SALEM, Ore. – It was strictly business tonight for the RV Corban University Men's Wrestling team in their third and fourth home duals over the past eight days, as the Warriors jumped out to early leads and hardly allowed their Cascade Collegiate Conference opponents, The Evergreen State College and RV Arizona Christian University, to gain any traction in a pair of convincing dual victories.
To view the results from the Arizona Christian versus Evergreen State dual, click HERE.
To view the results from the Corban versus Evergreen State dual, click HERE.
To view the results from the Corban versus Arizona Christian dual, click HERE.
"It was a great night of wrestling and great to wrestle our conference opponents," head coach Nolan Harris stated earlier this evening. "Our guys were aggressive and working hard to outscore our opponents, and they were able to do just that. We won the takedown battle 43 to our opponent's 11 and were able to pick up bonus points in 11 of our 15 victories tonight. In the process, we were able to see some positions and areas that we need to work on, so all-in-all, it was a good night. I'm happy with the fight our guys have each time they step on the mat and look forward to their continued improvement and our next home meet in January."
In the neutral site matchup to start the action at the C.E. Jeffers Sports Center this evening, Arizona Christian allowed only one weight class to the Geoducks that resulted in a pin for Evergreen State, but five pins for ACU resulted in a 43-6 victory for the Firestorm.
The Geoducks hopped out to a slight 3-0 lead via a first bout decision against Corban, as Mark Marum took a 20-13 victory over Warriors' junior Markus Johnson. However, the next two matchups would see Corban take an 11-3 lead, as sophomore Blake Runion earned a technical fall and sophomore Luke Jensen earned a two-minute pin.
Evergreen State jumped back on the board with a pin in the 149-class, where Warriors' freshman Gus Menne was taken down in two minutes flat by Scott Smisek. This would be the final weight class that the Geoducks would earn all night, with their only other points being earned via a 197-weight class forfeit.
The Rubio brothers of redshirt junior David and freshman Jesse took control of the 157 and 165 weight classes with authority, as they both pinned their Geoduck opponents in the first period to extend the Warriors' lead to 23-9. Senior Matthew Bartlett then registered the fastest fall of the evening, pinning Andrew Campbell in just 47 seconds.
Excluding the forfeit, the Navy and Gold would take the final bouts of the dual, with junior Tyson Stover earning a hard-fought technical fall and senior Sven Lukner besting his 285 heavyweight opponent in a little over a minute. Lukner's pin provided the Warriors with a lofty 40-15 dual victory in their first-ever matchup with Evergreen State.
The first four weight classes of Corban's dual with Arizona Christian all resulted in decisions, with two of the four ending with just a single point of difference on the scoreboard. Runion and sophomore Bo Davis escaped with the solo point decisions, while sophomore Brayden Boyd took a 10-3 decision in the 125-weight class. Jensen dropped a battle with Firestorms' Terrell Kinlicheenie in an 8-4 result, thus showing 9-3 in favor of the Warriors with Corban's second-ranked wrestler in the NAIA about to take to the mats.
David Rubio earned the first non-simple decision for either program in the final dual of the evening with a 16-3 major decision over Rico Robles, stretching the team lead to double-digits at 13-3 and his younger brother now on deck. Jesse Rubio and Bartlett came prepared in their final bouts of the day, each earning a technical fall victory and sealing another win for the Warriors on their home mats against a tough conference opponent.
In his first appearance of the day, freshman Isaiah Twait entered the 184-weight class as the underdog to the fourth-ranked wrestler in the CCC and No. 18-ranked in the entire NAIA, ACU's Kaden Martin. In a stunning turn of events, Twait flipped an early deficit into a 3:13 pin to send Warrior Nation into an uproar that would carry over into the final heavyweight matchup.
Following the second 197-weight class forfeit of the evening for the Warriors, Lukner scored the only early takedown needed to slug out a 4-2 decision over Firestorms' Zion Longsine, cementing a dominant 32-9 dual win for Corban in which they finished the day with sixteen weight class victories in eighteen completed bouts, with a pair of forfeits nearing the end of each dual.
Corban men's wrestling will turn their attention back to tournament play next weekend in perhaps the most important tournament of the 2023-24 season prior to the CCC Championships. The Warriors will head to Reno, Nevada for the Reno Tournament of Champions, which will take place on December 17th.
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