Flames finish fourth at NCWA Grand Nationals, feature nine All-Americans

Thursday, March 13

Bossier, LA

TBD

Liberty University Club Sports

NCWA Nationals

Flames 157-pound freshman Matox Allen celebrates his championship final victory on Saturday night. (Photos by Bobby Leek)

Flames finish fourth at NCWA Grand Nationals, feature nine All-Americans

3/15/2025 10:27:00 PM | Women's Wrestling, Men's Wrestling

Liberty 157-pound freshman Matox Allen extended Liberty's streak of at least one national champion to 13 out of 14 seasons.

Men's wrestling NCWA Nationals team photo — The Flames and Lady Flames featured 10 All-Americans, including one champion, one consolation champ, and two fifth-place finishers.

Liberty University freshman Matox Allen captured an individual title at 157 pounds to pace the Flames' men's wrestling team to a fourth-place finish at the NCWA Grand National Championships, Saturday, at the Brookshire Grocery Arena in Bossier City, La.

As Liberty's only championship finalist, Allen scored a 6-3 decision over Rafael Garcia from Ana G Mendez University (in Puerto Rico). The Flames totaled 146.5 points to place behind only Menlo (Calif.) College (214.5), which placed third at the NAIA nationals last year and is transitioning to NCAA Division II next season, MAC tournament champion Apprentice School (187.5), and Tarleton (Texas) State (183.5), an NCAA Division I provisional school. They finished well in front of Life (Ga.) University and Washington State, which tied for sixth with 111.5 points.

"I am so proud of our young team to uphold a longstanding accomplishment in the NCWA," Liberty Head Coach Jesse Castro said. "It was a great team effort in earning nine All-Americans. Every year since joining the league in 2012, we have brought home hardware at the national championship, this time finishing fourth out of (89) teams in a highly contested tournament. In the 14 years in the (ACHA), Liberty has produced at least one individual national champion 13 times."

Sophomore Aiden Scheeringa, seeded second at 125 pounds, repeated his All-American finish from last season and was Liberty's only consolation champion after pinning Central Florida's Charlie Smiarowski 1 minute, 45 seconds into their consolation semifinal and Texas A&M's Juan Cantu 1:57 into their third-place final.

Faith Kiefer Liberty womens wrestler — Lady Flames 180-pound freshman Faith Kiefer placed fifth.

The Flames featured seven other All-Americans, including freshman Blaise Verdino, who won his Round of 4 match against Virginia Tech's Benjamin Levy by a 11-3 major decision before Tarleton State's Aidan Medina won the consolation semifinal by a 11-2 major decision. In the fifth-place final, Verdino avenged his 2-1 championship quarterfinal loss to Florida A&M's Gaetano Tedesco, winning 5-4.

Liberty's four sixth-place finishers were 141-pound senior Garrett Good, 165-pound freshman Drake Bowers, 174-pound freshman Ronnie Black, and 197-pound senior Gabe Hayes. Senior 174-pounder Zachary Kaminski and 235-pound graduate Seth Ellsmore both placed eighth.

In the women's competition, Lady Flames 180-pound freshman Faith Kiefer, seeded third as Liberty's lone MAC champion, defeated Grand Valley State's 11th-seeded Krysta Luce, 4-1, in her fifth-place final to lead her team to a 13th-place showing out of 52 schools with 28 points.

Complete results are available online.

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Andrew Musser/Club Sports Video & Media Coordinator