Men's Wrestling Repeats as GPAC Champs

Men's Wrestling capped off an impressive two days of dominance at the Great Plains Athletic Conference (GPAC) Tournament on Saturday in Hastings with a tournament record 218.0 team points. The mark topped the record set last year by the Tigers by 28 points.

Nine wrestlers earned automatic bids to the NAIA National Championships in March with their finishes as the GPAC had 28 allotted bids. In the 125 division which had two bids, the Tigers took both spots with a 1-2 finish from Hunter Bennett and Brian Peck. Bennett entered as the top seed and won his first two matches by major decision. Peck was the third seed and won his first three matches by pin, including a victory over second seed and NAIA No. 22 Dante Rigal. Bennett received a forfeit win in the championship over Peck with both heading to nationals.

One bid was up for grabs at 133 and top seed Matthew Terrence went 3-0 to win the bid to nationals. He earned bonus points in each match, picking up pins in his first and last match while earning a tech fall in the semifinals.

The 141 bracket had four bids to nationals on the line. Devin Avedissian was the second seed and would finish second in the tournament. He won by pin in the first match and by major decision over NAIA No. 19 Zach Zitek in the semifinals. He dropped a 5-3 decision in the finals to NAIA No. 6 Creighton Baughman.

Nate Lendt was the defending champion at 149 and four bids were up for grabs. Lendt opened with a win by pin before defeating NAIA No. 21 Tyler Okada by tech fall in the semifinals. Lendt repeated as champion by defeating NAIA No. 13 Hagen Heistand in overtime, 3-1.

Ben Miller was the top seed at 157 with two bids on the line. Miller was looking to repeat as champion and opened with a tech fall victory and a pin in his opening matches. In the semifinals he added another pin to set up a 17-1 tech fall win in the championship over NAIA No. 18 Cole Price.

In the 184 bracket, four bids were available as top seed Tyson Beauperthuy went for the repeat championship. He opened with a pair of pins to advance into the semifinals. Beauperthuy won by tech fall to advance to the title match where he defeated NAIA No. 15 Temuujijin Mendbileg, 6-2.

Five bids were available at 197 and the duo of Bradley Antesberger and Kasten Grape took the first two by advancing to the finals. Antesberger, the top seed, recorded three wins by tech fall in the tournament, including an 18-2 win over NAIA No. 24 Kaleb Lind. Grape, the third seed, opened with a pair of pins to advance to the semifinals. He then defeated NAIA No. 9 Burton Brandt by decision, 11-4. Antesberger claimed his third GPAC title with a forfeit win in the finals over Grape.

The NAIA will hand out a few at-large bids and three Tigers will await word on those. Benjamin Dobler took second at 174 where only one bid was available. He went 3-1 with his loss in the title match coming by a 5-3 decision. Kolton Kammeyer went 4-2 at 184 and placed fifth while Eli Criblez went 2-2 and placed fifth at 285.

The NAIA Championships are scheduled for March 6-8 in Park City, Kansas.