Men's Wrestling 3/7/2021 1:21:00 PM CU Athletics

Gavin Smith finishes as All-American after finishing fourth at NAIA Championship

WICHITA, Kansas — Campbellsville's Gavin Smith finished as an NAIA All-American after placing fourth at the championship over the weekend.

Wrestling at 165 pounds, Smith had to rally out of the consolation bracket winning five of his next six total matches.

He lost to three-seeded Elias Vaoifi of Missouri Valley by a close 6-4 decision before picking up four straight decision wins himself. Smith took down Arizona Christian's Andrew Torres (7-3), Reinhardt's No. 11 Cole Tenety (3-2), Corban's David Rubio (7-2) and Dakota Wesleyan's Marcus Urban (6-1).

Moving into the consolation semifinals, Smith earned a pin over Life University's Sid Ohl in 4:30 to setup the third-place match against another Mid-South Conference rival. Smith ran out of gas on Saturday losing 5-0 to Cumberland University's No. 5 Cole Smith.

The All-American count for coach Franky James now moves to 63 total in his 17 seasons leading the Tigers.

The Tigers had five total wrestlers competing at the NAIA Championship, but Smith was the lone to place. Tombola Sindihebura went 2-2 overall at 141 pounds, while No. 11 Tristan Sellmer was 1-2 at 157 pounds. At 174 pounds, Mahlic Sallah won his first two matches but lost in the quarterfinal to No. 3 Armon Fayyazi of Vanguard in a sudden victory, 3-1. No. 12-seed David Richardson rounded out the Tigers with only one individual win in the second round.

As a team, the Tigers finished in 19^th place overall.

Mid-South Conference foes Life University, Lindsey Wilson, Cumberland University, Southeastern, Thomas More and University of the Cumberlands all finished in the Top 10. The Running Eagles upset Grand View University – which had won nine straight titles – to win their first NAIA Team Championship in program history.

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Players Mentioned

David Richardson: Junior; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Mahlic Sallah: Junior; Roanoke, Va.

Tristan Sellmer: Junior; Jeffersonville, Ind.

Tombola Sindihebura: Redshirt Junior; Roanoke, Va.

Gavin Smith: Redshirt Sophomore; Atlanta, Ga.

Players Mentioned

David Richardson
: Junior; Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Mahlic Sallah
: Junior; Roanoke, Va.

Tristan Sellmer
: Junior; Jeffersonville, Ind.

Tombola Sindihebura
: Redshirt Junior; Roanoke, Va.

Gavin Smith
: Redshirt Sophomore; Atlanta, Ga.