ST. LOUIS – Missouri Baptist women's wrestling came-up short of placing on Saturday as the team went 2-2 in the NWCA National Duals.
The Spartans began the day with a victory over Midland University 44-6 and continued the team's success in a win over Waldorf in the first round of the tournament. The team dropped its next two duals in a row, however, losing to third-place finisher Oklahoma City University and fifth-place finisher Campbellsville.
Against No. 10-ranked Waldorf College, MBU built an impressive 32-15 victory and recorded seven wins in the process. Montana Drum posted five points for the Spartans with a win by fall over Dana Karkar and led her team with the win. Cheyenne Youngblood, Forrest Molinari, Karissa Avallone and Aylin Hernandez also recorded wins by technical fall.
MBU's other win on the day came against No. 10 Midland University. The Spartans grabbed nine of 10 victories in a 44-6 win. Missouri Baptist posted four victories by fall with Brenda Gonzalez winning her bout by technical fall in the 155lb weight class.
Against No. 2 Oklahoma City, MBU struggled to put points on the board in a 41-3 loss. Oklahoma City swept the dual to continue on in the winners bracket.
The Spartans also dropped its final dual of the day to No. 6 Campbellsville University, 26-19. MBU and Campbellsville are tied in the NWCA National Rankings at six, which showed in the evenly-matched dual.
After dropping the first two bouts at 101 and 109, MBU got on the board at 116lbs. No. 6-ranked Bree Rapoza defeated No. 10 Michelle Lomas in a commanding 10-0 technical fall victory. No. 10-ranked Montana Drum made it two in a row for Missouri Baptist at 123. She picked-up her third win of the day in a 9-6 decision to tie the dual at eight.
In what was one of the biggest bouts of the day in the tournament, No. 2 Cheyenne Youngblood faced-off with No. 3 Rosemary Flores of Campbellsville. Flores came out victorious with a pin at 1:19.
As the Tigers came on strong, Karissa Avallone pulled an upset at 155 for Missouri Baptist. The Pawhuska, Okla., native recorded a huge win by fall over No. 5-ranked Michele Organ and kept her team in the hunt.
The dual came down to the final bout at 191lbs with Missouri Baptist down by two and Aylin Hernandez representing the Spartans for the win. Tiaira Scott took the win by fall over Hernandez and the dual for the Tigers.
Missouri Baptist will now gear-up to host the WCWA National Championships in just two weeks. The two-day tournament will feature the top female wrestlers in the WCWA and will begin on Friday, Jan. 24.
