MARSHALL, Mo. – Missouri Baptist University freshman wrestler
Daryl Mills continued his late-season surge by finishing fifth in the 133-pound weight class at the Missouri Valley College Open today in Marshall, Mo.
Mills was one of six Spartans to take part in the highly competitive tournament but experienced the most success of any of the MBU entrants.
A native of Colorado Springs, Colo., Mills started his day in the second round of the championship bracket at 133 pounds with a 22-7 tech fall over Riley Harger of Graceland University. From there Mills took on Cooper Mahaffey of Oklahoma City University. Mahaffey beat Mills by fall a week ago in the AMC/SAC Duals, and this time knocked him into the consolation bracket with a 5-0 decision. Mills regrouped quickly though in reeling off back-to-back victories, first a 25-5 tech fall win over Beau Fischer of Missouri Valley College, then a 13-4 major decision over Ryan Mcneel of Avila University. In the consolation semifinals he would meet Luke Fogleman of top-ranked Grand View University. Mills scored a couple of takedowns and was awarded a penalty point in Period 1, while Fogleman tallied two escapes. Mills led 5-2 after the first period. However, Fogleman would come out strong to start the second period with an escape and a takedown to even the match before winning by fall at 4:08. Mills rebounded from his second loss of the day by winning the fifth-place match over Ethan Woods of the University of St. Mary (Kan.) by a score of 1-0. Mills scored an escape early in the third period to secure the victory. The two wrestlers who defeated Mills, Mahaffey and Fogleman, finished second and third in the weight class.
The newest member of the Spartans squad had a solid debut.
Ricky Ortiz, who joined the team at the beginning of the semester, secured two victories at 133 pounds in his first action on the mat for MBU. After a sudden victory loss to Justin Bradford of Indian Hill Community College in the opening round, Ortiz ripped off four consecutive victories with the last two coming via a medical forfeit. Ortiz, who was wrestling unaffiliated, started his consolation bracket run by defeating Elijah Gunnels of Avila University by fall at 3:53. He then disposed of Roman De la Cruz of the University of St. Mary (Kan.) via 13-1 major decision. Following back-to-back victories via forfeit, Ortiz faced Manny Limon of Indian Hill Community College. Ortiz would drop an 8-2 decision to Limon, who would go on to claim fourth place overall at 133 pounds.
It was an otherwise extremely challenging weekend for the rest of the Spartans participants. Of the other five MBU wrestlers in action, only senior
Trentin Helton saw success as he won his second-round consolation match by fall over Elijah Lewis of NCAA Division II University of Central Missouri.
The next action for the Spartans men's wrestling team will be in two weeks when they participate in the AMC/SAC Championships hosted by Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas.
