Inaugural Men's Wrestling Championships Set For Saturday
Tournament Page
LA GRANDE, Ore. – Ninety wrestlers across ten weight classes will descend on Ashland, Oregon this weekend for the inaugural Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Wrestling Championships presented by U.S. Bank.
Southern Oregon University will serve as host and will welcome seven conference foes: Eastern Oregon University, Embry-Riddle University (Ariz.), Menlo College (Calif.), Montana State University-Northern, Providence University (Mont.), Simpson University (Calif.) and Warner Pacific University (Ore.). The Championships will be held at Ashland High School’s Mountain Avenue Gym, which has served as SOU’s temporary home facility during construction on its campus athletic center.
Action will begin at 9 a.m. with 5
th/6
th place matches at 4 p.m. and 3
rd/4
th and championship matches beginning at 5 p.m.
The championships serve as the qualification tournament for the 61st Annual NAIA National Championships, which will be held March 2-3 in Des Moines, Iowa. Through a revised qualification model, the CCC will have 41 individual automatic qualifiers that will be awarded according to placing finishes. The number of bids allotted are based on the number of wrestlers each conference had in the final NAIA Top 20 poll by weight class. In addition to the 10 individual champions, the following place winners by weight class will advance to the NAIA nationals: 125- 2
nd, 3
rd and 4
th; 133-2
nd and 3
rd; 141-2
nd, 3
rd and 4
th; 149-2
nd, 3
rd and 4
th; 157-2
nd, 3
rd, 4
th and 5
th;165-2
nd and 3
rd; 174-2
nd and 3
rd;184-2
nd,3
rd, and 4
th;197-2
nd, 3
rd, 4
th, 5
th, and 6
th; 285-2
nd and 3
rd.
Within one of the toughest conferences in the country, a down-to-the-wire battle for the team title and first-ever CCC men’s wrestling trophy is anticipated. SOU was favored in the CCC coaches’ preseason poll with 58 points, followed by Providence with 57 and Menlo with 49.
Five CCC schools were ranked in the final NAIA Top 20 of the final regular season: No. 6 Providence, No. 7 Menlo, No. 10 SOU, No. 13 MSUN and No. 18 ERAU. EOU and WPU were both in the receiving votes category.
Menlo boasts the most wrestlers ranked in the top-20 with nine, led by second-ranked Mikel Perales at 125. UP has eight wrestlers ranked in the top 20, led by No. 3 Shonn Roberts at 149. ERAU has seven grapplers, including No. 6 James Williams at 157. SOU’s six ranked individuals are headlined by Hunter Hodges (157) and Tanner Fischer (197), both No. 3. Five wrestlers for MSUN are in the top 20 with the highest ranked Matt Weber, 5
th at 141. Drake Randall, a 157-pounder, is ranked 2
nd in the nation for EOU, which has a total of four in the top 20. WPU has two in the top 20 with Blake Cooper ranked 2
nd at 165.
The tourney features eight returning NAIA All-Americans, including 2017 national champion Brandon Weber (157) of MSU-Northern. The 197-pound bracket – headlined by two returning All-Americans, SOU’s Fischer and Providence’s John Hensley – will be contested by six ranked individuals, and the 157-pound class has four of the NAIA’s top eight.
SOU’s Devin Poppen (141), MSUN’s Weber (157) and Providence’s Hensley (197) were each regional champions last season among the same group of teams that now comprise the CCC.
The tournament will be broadcast at
portal.stretchinternet.com/sou through five different streams: Mats 1, 2 and 3 for the early session, then 1st- and 3rd-place matches starting at 5 p.m. Purchase of a tournament pass will give viewers access to all five streams
Live results will also be available:
Click here for live results.