LOUISVILLE, Ky. – For the second time in as many seasons, the Campbellsville men's wrestling team finishes the NWCA-NAIA National Duals in eighth place after a pair of defeats Saturday at the Kentucky Expo Center.
CU's first match came against the No. 11 ranked Missouri Valley College Vikings that was followed by a first round rematch against No. 8 Lindsey Wilson College.
In their first match of the day, the Tigers lost a heartbreaker against Missouri Valley College. It was the second-straight dual where the Tigers leaned on
Ashton Mutuwa to clinch a victory as the team score was within a point going into the 285 lbs. match. Mutuwa, who came through for the Tigers last night, just fell short in a tough contest against MVC's Jesse Gomez who won a 3-2 decision.
CU built up a pair of 12-point leads early on in the dual as they won the four of the first five matches and five of the first seven.
Michael Beets won by forfeit to start things off at 125 lbs. followed by a win for
Marvin Galette at 133 lbs. in a 12-4 major decision.
After Missouri Valley picked up their first points with a major decision win at 141 lbs. but then the Tigers got back-to-back decisions. At 149 lbs.,
Jaedin Sklapsky won a 5-3 decision followed by a 7-3 decision at 157 by
Michael Diemer.
With a 16-4 lead, MVC got points back at 165 lbs. with an 8-2 decision win to pull to 16-7.
Mahlic Sallah won his match at 174 lbs. with a 9-3 decision to push that lead back to 12 points at 19-7.
Missouri Valley did exactly what they needed to do the next two matches, earning back-to-back pins to erase the deficit. Tristan Ramberg pinned
Aaron Mosley in the second round at 184 lbs. and Terry Martin earn a pin in under a minute at 197 lbs. over CU's David Richardson.
That moved the score to a 19-18 lead for MVC after the Tigers were given an unsportsmanlike conduct deduction in the 197 lbs. match.
CU struggles in the seventh place match against Lindsey Wilson, only picking up two non-forfeit wins on their way to a 27-13 loss at the hands of the Blue Raiders.
Aaron Rugnao and Mosley were the two Tigers to pick up head-to-head victories with Rugnao winning via major decision 12-3 over Austin Ramsey in the 141 lbs. weight class and Mosley winning by sudden victory at 184 lbs. 3-1 over Lucas Miozza.
Sklapsky also earned six points for CU with a forfeit win in the 149 lbs. match that gave the Tigers a 10-6 lead in the dual at the time. LWC would then go on to win the next three matches, two by decision and one by pin, to take control of the dual and eventually win.
The Tigers will be away from competition for about two weeks before they compete in the Missouri Valley College Invitational on Jan. 18-19.
