GRANTHAM, Pa. – Seniors Colin Kowalski (Derwood, Md./Georgetown Prep) and Paul Triandafilou (Derwood, Md./Georgetown Prep) will each seek their third consecutive championships at the Messiah College Petrofes Invitational on Saturday after running through their opening bouts unscathed Friday.
 
Kowalski, who won the 157 title in 2016 and the 165 crown in 2017, will look to complete his hat trick at 174 pounds Saturday. The senior ran off three consecutive first-round pins on Friday, taking down Logan Toth from the University of Mount Union in 1:57 and putting down a pair of 23-second falls against Michael Cannon and Dylan Gettys from Muhlenberg College and Penn College, respectively. Kowalski will face Bailey Shutt from Thaddeus Stevens University in Saturday's semifinals.
 
Triandafilou, the two-time Petrofes heavyweight champ and ranked eighth in the country heading into the weekend, picked up a medical forfeit to open the day and scored a 3-1 decision over Ryan Higgins form Bridgewater State College in the quarterfinals. He'll face ninth-ranked Joe Fusco from Springfield College in tomorrow's semifinals. Triandafilou will also seek his 100th career victory in that bout.
 
A handful of Gettysburg grapplers remain in the hunt in the wrestlebacks, including sophomore Sean Thompson (Plainsboro, N.J./West Windsor-Plainsboro South) at 141, freshman Ray Martin (Downingtown, Pa./West Chester Henderson) at 157, freshman Mason Canonico (Kailua, Hawaii/Punahou) at 165, and senior Dan Ebert (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Warde) at 184.
 
Thompson scored a pair of technical falls to open the day, out-scoring his opponents 33-3 to reach the quarterfinals. He was upended by Mike Vietri of Springfield 7-1, but the Gettysburg sophomore bounced back with an 8-3 victory over Vietri's teammate Joseph Parsons.
 
Martin made his way to the quarterfinals by posting a 17-1 technical fall and a first-period pin to open the day. After getting pinned in his quarterfinal match, he threw Kade Kravits from King's College to the mat for a pin at 5:08.
 
Canonico dropped his first match of the day, but recovered with three-straight wins to advance to day two of the event. He posted an 8-3 decision and a 16-1 technical fall before grinding out a 5-4 victory over Daniel Booth from Alderson Broaddus.
 
Ebert pinned Cory Supan from Waynesburg University in 1:02 to kick off his day at 184 pounds. The senior was upended in a high-scoring affair with Messiah's Brian Shermeyer 14-10 before punching out a 9-0 major decision over Adam Lizak from Muhlenberg College.
 
Sophomore Alex Shaffer (Doylestown, Pa./Archbishop Wood) and junior Tristan Chen (Potomac, Md./St. Andrew's Episcopal) each posted two wins before bowing out of the event. Shaffer tallied a pair of decisions at 133 pounds, while Chen won a pair of two-point bouts at 165.
 
Gettysburg, ranked 22nd in the latest national poll, sits seventh out of 15 teams with 63 points. No. 6 Mount Union leads the field with 122.5 points followed by No. 23 Messiah (96 points) and Muhlenberg (83 points).
 
Action at Messiah resumes Saturday at 10 a.m. The championship bouts will be streamed at https://portal.stretchinternet.com/messiah/.