Mines Results

KEARNEY, Neb. - Weston Hunt was crowned the regional champion at 285 pounds to lead four nationals qualifiers for the Orediggers on a successful day for Colorado School of Mines at the NCAA Super Regional Championships.

Hunt joined 157-pound runner-up Skyler Lykins and third-place finishers Noah Ottum (149) and Robert Gambrell (174) in punching tickets to the NCAA Division II Championships, which begin March 8 in Cleveland, Ohio. Mines will send multiple wrestlers to the national championships for the first time in a decade, since Jesse Snider and Jordan Larson earned trips in 2009.

A year after finishing 13th at the meet, Mines put together 87.5 team points to finish fifth as the host Nebraska-Kearney captured the team title. That remarkable improvement came as Mines had seven placewinners overall, including Matt Lavengood's fourth-place showing at 125 pounds and Lukas Erickson's fifth-place finish at 141. It was the first year the NCAA operated under a new six-region format, with the top three placers in each weight class qualifying for nationals instead of the four in past years.
 

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125 POUNDS
Matt Lavengood made a run to the third-place match, but settled for fourth in a 2-2 day. Both of his losses came to CSU-Pueblo's Josiah Seaton; Seaton won a 4-2 sudden-victory thriller to start the day before Lavengood bounced back with an 8-1 win over NMHU's Dominic Rivera and a 5-3 sudden-victory win over Brandon Vu of San Francisco State. In the third-place bout, it was tied 1-1 until the closing seconds when Seaton earned a takedown in four near-fall points to win 7-1.

133 POUNDS
Jake Woods suffered an early exit in his first NCAA Super Regionals appearance, going 0-2 on the day. Woods nearly pulled out the upset over #4 Darek Huff of Adams State early in the morning but lost in a 3-1 decision; Cody Fatzinger then won their consolation bracket bout with a 9-7 decision.

141 POUNDS
Lukas Erickson ended his Mines career with a fifth-place showing at 141 pounds. Erickson wrestled back from an opening loss to secure a 2-2 day; after losing 4-2 to UNK's Jonathan Killingsworth in the quarterfinals, he beat Chance Karst of Chadron State 6-4 in the second sudden victory period before losing 2-1 to Dylan Udero in the consolation semis. That sent him to the fifth-place match against CSU-Pueblo's Paul Garcia, and Erickson squeaked out a 4-3 victory to place.

149 POUNDS
Noah Ottum earned his spot in Cleveland, making a run to the semifinals before ending up third in a 3-1 day. Ottum beat Colorado Mesa's Daniel Van Hoose by major decision, 10-1, before nearly upsetting #11 Chase Clasen of Chadron State, 3-2, in the semis. That left Ottum needing to win twice to keep his season going, and he did just that, first beating Isiah Alva of San Francisco State 3-2 in the consolation semis before outlasting NMHU's Jonathon Trujillo 11-8 in the consolation final to earn the last 149-pound spot to nationals.

157 POUNDS
Skyler Lykins finished as the runner-up at 157 pounds, clinching his first trip to NCAA Championships. Making his first regionals appearance since 2014-15, Lykins pinned Chadron's Jake Otuafi in 4:10 to start the day, then secured his nationals ticket with a 6-3 win over CSU-Pueblo's Isaiah Diggs in the semis. He ran up against #1 Matt Malcolm of UNK in the final, however, and suffered a 13-4 loss to the nation's top-ranked grappler.

165 POUNDS
Keenan Willits suffered a tough early exit at 165 pounds in an 0-2 day. Willits got caught by eventual regional champion Koery Windham of Adams State in a fall at 2:37; in consolations, Hunter Mullin of Western Colorado won 13-5 in a major decision.

174 POUNDS
Robert Gambrell became the fourth and final Oredigger to qualify for nationals, making it into the semifinals and then wrestling back to take third place in a 3-1 day. Gambrell beat Simon Fraser's Logan Nelson 11-0 to start the day, but then ran up against UNK's Zach Stodden in the semis; Stodden won 8-6, with all three of Gambrell's losses this season coming to Stodden by a combined four points. That put Gambrell into consolations, where he pinned Isaac Lopez of ASU in 2:50, then beat Nelson again by an 8-5 score in the third-place bout.

184 POUNDS
Connor Ventura ended up sixth in the 184-pound bracket, making the championship semifinals before falling into consolations. Ventura beat William Tyler of ASU 10-5 to start the day in the quarterfinals, but ran up against #5 Konnor Schmidt of Western Colorado in the semis, and was pinned in 4:58. In the consolation semis, SFSU's Justin Pichedwatana earned a 4:05 pin, and Nolan Krone of Colorado Mesa won 12-10 in the fifth-place match despite a furious comeback by Ventura to erase a 7-0 deficit.

197 POUNDS
Jake Feldman also took sixth place as he wrestled all the way back to place at 197 pounds. Feldman lost his opener to Chadron's Wade French, 5-1, but bounced back to advance by DQ over Simon Fraser's Nolan Badovinac, then beat SFSU's Andrew Herrera 6-2. Feldman nearly upset #4 Haszell West of CSU-Pueblo in the consolation semis but lost 4-3, then ran up against Trey Schlender of UNK in the fifth-place bout as Schlender earned a pin at the buzzer.

285 POUNDS
#12 Weston Hunt capped off Mines' exceptional day with the super-regional title at 285 pounds, going 3-0 to secure his first career trip to nationals. Hunt, the #2 seed in the bracket, beat Julian Sanchez of NMHU by fall to start things off, but needed a dramatic overtime win against Chadron State's Rulon Taylor to clinch a spot in the final, taking down Taylor in the first sudden-victory period to win 3-1. In the championship against Simon Fraser's Ciaran Ball, Hunt earned a first-period takedown and third-period escape to outlast Ball 3-2.