NAIA Reveals Championship Qualifiers; Hometown Squad Taking 12 to Kansas

NAIA Reveals Championship Qualifiers; Hometown Squad Taking 12 to Kansas
February 25, 2020

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

KANSAS CITY, Mo. – (Qualifiers by Weight Class | Qualifiers by school | Qualifiers by Conference) The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletes (NAIA) has officially announced the qualifiers for the 2020 NAIA Wrestling National Championships, hosted by Visit Wichita, on Tuesday night.

The 63rd annual event takes place March 6-7 at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan., and the Eagles join eight-time defending national champion Grand View (Iowa) as the only two squads taking a full roster of 12 grapplers to the national championships.

Conference champions in their respective weight class earn an automatic berth to the national championship. Conferences received additional allocations based on the amount of wrestlers ranked in each weight class in the final regular-season coaches' poll.

In addition to the automatic qualifiers, each conference was allowed three at-large individuals from any weight class. A 14-member national selection committee selected the remainder of the 240-wrestler field.

At the Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) Championship, Reinhardt soared to 165 points to win the AAC crown – 99 points ahead of the nearest team – West Virginia Tech.

The Eagles also swept the individual awards with Koby Milner earning Wrestler of the Year, Nic Jarvis Freshman of the Year and Jeff Bedard was named Coach of the Year once again.

Results
 125: (First-Place Match) Koby Milner (Reinhardt University) 12-3, Jr. over Brandon Navixay (Truett-McConnell (Ga.)) 1-1, So. (TF-1.5 5:13 (15-0)
133: (First-Place Match) Jordan Pitt (Reinhardt University) 2-0, Sr. over Logan Robertson (WVU Tech (W.Va.)) 22-10, RS Jr. (Dec 13-8)
141: (First-Place Match) Jody McAlister (Reinhardt University) 10-6, Jr. over Trent Leon (Reinhardt University) 6-3, RS So. (Dec 6-0)
149: (First-Place Match) Curtis Doctor (Reinhardt University) 13-4, Jr. over Devin Wilhelm (WVU Tech (W.Va.)) 9-4, Jr. (Dec 5-2)
157: (First-Place Match) Nolan Saxton (Reinhardt University) 11-4, Jr. over Creed Lumpp (Bluefield College) 0-1, Jr. (Dec 3-2)
165: (First-Place Match) Justin George (Reinhardt University) 7-0, RS So. over Cole Tenety (Reinhardt University) 9-6, So. (MD 10-2)
174: (First-Place Match) Michael Carew (Reinhardt University) 5-1, Sr. over Leslie Campbell (WVU Tech (W.Va.)) 17-19, So. (Fall 1:32)
184: (First-Place Match) Antonio Stewart (Reinhardt University) 12-2, Jr. over Jacob Thomas (WVU Tech (W.Va.)) 13-18, Fr. (Fall 1:31)
197: (First-Place Match) Jacob Henderson (Reinhardt University) 13-4, So. over Vincent DeVaney (WVU Tech (W.Va.)) 11-6, So. (Dec 9-4)
285: (First-Place Match) Nicholas Jarvis (Reinhardt University) 9-5, Fr. over Ethan Powell (Truett-McConnell (Ga.)) 2-1, Fr. (Fall 1:41)

Stay tuned for continued coverage of the event as Reinhardt gets closer to competition.

Preliminary brackets will be announced on Friday on www.naia.org.

For additional information on the 2020 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships, click here.

For up-to-the-minute Eagles sports news, follow Reinhardt Athletics on Facebook, @RU_Eagles on Twitter and @ru_eagles on Instagram. 

For more information on Reinhardt Wrestling, please click here.