Lexington, Va. - Gardner-Webb freshman Hunter Gamble swept through the field at 174 pounds to take first-place and earn an automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA National Championships, while redshirt-seniors Ryan and Alex Medved each took second-place overall in their respective weight classes on Saturday at the 79th Annual Southern Conference Wrestling Championships hosted by VMI in Lexington, Va.

Gamble (3-0), who was the No. 6 seed at 174 pounds, had a strong showing in his first conference championship event, as the freshman upended No. 3 Jake Residori of SIUE 1-0 in the first round and went on to defeat No. 7 John Dommert of VMI 3-2 in the semifinals to claim a spot in the finals bout.

Gamble then defeated No. 1 John Lampe of Chattanooga 2-1 by way of a tiebreaker on riding time to earn an automatic bid to the 2013 NCAA National Championships.

He is the first NCAA National Qualifier for the Runnin' Bulldogs since 2011.

Ryan Medved, (2-1) who drew the No. 2 seed at 149 pounds, recorded a fall over No. 7 Cory Wagner of Campbell at 4:03 in the first round and then defeated No. 6 Zachary Kechter of Appalachian State 6-2 in the semifinals to earn a spot in the Championship match.

The redshirt-senior battled hard throughout, but ultimately fell to No. 1 Alex Hudson of Chattanooga 7-3 in the finals to settle for second-place overall.

At 157 pounds, Alex Medved (2-1) held on for an 8-6 decision over No. 6 National Powers of Davidson in the first round and then upset the No. 2 seeded Nick Rex of Campbell at 5-4 in the semifinals to draw a spot in the finals against No. 1 Matt Frisch of The Citadel.

In the finals at 157 pounds, Alex Medved ended his career with a 7-4 loss to Frisch to finish in second-place overall.

At 141 pounds, Davante Andujar (2-2) earned a hard fought 5-2 upset victory over No. 4 Michael Dahlstrom of Campbell to advance into the semifinals before he was pinned at 3:44 by nationally ranked and No. 1 seeded Undrakhbayar Khishignyam of The Citadel to fall into the consolation semifinals bout.

Andujar would hold on for a 3-2 win over No. 7 Chris Johnson of Appalachian State in the consolation semifinals to earn a spot in the consolation finals and third-place match against No. 3 Ryan Goodsell where he was pinned to finish the day at 2-2 overall.

The trend continued for GWU's Justin Guthrie (2-2) at 165 pounds, as the redshirt-senior posted a 5-3 win in the first round over No. 5 Mark Darr of VMI and then battled No. 1 Josh Condon of Chattanooga to the end until suffering a fall at 5:49 in the semifinals.

Guthrie went on to post an 11-1 major decision win over No. 6 Vinnie Bellaran of The Citadel in the consolation semifinals to continue on to the consolation final and third-place match. No. 3 Paul Duggan of Campbell 4-3 edged Guthrie in the third-place bout to end his day at 2-2 overall.

At 285 pounds, redshirt-senior Travis Porter (2-2) shut out No. 6 Michael LaPrade of VMI 2-0 in the first round to move into the semifinals where he was defeated 5-1 by No. 2 Kevin Malone of Chattanooga to get knocked into the consolation semifinals.

In that bout, Porter easily defeated No. 5 Joe Nolan of Campbell 7-2 to continue on to the third-place bout where he would drop an 8-5 decision to No. 4 David Devine of SIUE to see his stellar career at GWU end on Saturday.

Freshman Cortez Starkes (1-2) suffered a fall at 2:34 in the first round to No. 4 Dominic Parisi of Appalachian State at 125 pounds to fall into the consolation bracket where he defeated No. 3 Joaquin Marquez 4-3 in the consolation semifinals to advance on to the consolation finals and third-place match.

In the third-place bout, Starkes was defeated by way of a 12-4 major decision by No. 4 Parisi who had defeated Starkes by way of a pin in the first round of competition.

Fellow first year Runnin' Bulldog grappler Gray Jones (2-2) was also defeated by way of a pin in the first round, as he fell at 184 pounds to No. 5 Conor Black of VMI at 4:51 to drop into the consolation quarterfinals. Jones then edged No. 8 Deshoun White of SIUE 1-0 to advance to the consolation semifinals where he would go on to outlast No. 3 Josh Tuck of The Citadel to move on to the consolation final and third-place match.

The Southern Conference All-Freshman Team honoree came up just short in a 3-2 loss to No. 6 Scott Patrick of Davidson to miss out on third-place overall.

At 133 pounds, redshirt-sophomore Robbie Golde (1-2) posted a first round upset win at 6-4 over No. 3 Alex Ward to move into the semifinals against No. 7 Anthony Elias of Davidson where he dropped a tough 9-6 bout to fall into the consolation semifinals.

In the consolation semifinals, Golde lost to No. 8 Tanner Bidelspach 6-2 to see his bid at advancing to the third-place match fall short.

Redshirt-senior Blake Salyer (0-2) was handed back-to-back shutout losses to No. 2 Paul Weiss of Appalachian State, 3-0, and then No. 6 Josh Wood of SIUE, 6-0) in the consolation bracket.

The Runnin' Bulldogs finished fourth overall in the team standings, while 2012 Southern Conference Champions Chattanooga won the Team Championship once more this season.

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