Patrick and Ayala win titles at York Open
The Concordia wrestling team put on their best performance of the season this weekend, capturing two individual championships and placing five other wrestlers in the top five of their respective weight classes at the York College Open.
The tournament had a GPAC flavor featuring Hastings College, Morningside College, Midland University, Northwestern College and Dakota Wesleyan University. Also competing in the tournament was Baker University (Kan.), University of Nebraska – Kearney, Fort Hays State University (Kan.), Northwest Missouri State University, Bacone University (Ok.) and the host school York College (Neb.).
Two Bulldog wrestlers earned championship honors at York. Travis Patrick (Castle Rock, Wash.) placed first at 133 pounds, and Frank Ayala (West Covina, Calif.) won the heavyweight division. Patrick had an outstanding performance. He defeated an unseeded wrestler from Dakota Wesleyan, then defeated the #3 seed from Hastings, the #2 seed from Nebraska-Kearney, and the #1 seed from Fort Hays State University to win his first collegiate championship.
Junior college transfer Frank Ayala, who was unseeded in the tournament, shook up the field on his way to the championship. Ayala defeated Zane Platt of Northwestern College by fall in 2:20, upset #1 seed Dylan Berg of Baker University by fall in 3:23 after building a 8-1 lead in the second period, then defeated #4 seed Levi Calhoun of Baker University 5-2. The championship performance earned Ayala a trip to the NAIA national championships.
“We turned the corner as a team today,” commented Coach Doug Reese. “A champion is one who overcomes, and we overcame a lot of poor draws and bad seeding in this event. Our guys came to wrestle, and they didn’t care who it was. I was very excited with how we wrestled today.”
Julian Silva (Covina, Calif.) placed third at 197 pounds, upping his season record to a team-best 20-7. Also placing third was Dillon Heesch (Dayton, Iowa), who wrestled unattached at heavyweight.
Placing fourth in the tournament was Alex Rostvet (Hastings, Neb.) at 141 pounds. Brandon Starkey (St. Paul, Neb.) placed fifth at 149 pounds. Starkey won five matches on the day to up his season record to 20 wins for the second straight season.
Robbie Resendiz (San Jacinto, Calif.) also turned in a solid performance at 141 pounds. Blake Augustyn (Ord, Neb.) picked up a pair of wins at 165 pounds.
The Bulldogs captured 32 wins against 23 losses on the day with a total of 13 pins.
The Bulldogs take to mat again on January 20 when they host Hastings College in dual meet action in the HHPAC Arena. Wrestling will begin at 7 p.m. Fans can catch a webcast of the dual at the following link: https://www.cune.edu/athletics/sports-information-office/concordia-sports-network/