Avila Earns KCAC Victory over OKWU at Avila Duals
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Avila men's wrestling kicked off the 2024 portion of its calendar by hosting three other schools at the 2024 Avila Duals this Saturday at Mabee Fieldhouse, where the Eagles highlighted their day by handling conference foes Oklahoma Wesleyan in a resounding win.
For the second straight month, Avila wrestling opened the doors of Mabee Fieldhouse for a full day of dual action. To make up the four-team field, (RV) Avila welcomed fellow KCAC squad Oklahoma Wesleyan, (RV) Dakota Wesleyan out of the GPAC, and NCAA Division II squad Central Missouri, alma mater of both Avila head coach Eric Mateo and associate head coach Greg Waag.
The Eagles kicked off their trio of duals by facing their conference foes from Oklahoma on Saturday morning. The OKWU Eagles have been a KCAC contender in the past with some strong lighterweights, but those Eagles came into Saturday a bit shorthanded, and the Avila Eagles took full advantage of that situation en route to an impressive win.
Avila got the dual started strong, getting decision wins from Tyler Johnson and Jacob Ramirez and a pin from Ryan McNeel, who rebounded from an early deficit to earn a clutch win. OKWU finally got on the board with a pair of wins, but Avila was able to limit those wins to merely decisions, and Avila led 12-6 halfway through the dual.
Both teams then got forfeit victories, so though the scores changed the margin remained the same, 18-12, with three bouts to go. But the upperweights have been where Avila has been the best consistently this season, which meant the homestanding Eagles were in great shape to see out the team victory – and that's exactly what they did. Daryus Webb had no trouble with Bryan Ayala at 184, Blake Becker rallied from an early deficit and spun it into an exciting major decision at 197, and Nathan Coley finished it off with a first-period pin at heavyweight, closing out a comprehensive 32-12 victory for Avila over their KCAC foes.
Up next, Avila faced off with Dakota Wesleyan, which was fresh off a loss to UCM on the other mat. Both the Eagles and Tigers are receiving votes in the NAIA ratings with two wrestlers appearing in the rankings: both of DWU's are in the middleweights and both of Avila's are in the upperweights, which set the stage for a potentially close, exciting dual.
That's exactly what the two teams delivered. Avila got off to a dream start thanks to pin wins from Johnson and McNeel at 125 and 133, but DWU's middleweights delivered as they were expected to: the Tigers won five straight weights, including one forfeit, to seize control of the dual.
The Tigers had to forfeit to Webb at 184, which brought the team score to 23-18 in favor of DWU, giving the Eagles a legitimate chance to rally for the win. Becker did his job at 197, earning a resounding 18-5 major over Colten Hink. That made the score 23-22 with nationally-ranked heavyweight Gavin Howes hitting the mat for the Eagles. In a fitting finish to an exciting dual, the final bout between Howes and Trevion Sample was finally decided in the second period of sudden overtime, where Sample was able to eke out a win despite neither athlete recording a takedown, giving Dakota Wesleyan the 26-22 victory in the dual.
Finally, Avila concluded its day against Central Missouri, a program with a lot of connections to an Eagle squad in the third year of its existence. UCM lost only two matches (including one by forfeit) to Dakota Wesleyan earlier in the day, and the Eagles were unable to better that result: Ryan McNeel got a forfeit victory at 133 and Daryus Webb majored Paul Hernandez at 184, and the Mules earned victories in every other weight to earn a 39-10 victory in the dual. McNeel and Webb both won all three of their matches on the afternoon.
Up next, Avila men's wrestling has a full weekend of action next week: some of the Eagles will travel to York on Friday and others will compete in the Roger Denker Open. Stay tuned to our website, avilaathletics.com, for more details on those events whenever they are available.
