Men's Wrestling Makes First Trip to NAIA Nationals
PARK CITY, Kan. – Avila men's wrestling wrapped up its historically successful second season of competition by sending three wrestlers from Kansas City to Park City to compete in the 2023 NAIA National Championships this weekend, the team's first trip to the sport's biggest stage.
After understandably not qualifying anyone for nationals in the program's first year, Avila men's wrestling made a large leap forward in year two, placing 11 wrestlers at the KCAC Championships, including two conference champions, and earning three automatic entries to the NAIA Championships for the first time in team history.
All three Eagles competing in the event were either actively ranked in the NAIA Top 20 in their weight classes or had been at some point this season, making them by default some of the better wrestlers in the country. But once they got to Hartman Arena, Avila's national qualifiers quickly learned just how good some of the best wrestlers in the country are, and were left inspired to work harder to ultimately reach that level themselves.
Easy draws at events like this are not common, but in reality it seems all three Eagles ended up with challenging draws. Daryus Webb was Avila's only seeded wrestler in the event, earning the No. 12 spot, and was randomly awarded a first round bye in the 184 bracket. But in his first match of the event he faced off with No. 5 seed Asher Eichert of Life, who ultimately won that bracket. Webb dropped to the consolation bracket where he faced unseeded Isaiha Casto of West Virginia Tech, and Casto rallied to eke out an 8-6 win in sudden victory, ending an excellent first full season at Avila for Webb.
Just like Webb, Karter Brink got saddled with a challenging draw at 157 – he first had to face No. 5 Sal Silva of Southeastern, who would go on to become the national champion. Brink's strong first season as an Eagle came to an end in the second round at the hands of Indiana Tech's Elijah Chacon.
Rounding out another excellent season as a sophomore, Logan Johnson earned Avila's only win of the event at 149. First, Johnson had to face No. 2 seed Blake Gonzalez of Grand View, who ultimately finished third in the field, but he rebounded from a loss there by handling Missouri Valley's Bryson Anderson in an 8-0 major decision. Ultimately, Johnson's run came to an end in a well-fought 9-5 decision against Jonah Chew of Embry-Riddle, ending Johnson's chances of becoming Avila's first national placer.
In the end, it was a fun, unpredictable event with a ton of surprises and zero successful individual title defenses – there were a ton of upsets all across the weights, and only one No. 1 seed actually won his bracket. Avila finished with a total of 1.5 team points, thanks to Johnson's victory, which placed them 44th out of 58 competing teams. But eight of those teams recorded either zero of negative points, proving how hard it was for many teams to win anything on the sport's biggest stage.
On the opposite end of that spectrum sat Grand View, which recorded a total of 206 team points, almost 50 more than Life, to win the team national championship for the 11th time in the last 12 seasons. Three Warriors won individual titles, and Grand View had a representative in six of the 10 title matches, extending that program's run of success.
The Avila men's wrestling season now officially comes to an end with a ton of reasons to be optimistic about the future. Qualifying three wrestlers for nationals is a significant major milestone for a second-year program, and now, armed with the knowledge and experience that competing on that kind of stage brings, the team is primed to return for an even better season starting in the fall.
Up first though, Avila women's wrestling will make the long trip up to Jamestown, North Dakota to compete in the NAIA Women's Wrestling Championships this weekend, starting on Friday morning. Markayla Lottie and Byanca Cook will be in action in their first trip to the national championships; stay tuned to avilaathletics.com and Avila Wrestling on social media for details on how to watch and follow along.
