Mid Valley Reporter

NAIA Championships Preview: Corban Men’s Wrestling Ready to Make Some Noise at National Championships

The Corban University Men's Wrestling team continues to make strides every single year at both the conference and national levels, as the Warriors will send a program-high four student-athletes to the national stage for the NAIA National Championship this upcoming weekend in Wichita, Kansas, with all four of them primed to compete to the best of their God given ability with the entire country on watch.

For a complete look at the 2022-23 NAIA Men's Wrestling Qualifiers list, click HERE.

To view the preliminary brackets for each weight class, click HERE.

After sending three wrestlers to the final site two of the last three years, along with another duo in their inaugural season back in 2019-20, the Corban Men's Wrestling program has raised the bar once again to secure a new program best four automatic qualifiers for the 2023 National Championships, with three lowerclassmen and one upperclassman set to take to the mats this upcoming Friday and Saturday, March 3rd and 4th, at Hartman Arena.

Leading off the weight class representation for the Navy and Gold is one of the newest members of the Warriors' Men's Wrestling program, freshman Brayden Boyd, who took the entire Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) by storm and impressed many in his first collegiate season. Boyd put together a remarkable resume over his inaugural year at Corban, posting a 25-5 overall record and advancing all the way to the CCC Championship bout back in mid-February to earn the first automatic bid to the National Tournament, where he will be the No. 13-ranked wrestler at the 125-weight class and was given a first-round bye.

Moving up the classes, the next Warrior qualifier is more than familiar with the NAIA tourney, as redshirt sophomore David Rubio, who placed fifth overall in the 2022 National Championships, worked through injuries to begin the season to return to the mats in the CCC Championships to avenge his only loss of the season in the 165-weight class finals. He earned two decisions and a pin to advance to the final match, where he flipped the scoreboard on ERAU's Keller Rock in the closing minute to reclaim his conference crown and become a back-to-back CCC Champion in his weight class. He now enters the National Championships as the No. 4 overall seed, puts his 19-1 season record on the line, and will kick off his tourney run with a first-round bye in bracket play.

Junior Matthew Bartlett will be making his NAIA National Tournament debut at the 174-weight class on Friday, earning one of the final automatic bids that the CCC had to offer by placing 7th overall at the CCC Tournament in one of the deepest conference classes. With a 16-9 season record in head-to-head matchups, Bartlett will look to earn a major upset right out of the gate on Friday, as he has a bout with the No. 1 NAIA wrestler in the 174-weight class scheduled to begin his national stage appearance.

The final Corban student-athlete to suit up on Friday was a Top 25 wrestler the entire season at his division in sophomore Tyson Stover, who earned the seventh and final CCC automatic bid for the 197-weight class to return to the National Tournament once again after an appearance last year on the biggest stage the NAIA has to offer. He'll look to pull off a first-round upset on Friday against the No. 4-ranked wrestler for the 197 individuals in Baker's Malachi Karibo, who is seeking his 30th matchup win of the year, and thus putting Stover's impressive 19-6 season record to good use in the process.

The CCC led all conferences with 57 individual qualifiers. The Heart of America Athletic Conference and Appalachian Athletic Conference were tied for second with 43 student-athletes each while the Mid-South Conference was just behind with 42. Grand View (Iowa), Indiana Tech, and Southeastern (Fla.) will travel 12 wrestlers to the national championships. Life (Ga.), Morningside (Iowa), and Ottawa (Kan.) will bring 11 wrestlers total; Campbellsville (Ky.) and Menlo (Calif.) will bring along 10 each to cap off the conferences and teams with the highest number of national qualifiers.

To watch the Warriors in action at the National Tournament tomorrow, click HERE to see the viewing options available on FloWrestling. All championship matches set for Saturday will be aired on ESPN3. To view all live results via the statistics provided on TrackWrestling, click HERE to access the tournament portal.

Original source can be found here