Men's Wrestling

Caston, McIntosh advance to NAIA finals

TOPEKA, Kan. – Campbellsville University wrestling has a chance to make history this evening, as the Tigers advanced two grapplers to the NAIA Wrestling Championships finals for the first time since 2012. It's only the third time in program history CU sent two to the finals, doing so in 2007 and 2012.

Davion Caston, a 133-pound junior college transfer from Darton College (Ga.) and senior 174-pounder Travis McIntosh both collected semifinal wins Saturday morning for a chance to battle the top-ranked wrestler in their weight for the championship.

The finals will begin at 7 p.m. CT at the Kansas Expocentre. Live video will be provided, here, as well as live scoring on TrackWrestling.com, here.

Caston, ranked third, is looking to become Campbellsville's second 133-pound NAIA national champion and second junior college transfer to win a title when he meets No. 1 Michael Ruiz of Great Falls. Caston started CU's day with a sudden victory win, 7-5, over Indiana Tech's Mitch Pawlak after scoring a takedown with 20 seconds remaining in the overtime period. It was the second straight sudden victory win for Caston over Pawlak, doing so in the NAIA East Region semifinal two weeks ago en route to a region title.

Caston finished as an NJCAA All-American last year for CU alum James Hicks' Darton team, one of the last All-Americans in school history, with the program ending this spring. He will ride a nine-match win streak entering the NAIA final.

McIntosh, ranked fourth at 174, upset No. 3 Shawn Lau of Great Falls in the semifinal. McIntosh scored a quick reversal and back points to start the second period after a scoreless first three minutes. He then led 7-0 after a third period escape and takedown before pinning Lau with 30 seconds to go, a time of 6:30.

The upset avenged a loss from the NAIA National Duals in January and sends McIntosh into another national duals rematch Saturday night as he looks to become CU's first upper-weight national champ.

He will face three-time national champion Brock Gutches of Sothern Oregon, who pinned McIntosh during their only meeting in January. Gutches has pinned his way through the tournament so far as he looks to become the first four-time national champ since 2001 and seventh in NAIA history. Only three have achieved the accomplishment since the 1960s.

In addition to the individual firsts, Campbellsville is looking to claim its third and fourth NAIA wrestling individual championships. The CU men's swimming program currently has the most NAIA titles for the school with three individual titles between 1997 and 1999.

Zach Flake (141 pounds, 2007) and Tommy Pretty (133 pounds, 2010). Campbellsville has had five national runner-ups with David Clemens finishing second at 157 pounds in 2007, Flake finishing second at 141 in 2009, Johnny Papesh in 2011 at 125 pounds and then twice in 2012 with Chris Teague at 141 pounds and Allen Scruggs at 184 pounds.

In addition to Caston and McIntosh, three-time All-American Shawn McGhee also competed Saturday morning, going 1-2 to finish sixth. McGhee scored a take down with 45 seconds left in his first match of the day to take an 11-6 lead and erase his opponent's riding time. The takedown proved to be the difference, as Kyle Gerlach (Dakota Wesleyan) scored a late takedown, which would have swung the score 9-9 the other direction had McGhee not scored late.

McGhee was pinned (3:58) by national semifinalist Sean Elkins (Dickinson State) in his consolation semifinal, but was stuck again in the fifth-place match by Zach Skates (Oklahoma City).

Campbellsville finishes the morning session in seventh place with 57 points after Montana State-Northern heavyweight Toby Cheff pushed MSUN  (57.5) into sixth place with a third-place pin. Oklahoma City is in fifth place with 67 points.

Grand View has 138.5 points and has locked up its fourth-consecutive national championship with a 38-point lead over second-place Lindsey Wilson College (100.5). Both teams have two national finalists. Southern Oregon is only a half point back in third with 100 points, but has three national finalists. Great Falls is fourth with 87.5 points and has two national finalists.

Missouri Valley is eighth with 54.5 points and Cumberland (Tenn.) is ninth with 51.5 points, but also has two national finalists, including 149-pound defending champion Jake Williams.


 

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Players Mentioned

Davion Caston

Davion Caston

Junior
Shawn McGhee

Shawn McGhee

Junior
Travis McIntosh

Travis McIntosh

Junior

Players Mentioned

Davion Caston

Davion Caston

Junior
Shawn McGhee

Shawn McGhee

Junior
Travis McIntosh

Travis McIntosh

Junior