KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (
Qualifiers by Weight Class |
Qualifiers by School |
Qualifiers by Conference) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA) has officially announced the qualifiers for the 2022 NAIA Wrestling National Championships hosted by Visit Wichita on Tuesday. The 65th annual event takes place March 4-5 at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan.
Each conference tournament was awarded automatic bids per weight class based on the final regular-season poll, which can be seen
HERE, based on the amount of wrestlers ranked in each weight class. Each conference was awarded a minimum of one automatic bid per weight class, which will go to the tournament champions, even if the conference did not have any wrestlers ranked in the final regular-season poll.
The CCC received a total of 34 automatic qualifiers to the NAIA National Championships across all weight classes, based upon how many representatives of the conference were ranked in each weight class in the most-recent individual top-20 poll.
CCC's Automatic Qualifiers
125 – Gregory Viloria (Menlo), Riley Siason (Menlo), Francisco Barrera (SOU)
133 – Jacob Seto (ERAU), Jacob Mendoza (Menlo), Nick Kunz (MSUN), Justin Coon (SOU), Joel Avila (UP), Zach Mauras (EOU)
141 – Elija Martin Wilkie (MSUN), Jaxon Morlan (EOU)
149 – Elijah Palacio (Menlo), Michael Murphy (Corban), Nicholas Camacho (Menlo)
157 – Aaron Gandara (SOU), Carlo Castagnaro (ACU), James Williams (ERAU), Abraham Del Toro (Menlo)
165 – David Rubio (Corban), Frederick Padilla (VU), Keller Rock (ERAU), Jordan Komack (UP), Chase Short (MSUN), Rysan Leong (Menlo)
174 – Armon Fayyazi (VU), Nakoda Siegel (MSUN), Keegan Mulhill (EOU), Gerardo Hernandez (VU)
184 – Kyle Knudtson (EOU), Hayden Schrull (UP), Baron Gaunt (VU)
197 – Isaac Bartel (MSUN)
285 – K.C. Buday (UP), Noel Orozco (EOU)
In addition to the conference’s 34 automatic qualifiers, each conference also gets seven at-large selections, which allows the conference to send additional competitors to the national tournament who didn’t qualify via an automatic berth.
CCC's Wildcards
133 – Evan Potter (SOU)
141 – Jayce Cunha (ERAU)
174 – Gerardo Hernandez (VU)
184 – Carl Hansen (MSUN), Alan Badley (UP), Tyson Stover (Corban)
197 – Jay Smith (EOU)
After the conference tournaments concluded, an 18-member committee consisting of conference raters and oversight members met to select the remaining two national at-large qualifiers and both were selected from the CCC.
National At-Large Qualifiers
149 – Beau Blackham (ERAU)
157 – Adam Valdez (VU)
The seeding and preliminary brackets will be announced on NAIA.org by 5 p.m. (CST) on Friday, February 25.
The Mid-South Conference led all conferences with 66 individual qualifiers. The Cascade Collegiate Conference was second with 43 qualifiers, while the Heart of America Athletic Conference receives 38.
For additional information on the 2022 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships, click
HERE.