Men’s Wrestling Drops Pair of Duals at Central Methodist
FAYETTE, Mo. – Sharing the same gym with some of the biggest names in NAIA men's wrestling, as well as plenty of familiar faces, the (RV) men of Avila wrestling (1-3) fell short in a pair of duals against (1) Grand View and (RV) Central Methodist on the CMU campus on Wednesday evening.
It was Avila's first foray into the world of tri duals this season, where three teams all face each other over the course of one night. Avila faced Grand View first before the Vikings took on Central Methodist; the Eagles then faced hosts CMU to finish off the night.
New Avila head coach Eric Mateo has not shied away from scheduling difficult teams as the Eagles look to challenge themselves ahead of what they hope is another trip to nationals, and it's hard to find a more difficult team than the Grand View Vikings. It's impossible, really: they're the reigning national champions as a team, and have four wrestlers ranked No. 1 in the NAIA in their respective weight classes.
And the Vikings lived up to those expectations on Wednesday. Avila was open in four weights, making it nearly impossible to win the dual, but the Vikings still managed to win in all ten weights to earn a shutout victory, 56-0. Daryus Webb was the only Eagle to record a point in the final margins at 184, and Nathan Coley battled extremely hard at 285 and limited reigning national champ Greg Hagan to only a major decision.
Grand View then pounded Central Methodist by a similar final scoreline, 50-0, before the event's two Eagles teams faced off in a long-awaited matchup chock full of storylines. This dual was dead even throughout and came down to two results, really: CMU got two forfeit wins and Avila got one, and Central Methodist won four of the seven contested bouts to pull out a tight 29-19 win.
Aleksei Wojtkiewicz took a forfeit win at 125 to get Avila on the scoreboard for the first time in the night, but CMU canceled out the early deficit with a pair of decision wins to tie things up at 6 apiece. Jacob Ramirez put together a lethal display at 149, earning an 18-3 tech fall over Mitchell Huber, but Donald Griffin answered with one of his own at 157 to once again tie the team score.
CMU then got its two forfeit wins to go up by 12, and the Avila Eagles did all they could to punch back. Daryus Webb started off with a 17-4 major, just missing out on a tech, at 184 and Gavin Howes followed suit with a major of his own at heavyweight, but a pin victory for CMU's Cameron Cornman at 197 mathematically sealed the dual victory for Central Methodist over Avila in the first installment of what will likely be a new rivalry between the two well-connected programs.
Avila men's wrestling will hit the mat next on Saturday, November 18 at Saint Mary's Spire Duals, the first of a few dual tournaments the Eagles will compete in this season. Details on how to watch and follow along will be posted on our website, avilaathletics.com, when they are available.
