#4 Men's Wrestling 3/4/2020 2:22:00 PM

Nine OCU wrestlers take mat in NAIA Championships

11th-ranked Stars grapple for honors this weekend

PARK CITY, Kan. – Gage Johnson and Chase Vincent of Oklahoma City University will strive for their second all-American accolades in the NAIA men's wrestling championships Friday and Saturday at Hartman Arena.
Nine Stars will compete in the NAIA Championships, which start 10 a.m. Friday with the first session. Wrestling Saturday starts 10 a.m. with the championship finals 6 p.m.
Fans can follow the tournament on live results and watch at Track Wrestling. The championship finals will be broadcast on ESPN3.
Oklahoma City posted a sixth-place finish and collected four all-American nods in the 2019 national tournament. The Stars produced their fourth top-10 showing in the NAIA Championships.
The 11th-ranked Stars come off winning their first Sooner Athletic Conference championship with six individual league champions. OCU previously had won NAIA Championship Qualifying Group titles in 2016 and 2017.
"It's not easy to do going 6-for-6 in the finals," said OCU coach Sam Hazewinkel, who shared the SAC coach of the year honor. "Somebody's going to have a bad day. None of that affected the guys. They were all on pointe, wrestled their match and found a way to win. Going 6-for-6 means a lot. It means we're peaking when we need to. The guys are fresh, and their mindsets are right. We were always focused on the next match."
Indiana Tech, ranked 19th, led the team standings after the first day and during the consolation matches. Oklahoma City overcame those deficits.
"It's exciting," Hazewinkel said. "We had 10 in the semis the first day. We had guys in the wrestlebacks scoring points, and we had guys sitting waiting. We were going to score a lot of points. We were going to battle the whole day."
Vincent became a fourth-place finisher in the 174-pound bracket last year. Vincent, a junior from Yukon, Okla., takes a 19-4 record and No. 3 national ranking into the national tournament after capturing his second consecutive SAC title.
Johnson, a sophomore from Norman, Okla., collected a seventh-place finish at 285 pounds as a freshman in the 2018 NAIA Championships. Johnson snagged the SAC heavyweight title. Johnson owns the No. 9 spot in the national rankings and a 15-5 season mark.
Austin Loza snared the outstanding wrestler award of the SAC Championships. Loza, a sophomore from Enid, Okla., pinned Zane Corey of Cleary (Mich.) in 20 seconds to win the 149-pound league title. Loza has a 14-4 record in 2019-20.
Eight OCU individuals reeled in national-tournament berths in the SAC Championships. Connor Holman became the ninth national-tournament qualifier for the Stars as a national wild-card qualifier.

Oklahoma City University
Lineup for NAIA Championships
National ranking, Name, Weight (Season record)
No. 10 Montana Moon, 125 (16-4)
No. 14 Drake Foster, 133 (15-6)
No. 17 Jaxen Gilmore, 141 (18-5)
No. 15 Connor Holman, 149 (20-9)
Austin Loza, 149 (14-4)
No. 17 Jon McGowan, 157 (19-8)
No. 3 Chase Vincent, 174 (19-4)
No. 11 Easton Rendleman, 197 (21-5)
No. 9 Gage Johnson, 285 (15-5)

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