeder of Limestone, a 13-5 major decision victory over Kendall Hemmings of The Citadel and then held on for a 7-6 decision over Jesse Johnson of Appalachian State to move into the quarterfinals of the wrestleback.

His winning streak would be stopped at three, as Dominick Vetell of Appalachian State downed Reilly 7-4, putting him just one bout short of a rematch with Adamson of Duke.

At 165, Burns posted a 2-2 day on Sunday, as after a first round bye, Burns lost a close 4-2 decision to Kyle Frieberg of Limestone, who finished third in the event overall. Burns bounced back to earn a 4-3 decision over Hunter Allen of Mercer and then held on for an 8-6 win over Matthew Smith of Limestone to continue through the wrestleback bracket.

The freshman failed to make it three wins in a row, as Max Redfoot of Limestone defeated Burns 5-2 in the sixth round of the wrestleback bracket.

Kowalski went 0-2 on the day at 174-pounds, dropping an 11-3 major decision to Nick Christian of Central Florida and then suffering a fall to Hemmings of The Citadel at 1:32 in the wrestleback bracket.

Gardner-Webb (1-0) will return to dual match action next Friday night, as the Runnin' Bulldogs will hit the road to take on fellow Southern Conference member Chattanooga in GWU's first-ever Southern Conference match. The bout is slate for 6 p.m.

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