Eagles Send Eight to Nationals - Burdick Earns His Third All-American
Witchita, KS - Reinhardt Wrestling had eight qualifiers for the NAIA Nationals which took place on February 29th - March 2nd. The wrestlers qualified from their performance at the AAC Championships previously and their achieved ranking from matches throughout the season.
The eight wrestlers that qualified were Angel Banda at 125, Domenico DiGena at 141, Dawson Bates at 149, Trevor Burdick at 157, Matt Jenkins at 165, Curtis Thomas at 197, John Lovett at 197, and Gavin Harper at 285. Burdick and Jenkins both were the returning All-Americans from last year's team and Burdick had two All-American seasons under his belt.
Just qualifying for the NAIA Nationals is an honor in itself, but working your way through a wrestling bracket at Nationals is a tough task. All-American status is awarded to the top eight wrestlers in each weight class and to achieve this is a great honor. At the end of the tournament, Trevor Burdick was the only wrestler who earned this title to become a three-time NAIA All-American. This places him among the best wrestlers ever in the history of the Eagles Wrestling program.
Burdick was able to win his first three matches which sent him all the way to the semifinals match. In the semifinals, he faced the #1 ranked wrestler where he was defeated and sent to the consolation rounds. In the consolation rounds, he made his way to the final third-place match, however, after another hard-fought battle - Burdick would end up finishing in fourth position. Burdick was the fourth-best wrestler in the nation this year at 157 weight class and is now a three-time NAIA All-American! The wrestler who beat Burdick in the semifinal match went on to win the weight class, which shows how close Burdick was to being named National Champion. Reinhardt University is extremely proud of Trevor Burdick's achievement and representation of the University.
Here is a breakdown of how the remaining wrestlers did at this year's NAIA Nationals.
Angel Banda - 125: Banda made it to the third round before losing and sending him to the consolation rounds. In the consolation rounds, he won two matches before being eliminated.
Domenico DiGena - 141: DiGena had an unfortunate bracket placement as he had to face the #1 wrestler in the first round. He narrowly lost 3-2 and was sent to the consolation rounds. In the consolation rounds, DiGena was eliminated.
Dawson Bates - 149: Bates lost in the second round in the 149 weight class and was sent to the consolation rounds. In the consolation rounds, he won one match before being eliminated.
Matt Jenkins - 165: Jenkins was one of the top wrestlers in the Reinhardt program the past few years and was ranked as high as #2 in the country this season. He was an All-American from last season and had goals of repeating, but it was not meant to be. He made it to the third round where he was narrowly beaten by a semifinal wrestler sending him to the consolation rounds. In the consolation rounds, he was paired against the #6 wrestler where he again narrowly lost 7-6 eliminating him from the competition.
Curtis Thomas - 197: Thomas lost in the second round to the #6 wrestler sending him to the consolation rounds. There he would win one match before being eliminated in the next round. Thomas had a great season wrestling for Coach Bedard and Coach Lee and was often the most consistent wrestler winning in both dual matches and tournaments.
John Lovett - 197: Lovett lost to the #4 wrestler in the first round which sent him to the consolation round. There, he won one match before being eliminated in the second round.
Gavin Harper - 285: Harper lost in the first round and was sent to the consolation rounds. He was able to win one match in the consolation rounds before being eliminated.
Reinhardt Wrestling will wrap things up for the 2023-24 season and start looking to replace some of the top talent that they will be losing this year. It will be time for some of the younger wrestlers to step up to fill some of the positions that wrestlers like Trevor Burdick and Matt Jenkins filled the past three to four years. This was a great group of wrestlers this season for Reinhardt and we are all proud of their achievements and representation of the University.