KEARNEY, Neb.— Colorado Mesa University's
Eduardo Penha won the 141-pound title while fellow senior
Jason Buhr placed third at 165 pounds as both booked trips to the NCAA Division II National Wrestling Championships thanks to their top-three finishes at the NCAA Division II Super Regional VI, contested Saturday here in the University of Nebraska-Kearney's Health & Sports Center.
Penha, a Las Vegas, Nevada native and in his first year as Maverick starter went 4-0 on the day while improving to 22-2 on the season. He is ranked seventh nationally and was the tournament's top seed.
Meanwhile, Buhr will be going to the national tournament for the third straight year in his Maverick career, which has seen him win 110 matches. The La Jara, Colorado native who is 20-6 this year shook off a 5-3 tiebreaker loss to Adams State's Koery Windham, the eventual champion, in his opening match by winning three straight matches in the consolation bracket, including the last two with pins.
In the all-important third place match, Buhr stuck San Francisco State's Maxamillia Schneider in just two minutes and 20 seconds. He had defeated CSU-Pueblo's Zane Zeman at the 4:30 mark of the consolation semifinal and scored a 13-7 win over New Mexico Highlands' Kenneth Yara.
Penha scored a 12-4 major decision win over Chadron State's Chance Karst in the round of 16 and then pinned Darian Manzanares of Highlands at 1:42. In the semifinals, Penha squeaked by Dylan Udero of Adams State, 4-3, a victory which clinched a national tournament berth.
The then claimed a 7-2 win over Western Colorado's Jason Hanenberg, ranked ninth nationally, in the regional final.
As a team, the Mavericks finished sixth with 58 ½ points. The host Lopers won the tournament with 121 ½.
Elsewhere, the Mavericks had two fifth place finishers in 133-pound freshman
Bracken Lovell and redshirt freshman
Nolan Krone at 184 pounds. Both of Krone's losses were by a single point.
Meanwhile,
Daniel Van Hoose (149), Seth Lathem (174) and
TJ Lodermeier (197) all went 1-2 for the Mavericks.
