Cheers echoed throughout the wrestling room at Lied Recreation Center Thursday at the championship meet for intramural team wrestling.

The meet featured the nine-member Sweet Suzies and their opponent, the eight members of Donkey Punches.

To get to the championship, the Donkey Punches defeated the AGR Grapplers and the Sigma Pinners.

Due to an odd number of teams, the Sweet Suzies had to wait until Tuesday night to face their first foe, The Anal Astronauts. The Suzies’ next opponent was the Wildcats, which they defeated to advance to the final match against the Donkey Punches.

The first match was at 133 pounds. However, the Punches had no one to wrestle Emir Sabljakovic, junior in German, so they were forced to forfeit the match, giving the Suzies a quick six points.

At 141 pounds, the match pitted Heath Munson, sophomore in psychology, of the Suzies, against Andy Ronning, freshman in hotel, restaurant and institution management, of the Punches. Munson dominated Ronning and took the match 4-0.

Following that match was James Sterling, freshman in aerospace engineering, and Tony Bolen, freshman in animal science, wrestling in the 149-pound weight class. Bolen got the only pin of the championship to give the Punches their first points of the meet.

“It was tough because I’ve never wrestled before, but I don’t feel too bad because he was really good so he deserved to win that one,” Sterling said.

“It felt good because I knew I was helping my team by getting the extra points,” Bolen said. “I thought it was a fun experience and I enjoyed it.”

The third match of the meet featured Chris Wagnitz, sophomore in mechanical engineering, against Evan Hollingsworth, senior in agricultural studies. The 157-pounders offset each other’s strong points, as Wagnitz was more aggressive but Hollingsworth was stronger. By the third period, both were tired, but Wagnitz held on to win 3-0, giving the Suzies a 13-6 lead.

At the 165-pound weight class, Dan Skinner, junior in mechanical engineering, wrestled against Jarod Bormann, sophomore in English. Skinner showed the kind of moves that a veteran wrestler uses, but Bormann was too agile and was able to escape many times. It was a close match, but Skinner took the win 3-0.

The 174-pound match was the closest one yet and featured Kyle Epsteen, sophomore in biology, and Dan Stewart, freshman in civil engineering. The two men were very evenly matched, and there was very little action until the third period which ended in a tie and sent the match to a sudden-death overtime. Stewart won 3-0 to make the score 16-9, the Suzies still leading.

The next wrestlers weighed in at 184 pounds: David Dolan, freshman in agricultural systems technology, and his opponent, Matt Hackman, junior in civil engineering. Dolan was quick and aggressive, but Hackman was strong — too strong for Dolan. Unable to break Hackman’s hold, Dolan lost 3-0.

At 197, it was Jesse Howe, sophomore in construction engineering, against Matt’s younger brother, Nick Hackman, freshman in elementary education. At the end of the first period, Hackman made a great move to score some points by putting a move on Howe, even though they were out of bounds. Hackman’s toes were still on the circle, giving him two points. He held on to win 4-0 to tie the team score at 16. It would all come down to the final match.

“I’m glad that the two guys before me won, and I knew that our heavyweight was going to win because he’s really good,” Hackman said.

The final match would be the heavyweights: John Wires, junior in computer engineering, and Josh Pesek, junior in industrial technology. Pesek scored two points early on to set the tone for the match. Pesek dominated with great moves, forcing Wires to do everything he could to avoid being pinned. Pesek took the match 4-0 to give the Donkey Punches the win, 20-16.

Pesek didn’t seem to notice that he’d won.

“I never really thought about it to be honest. That stuff doesn’t really bother me,” he said.

Pesek’s teammate made up for his lack of enthusiasm.

“This is what we live for — to win!” Matt Hackman said.

The Suzies were mellow about their loss but they didn’t take it too hard.

“It was really disappointing [to lose] because we hadn’t lost yet, but we put up a really good fight,” Sterling said.