CORVALLIS, Ore. – The Cascade Collegiate Conference Men’s Wrestling Championship Tournament, presented by U.S. Bank, is set to begin on Friday in Prescott Arizona.
Each day will have live video streaming, which can be found
here through FloWrestling. Follow along on the CCC website and the CCC Men’s Wrestling
Tournament page as the 2023 Champions are crowned.
No. 18-ranked Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University hosts the tournament, which has all 11 CCC teams participating – five of which are ranked and another three are receiving votes in the latest NAIA
coaches poll.
No. 8-ranked Eastern Oregon University was predicted to take the trophy and defend its
2022 CCC champion status in the conference's
preseason poll.
Friday’s matches begin at noon (MST), while Saturday’s contests are set to start at 10 a.m. (MST). The championship matches will commence at 5 p.m. (MST).
Each conference tournament awards automatic bids per weight class based on the final regular-season poll. Each conference is awarded automatic berths based on the number of wrestlers ranked in each weight class. The Cascade Collegiate Conference received the highest number of automatic qualifiers to the NAIA Championships with a total of
50, the most in CCC history. The following number of individuals from each weight class will be selected succeeding the conference tournament:
125 – 6
133 – 5
141 – 1
149 – 3
157 – 3
165 – 6
174 – 8
184 – 6
197 – 7
285 – 5
After all of the conference tournaments have concluded, a 16-member committee consisting of conference raters and oversight members will meet to select the remaining 30 at-large qualifiers, which will be released Tuesday, February 21st at 5 p.m. (CST) by the National Office.
Once again, the CCC Wrestling Championships will have ‘true place matches,’ which help determine the exact placing of individual wrestlers who finish in sequential order in a given weight class, but never actually competed directly against each other during the tournament. The true place matches will only be used in the event an automatic qualification is available, and they will not alter team points or team standings.
Last year, the CCC sent 43 qualifiers to the
NAIA Championship across all weight classes. Montana State-Northern led the Conference with a sixth-place team finish and the Light's Isaac Bartel received his third Runner-Up finish in five years.
The seeding and preliminary brackets will be announced on NAIA.org by 5 p.m. (CST) on Friday, February 24. The 66th Men’s Wrestling National Championship will be held on March 3rd and 4th at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kansas.