LAKELAND, Fla. & NORTH MANCHESTER, Ind. – The No. 3-ranked Indiana Tech wrestling team returned to action on Saturday as they sent squads to the Fire Duals, hosted by Southeastern University, and the Spartan Mat Classic, hosted by Manchester University. Tech would defeat Cumberland (35-9) and No. 8-ranked Southeastern (18-15) while falling to No. 7-ranked Life (22-15) at the Fire Duals while they placed eighth with 45.5 points and had three wrestlers place in the top-eight at the Spartan Mat Classic.
 
The Warriors would get out to a fast start against Cumberland with back-to-back pins from Sawyer Miller and Erique Early as they took the first eight matches against the Phoenix to start off their day with a 35-9 win. Miller would pick up his second pin of the day to give Tech another early lead over Life while Early, Gaige Torres and Thomas Garty would all pick up decision wins to give the Orange and Black a 15-0 lead over the Running Eagles. Life would respond by taking the final six matches of the bout though to hand Tech the 22-15 loss.
 
In their final dual of the day against the host Fire, Miller would again give the Warriors the first advantage of the bout with a 21-4 tech fall while Early and Torres would pick up two more decisions to get up 11-0 over Southeastern. Jonathan Watkins and Scottie Sopko would get Tech to 18 team points with a 7-3 decision and a 12-4 major decision, which would be just enough as the Fire took the last three matches to cut the deficit to 18-15, but were unable to come up with any other wins beside decisions.
 
Over at Stauffer-Wolfe Arena, Jake Weimer and Josue Hill would place third and sixth for Tech while Hunter Gasper took fifth while competing unattached.
 
Tech returns to action next weekend as they travel to Marshall, Missouri for the Missouri Valley Invitational. Action is set to get underway on Friday at 3 p.m. EST from the Burns Athletic Center.