PARK CITY, Kan. – The Fire champion left no doubt he was taking home the crown. Gage Braun took only 27 seconds in securing the lone takedown and all he needed for his 9-0 major decision shutout for the 285-pound NAIA Wrestling National Championship and headlining a historic weekend for Fire wrestling.
Braun added a four-point nearfall back-points combination with only 25 seconds left in the first period and rode out Central Methodist's Austin Foye with over three minutes of riding time. With the title, Braun caps the SEU effort with his second national title after he claimed his first two years ago. In doing so, he becomes the first Fire wrestler to win two national title in program history.
As a team, the Fire were a clear third place with 119.5 points. They also had a program-record eight NAIA All-Americans of the 12 wrestlers they took to the National Championship. SEU finished 46.5 points ahead of fourth place Doane College. Grand View University won the national team title for the fourth year in a row with 209 points, 60 points ahead of runner-up Life University.
Joining Braun in the All-American ranks, SEU's seven others were Aaron Lucio in third; Mario De La Torre (149) fifth; Andrew Voiles (133), Kael Brisker (141), Anthony Federico (165) and Gentry Smith (197) all were sixth, while Trace Braun garnered eighth at 174..
Along with Gage Braun winning the national title, SEU saw five of its other seven All-Americans exceed their pre-tournament seeding – Lucio, De La Torrie, Voiles, Smith and Trace Braun.
No. 4 Lucio wrapped up his strong national performance with a pair of final victories. The sophomore took down No. 7 Luke Rioux of Indiana Tech at 1:13 in the first period and never trailed. He added a second takedown in the second frame and went on for the 11-2 major decision in the Consolation Semifinal.
In the third place bout, Lucio went to work again. The Fire second-year grappler scored the first points, a takedown, 39 seconds into the match against Arizona Christian's No. 3 seeded Sean Archuleta, extended it to 6-0 and captured the victory by another major decision, 11-1.
Lucio finished 5-1 for the weekend for third place.
At 149, No. 13 seed De La Torre came a point from equalling Lucio's placing, but the junior pulled an upset to win fifth place. In the Consol Semifinal tied at 4-4 after two periods, De La Torre escaped No. 10 Alex Pena of Wayland Baptist four seconds into the third. Pena responded with a takedown and De La Torre escaped with 46 seconds, but fell short of finding another point for the 7-6 decision loss.
The SEU 149-pounder claimed fifth in a high-scoring match against Doane University's No. 2 Nathan Lendt. The Doane wrestler opened with a seven-point lead and 11-4 margin after a period. De La Torre battled back with a second-period takedown and two back points and pulled within 11-10. De La Torre scored a takedown 37 seconds into the final period and sealed the win in the final moments with another for the 16-12 decision.
Back to 133, Voiles started unseeded and scored upsets in four of his five tourney victories with wins over the No. 5 and 6 seeds as part of them. After a trio of Friday wins to battle back to the Consol Semis, Voiles suffered a tough start against No. 3 Sean Archuleta of Arizona Christian and fell in an 18-6 major decision. In the 5th Place match, Indiana Tech's No. 7 Luke Rioux took Voiles down 29 seconds in the match and held on for the 10-4 decision.
Heading into the Nationals as the No. 11 seed, Smith cut that in half for a sixth place All-American finish at 197. The sophomore was 4-1 going into Saturday, but he had a tough Consol Semis against No. 5 Kasten Grape of Doane in a 15-0 tech fall. No. 8 Asher Ruchti of Southern Oregon escaped Smith in the first six seconds of the second period in the Fifth Place match as the lone point scored in a 1-0 decision.
In the 141-weight bracket, Brisker escaped 13 seconds into the second period of the Consol Semifinals for a 1-0 lead, but suffered an injury and bowed out against No. 2 Hartwell Taylor of Saint Marys. Brisker finished in 6th after having to take a medical forfeit in the Fifth Place match to Cumberland's No. 7 Jared Dinh.
No. 5 seed Federico was on his way to beating his seeding as he was 3-1 after two days. The SEU junior, though, saw his run end via a medical forfeit in the Consol Semis to No. 7 Matt Jenkins of Reinhardt and gave up the same ending in the Fifth Place match to Grand View's No. 4 Dylan Whitt.
In a run as the final Fire All-American, No. 15 The senior 174-pounder recorded 2-1 days in each of the first two days with two of the four wins over higher-seeded opponents. In Saturday's seventh place matchup, No. 6 Roman Garcia of Central Methodist opened an early lead and took the meeting by a 14-2 major decision.
