GREAT FALLS, Mont. – The University of Providence women's wrestling team finished second as a team at the Battle of the Rockies tournament that the program hosted Friday morning in the McLaughlin Center.
The team finished with a total of 157 points, 12 points ahead of Colorado Mesa, a NCAA Division II program. Southern Oregon, the No. 1 team in the nation, won the tournament with 203 points.
A total of three Argo wrestlers won their pool; Ashley Gooman won the 116 lb. weight division, Ivy Navarro won the 101 lb. weight division and Paige Respicio won the 136 lb. weight division. Ira Navarro went undefeated in the 101 lb. weight division. Instead of wrestling her sister Ivy for the championship, the team decided to default her sister as the champion.
"I'm much happier than what I planned on being today," head coach
Matt Atwood said. "I wanted to put on a good show for the teams that were traveling and I think we actually did that. I'm pretty happy with the turnout. There were a lot of good matches."
Gooman, the #5 ranked 116 lb. grappler
in the nation, ran through her division, as she didn't concede a single point during the entire tournament. The former
NAIA Wrestler of the Week recorded three technical falls on the day, including a 10-0 win over #4 Carolina Johnson (Southern Oregon) and a 12-0 win over #6 ranked Glory Konecny (Southern Oregon).
"Both of those girls are very high-level wrestlers and Ashley had no trouble at all with them," Atwood said. "Ashley didn't get a chance to prove herself last year and she's doing a great job of that right now. She's on a mission."
The Navarro sisters also produced another dominant showing. Both wrestlers cruised past their two opponents to meet in the 101 lb. championship. The two girls decided to forfeit, with Ivy taking the win as the higher ranked wrestler – Ivy is currently ranked 1
st in the nation while Ira is 4
th.
"Ivy has wrestled in less time in 15 matches than most girls have probably wrestled in two or three matches," Atwood said. "She's been dominant all year and didn't slow down at all today. Ira struggled at Missouri Valley two weeks ago, but she proved today that she is one of the best wrestlers in the country."
Respicio, the 9th-ranked wrestler in her weight class, was the other Argo who won her division, clinching the 136 lb. weight division. The win also doubled as revenge, as Respicio defeated Emily Se in the finals, who
pinned her two weeks ago at the Missouri Valley Invite two weeks ago.
"Emily tried to beat us the same way she tried last time by digging under us and trying to throw us," Atwood said. "We worked with Paige a lot this week with just clearing underhooks. She'll get another shot at her tomorrow."
The Argos had plenty of others record points for the squad. Sadie Antoque finished second in the 155 lb. weight class while Sophia Dulin took third. Lana Hunt (109 lbs.) and Jojo Miner-Ho (170 lbs.) both took fourth, while Dylan Huddy (170 lbs.),Gabriella Parini (130 lbs.) and Lexi Tupuola (191 lbs.) finished in 5
th place. Morgan Mackey (143 lbs.) and Tessa Pillers (170 lbs.) both finished sixth in their respective weight classes.
The event is the only home regular season tournament the team will have all season. They will have another dual tomorrow against Southern Oregon, and then won't wrestle in their home gym until the Cascade Collegiate Conference Tournament on Feb. 27.
"Today was fun," Atwood said. "There were more people in the stands than I thought would show up. It was really cool to see the community support us like that. Hopefully we get even more people at our dual tomorrow."
The team will have their hands full tomorrow, when they host #3 Southern Oregon in a team dual. The match will begin at 5:00 p.m. following the men's tournament tomorrow.
"We obviously have to put our best foot forward tomorrow," Atwood said. "We have to win some matches that we're not supposed to win and have to win by bonus points on the matches that we are supposed to win. That's what it's going to take. We can't afford to give up any bonus points and we have to get every bonus point possible to beat this team."