Rio's Wagers notches program first at NAIA Championship

Rio Grande Sports Information
     WICHITA, Kan. -Bruce Wagers gave the University of Rio Grande men's wrestling program its first-ever national quarterfinalist, leading the efforts of a trio of RedStorm grapplers in the 69th Annual NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championship at the Heartland Credit Union Arena.
     Wagers, a senior from Cincinnati, Ohio, won each of his first two matches on Thursday in the 285-pound division - defeating No. 9 seed Luke Cox of Georgetown College by fall at 52 seconds of their opening bout and then doing the same to eighth-seeded Shane Mattson of Montana State-Northern 20 seconds into their get together.
     Wagers lost by fall to No. 1 seed Zeph Sivels of Midland (Neb.) at 2:57 of their quarterfinal round match before also dropping a 13-5 decision to fifth-seeded Nico Rodriguez from Eastern Oregon in the consolation bracket.
     At 184 pounds, senior Justin Bartee (Point Pleasant, WV) picked up a win for Rio with an 8-1 decision over Campbellsville's Brice Park - the No. 16 seed - in his opening round match.
     Bartee then suffered a 17-2 technical fall loss to top-seeded Tyson Beauperthuy from Doane and dropped a 10-1 major decision to Providence's Noah Poe-Hatten.
     Senior Mackandle Freeman (Point Pleasant, WV) also went 1-2 in the 157-pound bracket.
     Freeman was on the short end of a 7-1 decision to 10th-seeded Josey Jernegan of St. Mary in the opening round, but rebounded to post a 12-3 major decision over Eastern Oregon's Carlos Valdez in the consolation first round.
     Freeman's run ended with an 8-1 loss to Cole Zoller of Southern Oregon.
     Rio Grande tallied 8.5 points in the team competition, good enough for 37th place among the 63 participating schools.
     Grand View won the national championship with 192.5 points, while Life (Ga.) University was second with 166 points and Oklahoma City University rounded out the top three with 99.5 points.