The ‘Cats saw success at their final tournament before Big Ten action.
Northwestern recorded a strong end to the year last weekend in the 60th Annual Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. Headlined by a runner-up finish from Maxx Mayfield, the ‘Cats placed five members of the team on the podium in their last tournament before conference meets commence this month.
Mayfield, competing at 165 lbs, quickly recorded a pair of falls in his first session to advance to the quarterfinals. He then notched a 21-6 technical fall over Cal Poly’s Cash Stewart, who he defeated in Northwestern’s dual meet with the Mustangs on Dec. 19, before beating No. 23 Evan Maag of George Mason by injury default in the semifinals. Mayfield lost the first place match by a 7-3 decision to Indiana’s Tyler Lillard, but his second place finish marked the second Midlands podium of his career.
Evan Bates, competing at 197 lbs, also performed strongly for Northwestern, finishing in third place. Bates faced some early troubles when he fell to No. 32 Dillon Bechtold of Bucknell in their quarterfinal matchup. However, he fought back with a resounding 10-0 major decision win over George Mason’s Tyler Kocak, followed by a first-period fall against Stanford’s Brook Byers. A medical forfeit by his next opponent allowed Bates to advance to the third place match, where he pinned Stanford’s Nick Stemmet in just under three minutes to claim third place.
Sam Cartella placed fifth at 149 lbs to reach the Midlands podium in consecutive years. The redshirt first year earned victories via 4-0 decision and 15-0 technical fall to advance to the quarterfinals, where he lost by decision to No. 8 Jaden Abas of Stanford. However, after beating Penn’s Kelly Dunnigan via decision and Purdue’s Wyatt Krejsa by technical fall, he advanced to the fifth place match, where he beat No. 26 Finn Solomon of Pitt by medical forfeit.
Dedrick Navarro also placed on the podium for the ‘Cats at 125 lbs. After a quarterfinal loss to No. 18 Dean Peterson of Rutgers, Navarro beat Indiana’s Blaine Frazier by a 7-2 decision before defeating Penn’s Brady Pruett by technical fall to place seventh in his weight class.
Rounding out the ‘Cats who reached the podium was Massey Odiotti, who placed eighth at 133 lbs. Odiotti did not have an ideal start to the tournament, losing by major decision to Central Michigan’s Sean Spidle in the first round. But after three straight victories in the consolation rounds, Odiotti found himself in the seventh place match, where he lost to No. 29 Kurt Phipps of Bucknell.
With 2024 in the rearview, the ‘Cats will now gear up for Big Ten action. First up is a trip to West Lafayette Jan. 10 for a dual meet with Purdue scheduled for 6 p.m. CST.