TOPEKA, Kan. — For the second time in three years, Campbellsville University men's wrestling has a pair of Tigers heading to the NAIA Championship at the Kansas Expocentre.
Adrian Camposano, wrestling at 125, and
Chuck Sharon, at 184, will both compete tonight starting at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN3 and the Watch ESPN App. Fans with a TV subscription to ESPN, can follow online at
www.watchESPN.com.
In addition, Campbellsville sits in third place behind No. 1 Grand View (211.5 points) and rival Lindsey Wilson College (74.5). The Tigers have 64.5 points with only six grapplers competing at the national championship. Lindsey Wilson has a pair in the title matches as well, while Grand View has six. CU is looking for its first runner-up finish at the championship, after picking up its highest finish – third – in Des Moines, Iowa in 2012.
The Mid-South Conference owns the Top 10 with five programs sitting inside there going in the finals tonight. Life University is seventh (52.5), University of the Cumberlands is eighth (49) and Cumberland University is 10
th (48).
The Campbellsville duo got to the championship by winning their semifinal bouts this morning. No.1-seed Camposano, who boasts a 19-1 record this year, punched his ticket first by defeating Life University's Devane Dodgens, 4-3.
No. 3-seed Sharon, who enters tonight with a 27-1 record, took down two-seed Matt Walker from Lindsey Wilson in the semifinal.
Camposano will wrestle Menlo College's Troy Lakin – the three-seed at 125. Sharon is set to compete against one-seed Ben Stroh from Montana State-Northern at 184.
Campbellsville has three national champions in program history with the last coming in 2015 from
Davion Caston (133). Zach Flake (141) was the first to hoist the title in 2007 and Tommy Pretty (133) did so in 2010.
In addition,
Terrell Moore,
Jaedin Sklapsky and
Justin Brown started the day with title hopes but fell into the consolation bracket. Sklapsky lost to Grand View's Walker Marshall, 9-4, before falling to Lindsey Wilson's Daniel Leonard in the consolation semifinal. Sklapsky finished fifth by pinning Steven Garcia from Morningside in 6:54.
Moore, wrestling at 285, was pinned twice in the consolation bracket today. He fell to Austin Lobsinger from Simpson (0:57) and to Javier Gonzalez from Menlo (0:23).
Brown looked for an upset over No. 7-seed Rhodes Bell, from Lindsey Wilson but lost 3-2. Hunter Smith took down Brown in the consolation semis, 4-2, before Brown lost in the fifth place match to Grand View's Dylan Blackford, 6-3.
