Sunday Eastern sent eight wrestlers to the University of Northern Iowa where they placed only one wrestler in the tournament and only two wrestlers had winning records on the day.

The Panthers were without Junior Chino Duran, Sophomore Casey Carrino and Sophomore Adam Beeler, who sat out with injury. On top of that, the meet started an hour later than scheduled.

“It was a tough tournament,” said Eastern Head Coach Ralph McCausland. “It was as tough as it’s been in the last four or five years.”

Sophomore Kenny Robertson (16-4) took fifth at the 174-pound weight class and was the only Panther to place at the tournament that welcomed 300 wrestlers to the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Robertson went 4-2 on the day and with his latest finish now has a first, second, third and fifth place finish. Robertson rolled through his first three matches winning two by major decisions, but hit a roadblock in the semifinals. In his fourth match of the day Robertson wrestled No. 3 Eric Huaun of Northern Iowa. Robertson lost in a 4-2 decision.

Robertson lost his next match in the consolation semifinal before winning the fifth place match 5-2.

“It was unfortunate in the wrestle backs things just went bad,” McCausland said. “The official took him out of the match but it was a good lesson in composure.

“We’ll take something from this and learn from it.”

The Panthers only other winning record of the day came from freshman Shane Dintelman, who went 3-2 on the day at 149 pounds. Dintelman lost his first match of the day when he was pinned in the second period.

“I had a good first period and it was 0-0 after the first,” Dintelman said. “I got in a bad situation and found myself on my back.”

Dintelman came back to win three straight matches, two by major decision.

“It’s not that you’re careless, but you don’t have to worry about losing anymore so you’re trying to make things happen,” Dintelman said. “After you lose, all you want to do is wrestle.”

Dintelman lost his final match of the day 5-2.

Dintelman has had a quick adjustment to college wrestling, McCausland said.

“He’s learned so much in the short time he’s been here,” McCausland said. “He’s the type of kid you just turn him on and he keeps going.”

Dintelman said that the biggest change from high school is the strength of other wrestlers.

“All the guys are stronger,” Dintelman said. “I mean these guys are 20, 21, 22 years old. Your wrestling men instead of boys.”

Despite some of the poor records on paper, McCausland was happy with how Eastern came out of the meet.

“Our guys, even the young guys, were putting themselves in the position to score points,” McCausland said.