WHAC Gets NAIA Conferences off to a Start
This past weekend was the start of NAIA conferences, the first conference was the Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference. There were ten other champions that were placed during this conference but the guy that stood out to us was junior out of Siena Heights, Randy Frailey. Throughout his whole career at Siena Heights Frailey has been so close to qualifying for nationals but NAIA is perhaps the deepest and most chaotic weight. He didn’t have any bad losses this regular season but failed to grab enough wins to earn a bid to nationals. This meant he would have to steal a bid in a weight class that earned two. Frailey left zero doubt by winning the whole thing. In the semifinals, he had to avenge a major decision loss from a few weeks ago to former national qualifier Anthony Hughes, doing so with a takedown in the closing seconds to win 4-1. If anything stood out his match, it was his diligence and pace. Just to be safe and avoid a true-second match, Frailey scored a major decision in the finals over Cole McKinley, another surprise finalist who had knocked off the one-seed himself.
The WHAC was the only conference in NAIA to roll out last weekend. The deepest weight class was 125, which qualified four men. 165 and 197 also got three through each. In total, four auto bids were “stolen,” meaning an unranked wrestler beat someone who was ranked in the top-25 and had earned a bid. The wrestlers who fought for upsets to claw their way to nationals were Frailey, McKinley, Aundre Beatty at 149, and Elijah Chacon at 157. By my count, there are at least 12 quality wrestlers who did not qualify and have solid chances of an at-large bid. The problem is only three at-large bids are given at each weight, and we still have some big conference tournaments going down this weekend. Keep an eye this weekend to see who else qualifies for the big show!
Down Goes Another D2 #1
Another #1 went down this weekend, and if you haven't watched this match you should go watch it. Yes, Lander did pull off the dual win over King University 39-10 but 6 of those points was by a pin over #1 David Hunsberger. Last year, Trent Mahoney placed 6th at the NCAA Division II National Championship. This year, he decided to go up a weight class and wrestle at 165 and has looked fantastic. Mahoney has been off to an okay start at this new weight class, taking a few losses during the first semester but bouncing back during the second half of the semester with his big win over Hunsberger, which he was down 6-0 during the first period but Mahoney locked in a cradle and end the first period with a fall with only 28 seconds left.
Wildcat Duals Upsets:
This past weekend was the Wildcat duals where eight teams competed. One team went undefeated, winning all four of their dual matches; William Penn. They had a rough start to the season where they lost some close duals but this past weekend they bounced back and dominated all their matches, outscoring their opponents 142-42, beating #12 Ottawa.
Two wrestlers stood out to us the most during this dual one being freshman Natalia Posada of Oklahoma City who beat the #5 Gianna Moreno of Friends, in their dual. Posada went undefeated this weekend winning all her matches. One of those wins were over Bryanca Cook of Avila who she lost to at the NUWAY Women’s College Open back in January by a tech fall. Another wrestler that shined is the bright-futured freshman Alejandra Mezano of Ottawa. Mezano started wrestling for the Ottawa team during the second semester and has been off to a great start placing 4th at Spire Classic and avenging one of her losses she had at the Grand View Open. She got pinned by #7 Teya Garner of William Penn a week ago but she returned the favor by pinning her in the rematch
