Mount Vernon, Iowa (Duhawks.com) - The Duhawks won three of the ten matches on Thursday night, falling to No. 18 Cornell College by a score of 32-13. Winners on the night for Loras were freshman Michael Triplett at 133#, junior Nick Steger at 141 and senior Steve DeWitt at 157.

The dual began at 125# where freshman Dayton Olson lost a close 3-2 battle to Scott Smith. After trading escapes in the second and third period it was Smith who got the deciding takedown late in the third period. Olson added a late escape, but it wasn't enough to overcome the deficit.

The first win on the night for the Duhawks came at 133#, where Triplett avenged a loss from earlier in the season, as Triplett won 12-5. Walsh had previously beat Triplett at the NWCA National Duals by 7-3 score. Triplett used four takedowns in the match in route to victory. The win knotted the dual by a three after two matches.

Nick Steger then gave the Duhawks a 9-3 lead as he won by fall over Jared Brathor in 3:51. The two were in a scoreless tie after the first period, but Steger dominated from then on out and finally got the turn and the slap of the mat in the second period.

"I have to keep training harder to get a takedown in the first period," Steger said. "I felt like I needed to go out and get a fall to help the team by getting bonus points."

Another one of the close matches that the Duhawks would drop was at 149#, where Evan Weaver fell to Trevor Engle 6-5. Weaver fell behind early in the match, but battled back and got a takedown on a blast double leg in the third period to tie the match up. Engle earned an escape and held off a late Weaver takedown attempt to win.

At 157#, DeWitt would get the Duhawks more bonus points as he won by major decision 15-4 over Aaron Engle. DeWitt stayed on his offense throughout the entire match and dominated for a whole seven minutes to improve to 26-2 on the year. The win gave the Duhawks at 13-6 dual lead at that point.

The final five matches all went in favor of Cornell, beginning with a fall over junior Greg Vance at 165#. Junior Ben Kindle, stepping in for the injured senior Joe Butler, lost by tech fall at 174# and freshman Awais Arain lose a 5-2 decision at 184#.

Arain led the entire match, but was reversed and put to his back in the final 20 seconds to give Cristion all five of his points.

With the dual win already clinched by Cornell, Loras opted to forfeit at 197#.

Freshman Connor Swier was pinned at 285# to bring the dual to a close and give Cornell the 32-13 victory.

 "We definitely need to keep training as a team and get everyone healthy. We have to keep building and just power through the injuries," Steger said.

The Duhawks will be back in action a week from Friday as they face their bitter rivals, University of Dubuque. The Spartans fell to Luther on Thursday night, 30-9 and are currently ranked No. 30 in the latest NWCA poll. The dual is scheduled to start at 7 p.m.