SAINT LOUIS – The dominance of the American Midwest Conference by the Missouri Baptist Men's Wrestling program was on full-display once again on Saturday as they easily outdistanced their fellow AMC programs and cruised to their second straight AMC Conference Championship. The individual and team championships were contested as part of the AMC/SAC National Qualifier Tournament that took place at the Petty SRC at MBU.
In so doing, they also automatically qualified two of their wrestlers for the NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championship Tournament in Park City, Kan. in two weeks.
Nationally ranked
Dillon Witt finished as the runner-up in the 133 pound weight class. His day began with a victory by fall over Cedric Abney of Jarvis Christian College (Texas.) From there the junior from Sullivan, Mo. turned in what could have been labeled as the biggest upset in the tournament, outlasting eighth-ranked Alex Pena of Wayland Baptist University (Texas) 5-4 in a nail-biter of a match. Witt scored on a second period escape and a takedown, then another early escape in period three. Pena had a single reversal in the second period and gained his other points on stalling calls that were successfully encouraged by the WBU bench. The victory put Witt into the finals against the seventh-ranked wrestler in the country at 133, Dominic Chavez of Texas Wesleyan University. Witt chose bottom position after a scoreless first and was unable to escape until late in the period. Chavez chose bottom position for the third period and gained a reversal 18 seconds in. Witt would escape but the riding time advantage for Chavez proved to be the difference as he reigned victorious, 3-2. Due to his national ranking and the four allocated slots at 133 for the combined AMC/SAC qualifier, Witt will still represent MBU at the national tournament, for the third time in his three-year collegiate career.
With the AMC/SAC only being allocated one bid at 174 pounds, Spartans junior
Tony Connor was operating without a safety net. He didn't need it. Bumping up from his normal 165 pound weight the native of Collinsville, Okla. advanced through three opponents and punched his ticket to Park City. He took out Jakob Wilcox of Wayland Baptist in his first match via fall early in the third period. He advanced past Kolbe Madron of Oklahoma City University in the semifinals via decision. Connor saved his best work for last as he pinned Malakai Owens of Wayland Baptist in the final to secure his trip to the national tournament.
Two other Spartans saw their bid for a berth in the national tournament fall just short.
Joel Campbell at 157 and
Logan Neumann at 197 both lost in the tournament finals.
There is a chance that additional Spartans may make the trip to Nationals after the seeding committee meets to consider at-large bids. A year ago the Spartans' only representative was Witt.
As a team, the Spartans accumulated 136 points, easily outdistancing the next AMC team, Central Baptist, by 86 points. Only SAC entrants Oklahoma City and Texas Wesleyan had more team points than MBU. This is the second AMC conference crown, and the second in a row, for MBU. Last year they outdistanced their next-closest AMC foe by just seven and a half points.
