Every Eagle Places at Missouri State Championship
CREVE COEUR, Mo. – The (RV) women of Avila wrestling had an excellent showing in their first trip to the Missouri Collegiate State Championship on Saturday near St. Louis – all seven Eagles the participated in the event placed in their respective brackets, powering Avila to a fifth-place finish in terms of team score.
Missouri Baptist played host to this unique event which featured eight collegiate women's wrestling teams from across the state of Missouri. In a field that is smaller than most typical open events, placing wasn't necessarily hard – in fact, some kind of placement was pretty much guaranteed in a lot of the weight classes since there weren't that many wrestlers. But in an event like this, a high placement can be very difficult since the margin for error is so slim – one untimely loss could mean the difference between wrestling for first and wrestling for fifth.
Even still, it was a strong total team showing from the second-year program on Saturday. Of the seven competing Eagles, three finished third in their brackets, one finished fourth and one other finished fifth, and all seven finished somewhere in the top eight. Avila recorded 74.5 total team points, good for fifth out of eight teams – and literally one point behind fourth-place Westminster.
In terms of individual results, Oxmara Diego won her final match of the midday by forfeit to place 7th at 170, while Sara Souresjhani won one of her four bouts to place 6th at 143. Wrestling close to home, Jessica Miller won her first match of the day and shook off two losses to place fifth at 136, and Jada Meredith pinned her opponent in the consolation semifinal before ultimately falling in the third place match to finish in 4th at 191.
Markayla Lottie had yet another solid tournament for the Eagles, rebounding from a loss in her first match of the day to win her final two contests by identical 10-0 tech fall finals to place 3rd at 116. Byanca Cook followed a similar path to the same finish at 130: Cook also dropped her first match by then ripped off three wins in a row – two decisions and a pin – to finish 3rd. And Zoey Mzeru, despite not technically winning any matches, also finished in third in what was a tiny field at 109.
Up next, the Avila women will wrestle in just their second dual of the fall semester, and their first against a KCAC foe, next Thursday, December 8 in Leavenworth against Saint Mary. The women will face the Spires at 6 PM with the men to follow at 7 PM; as always, you can watch all the action live on the KCAC Network.
