PARK CITY, Kan. – Participating in their first tournament, the Missouri Baptist Men's Wrestling squad is coming home from the season-opening Falcon Invite with some impressive results, including a pair of fourth place finishes.
The Falcon Invite hosted by Friends University is held annually at Hartman Arena near Wichita, Kan. which happens to be the same venue in which the NAIA Wrestling National Championship Tournament will take place in four months. Effectively, the tournament shows hundreds of wrestlers from across the country where they all want to end up, then disperses they back to their towns and challenges them to work their way back.
Given the early returns for a few Spartans, a return journey could be not only possible but probable.
A year ago, junior
Dillon Witt made such a journey in representing himself, his team, and his university in the NAIA tournament. He was impressive in taking the first step toward a return journey. Competing in the Elite Division at 133 pounds, the Sullivan, Mo. native won his first two matches to earn a spot in the semifinals. He lost a razor thin 2-1 decision to David Leal of powerhouse program Grandview University which put in in the consolation bracket. In his first foray into the bottom side of the bracket, Witt scored a 1-0 victory to get to the third place match. It appeared he would get the better of Roman De La Cruz of the University of St. Mary before he was taken down twice and suffered a loss by fall in the third period. Witt led the match 4-0 heading into the final frame.
Redshirt sophomore
Logan Neumann was a standout performer for the Navy and White as well. To say the native of Saint Louis had his best collegiate tournament would be an understatement. His day started with a loss by major decision to the eventual champion in the Amateur Division at 197. It would be his final loss on the mat for the day. Neumann proceeded to rip his way through the consolation bracket with three consecutive pins, followed by a major decision, and another pin, with all four pins happening in the first two minutes of his matches. It seems the only thing that could stop Neumann was that he ran out of matches. Meaning he had maxed out with six matches on the day and could not take the mat in the third-place match. He settled for an impressive fourth place finish.
Wrestling in the same bracket as his teammate Witt, sophomore
Daryl Mills went three and two in the tournament. He won his first two matches before losing the eventual champion in the Elite 133 class, Alex Pena of Wayland Baptist. He would win again in the fourth round of the consolation bracket before bowing out in round five via a high-scoring 14-11 decision.
Making his collegiate debut, redshirt freshman
Dayton Boyd stumbled out of the blocks but found his stride quickly to make a statement about his bright future. Boyd suffered an 18-3 tech fall to the eventual fourth-place finisher in his first match at Amateur 125, but quickly turned the tables to tech his next opponent 20-2 then follow that with back-to-back wins by fall, the second of which coming in just eight seconds. He bowed out in the sixth round of the consolation bracket via a decision but finished the tournament with a three and two record.
Dylan Alft made a good run at Amateur 149 after an early setback. After losing his first match, the freshman from Liberty, Mo. ticked off five consecutive wins. Two of those wins came via tech fall, two by decision, and one by injury. Unfortunately, like his teammate Neumann, Alft ran out of matches, having already been on the mat six times. It might have been the only thing standing in his way of a Top-4 finish.
In all, 19 Spartans competed in the tournament, with 14 on the Amateur side and five in the Elite division.
MBU will be back at it next Saturday when they compete in the always-challenging Grand View Open in Des Moines, Iowa. Some of the top NCAA and NAIA teams will be on-hand to take part in the tournament.
