Men's Wrestling Qualifies 9/10 Weights for the NCJAA National Tournament
Goodland, KS - The Mavs did a great job, within the environment that their fellow Mavs created for them and qualified a wrestler for nationals in 9 out of the 10 weights. The Mavs were tied in Region 6 in the Jayhawk Conference for sending the most guys to nationals and will be sending the second most guys to nationals in the West Central District.
Muugi finished 3rd at the tournament and came back strong from a bad loss in the semis. Coach Sebaaly stated "I think the loss helped focus him and will help drive him in the next week and a half lead up to nationals."
Sam Colvin qualified with a 5th place finish to get out of a slump he has been in.
Austin Hernandez was the first of four finalists and lost in the finals to the #1 ranked kid in the country.
Caleb Mendez had his best tournament of the year and finished 3rd only losing to the #1 kid in the country in the semi finals.
Buka wrestled a great tournament and lost in OT to the defending national champion at his weight in the finals to qualify for the national tournament.
Bo Ellis who weighed in 15 pounds under his weight class limit took 4th in the region to qualify.
Joseph White made the finals of the tournament and sat out in the finals. "We chose to not have him wrestle in the finals of the qualifier in order to rest an injury he has been fighting through."
Casey Hand had the busiest day on the team as he had to wrestle 5 matches in his attempt to qualify. He did so in robust and convincing fashion pinning his final opponent of the day to pull it off.
Odgi was the fourth wrestler put into the finals and fell short in the championship match to the #1 ranked wrestler in the country in his weight. "Odgi will learn from this and looks forward to a potential rematch in the national finals on February 24th. "
Men's Wrestling will be on the road February 21-24th for the NJCAA National Tournament which is held in Council Bluffs, Iowa again this year.