EAU CLAIRE, Wis. – The University of Wisconsin-Platteville wrestling team saw eight wrestlers finish on the podium Saturday at the 71^st annual Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference wrestling championship, hosted in UW-Eau Claire's McPhee Physical Education Center.

The Pioneers finished fifth of six teams, but scored 34.5 more points than year ago with 60 team points. UW-Eau Claire claimed the outright title this year with 157.5 points and prevented UW-La Crosse (153 points) from a 10^th straight title.

Sophomore Kain Killmer earned his first WIAC podium finish, capturing third place at 197 pounds. Freshman Owen Becker captured fourth place at 141 pounds and junior Jackson Kirsch finished fifth at 285 pounds for hist first conference podium finish. At 125 pounds, junior Chris Karbash captured a third-straight WIAC podium finish with sixth place. Four more Pioneers finished in sixth place, including: freshman Ethan Monson (133), freshman Steele Diercks (141), freshman Luke Kamish (157), and junior Cal Riese (184).

Killmer won his first match with an 18-6 major decision and then dropped to the consolation bracket following a fall (6:40) to UW-Eau Claire's No. 5 Ian Pepple. He then went on to advance to the third place match after a technical fall win (5:25, 16-0). Killmer won the third place match with a 12-5 decision over UW-Stevens Point's Logan Neitzel.

In the 141 bracket, Becker bounced back after a loss by 9-5 decision to UW-Eau Claire's Ty Fink, with two wins by decisions of 11-6 and 9-6. Becker then went on to take fourth place following a technical fall loss (6:37, 21-5) to Marcus McIntyre of UW-La Crosse.

Kirsch used an 11-0 major decision and win by fall (1:16) to advance to the consolation bracket's semifinal. A set-back to UW-La Crosse's Henry Vander Heiden moved Kirsch to the 5^th place match where he defeated Jordan Lewis of UW-Whitewater with an 8-5 decision.

At 125, Karbash dropped his first match of the day and then won two straight as he pinned Pedro Estrada (2:27) of UW-Stevens Point and defeated Travis Moelter of UW-Eau Claire with an 8-4 decision.

In the 133 class, Monson moved to the consolation bracket after a narrow 4-2 loss to Ryan Hanson of UW-Oshkosh. Monson defeated his next opponent with a 12-5 decision before advancing to the fifth-place match where he exited the bracket by medical forfeit.

Kamish had a particularly strong middle of the day where he won back-to-back bouts by technical falls, (3:40, 17-2) and (6:13, 16-0), but dropped the consolation semifinal by 3-2 decision to Briar Ivey of UW-Eau Claire.

Ries finished on the conference podium for the first time in his career and his day was highlighted by a 9-6 decision over Zach Canaday of UW-Stevens Point in the quarterfinal.

The Pioneers will return to action on Friday, February 27 for the first day of NCAA Regionals, hosted by UW-Eau Claire.