THREE EAGLES PLACE AT MISSOURI VALLEY OPEN

MARSHALL, Mo. – With the season nearing its endpoint, Avila men's wrestling may be peaking at the right time as three wrestlers placed in the Missouri Valley Open on Saturday.

"Today was a huge step in the right direction," said Avila head coach Eric Mateo. "I was very pleased with our efforts today as a whole. I asked the guys for aggressiveness on the first whistle and they responded. There were moments in the matches where it was them or us and we found a way to break through and finish tough matches."

The Eagles had the second and fourth-place finishers in the 133-pound class.

Tyler Johnson went 4-1 in the competition, with two wins by fall, one by decision and a fourth by sudden victory. Johnson would lose in the first-place match by fall to SIU-Edwardsville's Porter Matecki.

Two of Johnson's wins came against Gavin Alexander of SIUE and Jett Schwartz of Fort Hayes State, a Division I and Division II opponent, respectively.

Also in the 133-pound division was Ryan McNeel, who finished in fourth. McNeel went 3-2 plus a win via bye in the first round. All three of McNeel's victories came via decision. One of McNeel's losses came to the eventual first-place finisher in the weight class.

The third Eagle who placed in the Open was Corey Holmes in the 184-pound class. Holmes finished his competition going 3-2, also with a win coming via bye. All three of Holmes' wins came via fall, two of which came in under a minute.

Holmes finished in fifth place in the 184-pound class to round out Avila's three top performances of the competition.

In the 197-pound class, Blake Becker picked up two wins and went 2-2 throughout the day. Like Holmes, both of Becker's wins came via falls.

Jace Tapia (157) and Jeremiah Sanders (285) each picked up a victory in their respective classes via decision.

In its final matches before hosting the KCAC Championships at the end of the month, Avila will travel to Oklahoma Wesleyan on Wednesday night to take on OKWU and Bethany.

"We have some technical details to iron out but our mental approach today was on point. We're ready to build on it starting Monday," Mateo said.

A full list of statistics and results can be found here.