WICHITA, Kan. – After a record-breaking regular season and their best finish at the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) Championships in program history, the No. 14-ranked Corban University Men's Wrestling program looks to make their biggest splash ever at the NAIA National Championships that are scheduled to begin this upcoming Thursday and run through both Friday and Saturday with ten individual national champions and an NAIA National Championship team title being crowned on the evening of the 8th. With nine wrestlers in total ready to represent Corban on the national stage, the Navy and Gold will be sending the most student-athletes they've ever had on the mats in the Hartman Center since the program was started in 2019-20, and will have an opportunity to finish on the team podium as one of the top ten wrestling programs within the NAIA with some hard-fought head-to-head results.
"We're excited to be back in Wichita and at the NAIA Wrestling Championships," Warriors' head coach Nolan Harris shared earlier this evening. "The guys have been working hard and are prepared, focused and ready to represent Corban University and Christ in how they compete. This tournament is a matter of focusing on one match at a time, getting to the positions we excel in, and closing out close matches. We'll need to be focused for the entirety of the match, because it's the thinnest of margins that will determine the result. Our guys understand this and are ready. Ultimately, it's just three days in March. But it's an enjoyable three days regardless of competitive results, and we expect our guys to have fun over the course of the next several days representing Warrior Nation."
The Warriors concluded their best regular season finish in team history with ten dual wins for a 10-4 overall record, breaking single season-highs of both total wins and winning percentage prior to the 2025 CCC Championships late last month. In Redding, California, the Navy and Gold crowned a pair of individual conference champions in sophomore Isaiah Twait and redshirt junior Antonio Garcia, along with two weight class runner-up finishes and six separate All-Conference honorees.
Both Garcia (20-4) and redshirt senior David Rubio (21-4) will kick off their respective weight classes at the NAIA National Championships as the No. 3-overall seeds, representing the highest seeds among the nine Warriors competing in Wichita this week. Garcia, who has been ranked in the top 15 of the 285-weight class for a majority of the season, made the jump to the third-overall seed and will benefit from a first round bye, whereas Rubio, who is seeking his first national title after back-to-back runner-up finishes at 165 and 157lbs, will kick off the opening round against unseeded Cole Price from Concordia University (Neb.).
Twait (18-4) made the largest jump of any Warrior from the national rankings to final seeding after his electric conference title run where he overcame multiple early round deficits to climb back and clinch victories in every round over national championship caliber athletes, including upsets over both the top and second seeded wrestlers for the 184-weight class. He will enter the 2025 national tournament as the No. 5-overall seed, top of the CCC, and secure a first-round bye within the championship bracket.
The final nationally seeded wrestler for Corban men's wrestling this championship season will be represented by graduate student Tyson Stover (14-6), as he earned the No. 13-overall seed in an extremely competitive weight class that will four other grapplers from the CCC in the top 16 seeds. Stover earned the last remaining automatic qualifying spot for the 174 class via his True Four match in a narrow 8-7 victory over Montana State University-Northern's Devin Crawford and will kick off his national title run in the first round against Benedict Holthaus of Friends University.
Of the five remaining Warriors to qualify for the national tournament, three of them earned automatic qualifying bids based on their finish at the CCC championships to represent the NAIA's deepest conference when it comes to national bids, while the other two were selected by an NAIA Selection Committee for at-large bids based on both their regular season and postseason results.
Among the automatic qualifying wrestlers from Corban who will start the national championship tourney unseeded within their weight classes are sophomore Blake Runion (133), junior Bo Davis (141), and sophomore Jr Downing (149). The student-athletes selected for at-large bids are junior Luke Jensen (141) and graduate student Hunter James (197).
Runion (10-8) fought his way up the conference bracket to finish in an unprecedented runner-up position after beginning the CCC tournament as the sixth overall seed for 133lbs, defeating the No. 3 and No. 2-overall seeds to earn a spot in the championships bout where he lost an overtime result to the class's top seeded wrestler. In similar fashion, Davis (11-8) shocked the conference as the No. 4-seed by reaching the weight class semifinal round before falling to the eventual class champion and making a run through the consolation bracket to a third-place finish and All-Conference honor. Runion will face off with No. 11-seeded Izaeah Beavers from Campbellsville University, whereas Davis will battle No. 12-seeded Devin Avedissian from Doane University.
Downing (27-4) made the most of his opening day loss at the conference championships by going undefeated in the consolation bracket, winning his final four bouts which included a 6:41 pin over the 149-class second seed from No. 6-ranked University of Providence to earn All-Conference honors as the third-place grappler. He will battle the fourteenth-overall national seed in Pat Gould from Life University to kick off his first NAIA tournament appearance.
Finally, Jensen (12-6) and James (11-8) both look to put their conference tournament appearances behind them and return to their successful regular season results that led to their at-large bids from the NAIA, as they both entered the 2024-25 season with high expectations and are both extremely capable of replicating those expectations on the national stage this week and into the weekend. Jensen is scheduled to face the No. 2-overall seed in Hartwell Taylor from the University of Saint Mary (Kan.), whereas James will compete against the No. 4-seeded Ryker Blackburn, who also represents Saint Mary.
To view all ten of the national tournament brackets, click HERE.
The first five sessions of the NAIA National Championships will be made available to view on FloWrestling with a subscription, while the championship rounds will be streamed for free on the NAIA Network. Live results can be accessed TrackWrestling, while those attending the three-day event in Kansas can purchase individual session and tournament passes on TicketMaster.
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