LANCASTER, Pa. – Redshirt sophomore AJ Rallo and redshirt junior Trayce Eckman took third and fifth place, respectively, for the Bellarmine University wrestling team at the David H. Lehman Franklin & Marshall Open.

The event was the final tournament on the Knights schedule for this season as they move into the Southern Conference and dual portion of the campaign.

Rallo (141) earned three straight decision wins to start his run to the podium, taking down Buffalo's Tyler Roark 6-1, Rutgers' Mason Gibson 7-2 and Air Force's Carter Nogle 10-5. His lone loss of the day came in the semi-finals in a hard-fought battle against Penn's CJ Composto, dropping a 5-1 decision. In his next bout, Rallo bounced back with his fourth decision win of the day, defeating Elijah Cortez (unattached) 2-1 to claim third place.

Eckman (133) began his journey with an 8-3 decision win over Franklin & Marshall's Mason Leiphart before turning in a second-round pin in 5:57 of Hofstra's Gauge Shipp. Eckman suffered his lone loss of the day in the quarter finals, falling 6-0 to Isaiah Cortez (unattached). In his next match, Eckman bounced back with a 16-0 tech fall victory over Bill Townson (unattached) before taking down Penn's Deven Casey via 7-2 decision. Eckman earned the win in the fifth-place match via no contest.

In addition to the placements of Rallo and Eckman, redshirt junior Grant O'Dell (174) also turned in four wins in the event. Grad student Steven Villalobos (157), redshirt senior Nate Higley (157) and junior Jeb Prechtel (157) all saw success on the mat with three victories each.

Head coach Ned Shuck sent 20 Knights to compete in the event with 17 earning at least one win and 10 winning 2+ matches.

Up next, Bellarmine will kick off its SoCon schedule with a home dual against Presbyterian while also hosting Sacred Heart University for a tri-meet on Sunday, January 18 in Knights Hall.

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