Men’s wrestlers put four in championship finals, five others still alive; three women in fifth-place bouts Saturday

Flames freshman 125-pound wrestler Aiden Scheeringa advanced to Saturday's NCWA Grand Nationals championship final against Bellarmine's Damian Ryan. (Photo by Robert Leek)

Men’s wrestlers put four in championship finals, five others still alive; three women in fifth-place bouts Saturday

3/16/2024 2:04:00 AM | Women's Wrestling, Men's Wrestling

Graduate students Rick Weaver (heavyweight), Josiah Murphy (235 pounds), and Reid Stewart (157) advance to the championship finals along with 125-pound freshman Aiden Scheeringa

Second-day action from the NCWA Grand National Championships on Friday near Shreveport, La., saw defending champion Bellarmine (Ky.) University open a 40-point lead on Liberty University's men's wrestling team, 199.5-159.5, while the Flames hold a 40-point advantage over third-place Thomas More (Ky.) University (119.5).

Liberty sent four of its nine quarterfinalists into Saturday night's championship finals and had five more still competing in the consolation bracket as compared with the Knights, who advanced seven of their 10 competitors to the finals with two others still alive in wrestlebacks.

Mid-Atlantic Conference rival Apprentice School slipped to fourth place with 110 points followed by Lindenwood (Mo.) University (96.5).

For the Flames, their three graduate students all improved to 4-0 to move on to the finals, including both two-time-defending champions. Josiah Murphy, who won the past two national tournaments at 197 pounds, won his second match by technical fall, 18-1 over Montclair State's Rey Miller, before pinning Toledo's Jacob Meek in 3:49. He will face Dubuque's Joseph Pineda in the final.

Rick Weaver, the Flames' two-time defending national champion at heavyweight, took his quarterfinal opponent, Allen University's Emmanuel Velazquez, down to the wire before pinning him in 6:59. He later earned a 9-1 major decision over Bellarmine's No. 3-seeded Thadd Huff to reach the championship match against Caribbean's Jonovan Smith.

The third Liberty graduate, Reid Stewart seeded No. 4 at 157, scored a 2-1 decision over West Chester's Keaton Fischer and a 4-0 decision in his semifinal match against Thomas More's No. 2-seeded Kailan Keith, setting up a showdown with Bellarmine's No. 1-seeded Gray Ortis in the final.

Freshman Aiden Scheeringa, seeded No. 3 at 125, nearly went the distance with Washington State's Kobe Bui before pinning him in 6 minutes, 58 seconds. He then finished off Lindenwood's Austin Kegley in 4:31 to punch his ticket to the final against Bellarmine's Damian Ryan.

Fellow Flames freshman Carder Miller, seeded No. 3 at 197, scored an 18-3 technical fall over Virginia Tech's Glean Gonzalez before losing his semifinal match against Lindenwood's Ryan Golnick by 8-5 decision to drop to the consolation semifinals.

Liberty sophomore Chase Arnestad (133), senior David Over (165 pounds), senior Timothy Goddard (184 pounds), and sophomore heavyweight Wade Wheeler are also still wrestling in the consolations.

Complete team scores and individual results are available online.

In the women's bracket, four Lady Flames opened their tournaments with falls in the round of 16, with top-seeded senior Maile Ka'ahanui pinning Washington State's Mariama Jobe in 2:53 at 170 pounds; Mackenzie Yates decking Florida A&M's Brianna Josue in 2:57 at 155; senior Claudia Keanini leveling Emily Lau from Santa Rosa Junior College in 6:33; and senior Ashley Asselin pinning Grand Canyon's Kassandra Ruiz in 2:55. But Ka'ahanui, freshman Anna-Marie Servin (143), and sophomore Claire Wortz (130) are the only three who survived through the consolation rounds and will wrestle for fifth place on Saturday.

View complete results online and watch Saturday's consolation and championship final rounds streamed live on FloWrestling.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer