Men’s Wrestling team make history

LA GRANDE – (Information provided by EOU Athletics) For the first time in program history, Mountaineer Men’s Wrestling is bringing home a conference title since the program’s reinstatement! Eastern Oregon scored 130.5 points at the 2022 CCC Championships, to secure the conference title in historic fashion.

For the Mountaineers, it is their first ever CCC Title and the first conference title the team has won since the 1969-70 season. For Head Coach Dustyn Azure, it is his first CCC crown as the bench boss for the Mountaineers that were reestablished ahead of the 2016-17 season. He was named the 2022 CCC Coach of the Year after leading the Mounties to the historic win. For Azure, it is his second CCC Coach of the Year award.

The Mounties went into the weekend as a dark horse candidate to win the conference title, but it was a stout day one performance that had the team sitting second going into day two. On the second day of action, EOU’s grapplers were aggressive from the onset and their tempo paved the way toward what was a historic day for the program.

Going into day two, Eastern had 10 of their 12 wrestlers still competing and when the dust settled eight grapplers placed and one was crowned a champion. Highlighting the group was Kyle Knudtson who was crowned the champion at 184 pounds for the Mountaineers. In all, five Mounties also earned automatic qualifying bids to the 2022 NAIA National Championships.

Joining Knudtson as auto-qualifiers were Zach Mauras (133 lbs.), Jaxon Morlan (141 lbs.), Keegan Mulhill (174 lbs.), and Noel Orozco (285 lbs.). The quintet will now battle to become NAIA All-Americans in early March.

Knudtson went 2-0 on day two en route to securing his first CCC Title. He started with a pin in 1:53 over Alan Badley Providence. In the finals, he battled all three rounds and ultimately scored a 5-2 decision over Hayden Schrull of Providence to walk away a champion.

Three Mounties finished second in Morlan, Smith, and Orozco. Morlan was 3-0 on day two and won a wrestle-off in his final match over teammate Chad Muenzer to secure a spot for Nationals. He started the day with a medical forfeit win before scoring a 6-2 and 7-5 decision to finish the day undefeated.

Smith and Orozco both went 1-1, winning in the semifinals before falling in the finals. Smith’s win was a close 8-7 decision in the semifinals. He fell via pin in 4:01 in the finals. Orozco won via a pin in the semis in 6:06, but dropped a 2-1 decision in the finals. He ended the day with a non contest win for second place to secure an auto-bid to the National Championships.

Both Muenzer and Mulhill were third, respectively. Muenzer was 1-2 on the day with his lone win being a medical forfeit in the semifinals. For Mulhill, he dropped a close tiebreaker, 3-2 in the semifinals to go to the consolation bracket. He responded by winning his final two matches to place third. He scored an 11-2 major decision before picking up a forfeit win to end the day. 

Rounding out the placewinners for EOU were Luciano Fasulo at 125 pounds and Mauras at 133 pounds. Fasulo placed fifth, going 2-1 on day two. He picked up wins via a major decision and a decision, respectively, to place in the top-five. For Mauras, he was 1-2 with his lone win being a decision to place sixth.

Eastern has five automatic qualifiers for the NAIA National Championships and will await and see for any at-large bids. At-large bids for the National Championships will be announced on Tuesday, Feb. 22 at 3 p.m. PT.

The 2022 NAIA National Championships will be held March 4-5 in Hartman Arena in Wichita, Kansas.

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