ST. LOUIS – Missouri Baptist women's wrestling earned five wins at the Cliff Keen Duals Tournament to take third place in the 24-team event at the Freede Center in Oklahoma City.
The Spartans went 3-2 during the first day of the tournament, defeating Oklahoma City, Lyon College and Lindenwood-Belleville.
Montana Drum and Berenice Blanco both won by decision to help Missouri Baptist top Oklahoma City Blue 23-18 in its first match of the tournament. Erika Mihalca also won by fall in the 130-pound weight class to help pave the path to victory.
The Spartans dropped their second match to King 38-8, but then rebounded to take down Lyon College 25-18. Blanco won in the 143-pound class by technical fall and Kassandra Castruita won by fall in the 155-pound weight class. The match also featured three forfeits won by Missouri Baptist.
Missouri Baptist lost its next match in a close 24-23 battle with Wayland University, but once again regained its composure and bounced back with a victory to close day one. Another Blanco win and four forfeits helped the Spartans beat Lindenwood-Belleville 26-13 to send them to the Silver Bracket for day two.
Day two started with a 31-11 win over McKendree University in the quarterfinal. Castruita, Blanco and Marki Simmons started the match off with three straight victories to build a nice lead for Missouri Baptist to work with. Mihalca, Drum and Maria Ahumada all won their respective matches as well in the route.
The Spartans forfeited three weights in their 30-19 loss to Ottawa University in the semifinals, but continued their bounce-back trend to take the 3rd place match over Life University. Missouri Baptist earned five individual matches to win it. Blanco sealed the deal with her win by fall in the 143-pound class.
Missouri Baptist will return to the mat November 4th when they take on Oklahoma City.
TEAM RESULTS
