Five Wildcats Set for NAIA Men’s Wrestling National Championships
PARK CITY, Kan. – Baker men's wrestling will send five wrestlers – Brett Bober, Joey Ewalt, Joey Hancock, Malachi Karibo and Dallas Koelzer – to the 2022-23 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships this upcoming weekend, held inside Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan. on March 3-4.
All five BU national qualifiers will be making a return trip to the championships after appearing in last year's national tournament. It will mark a third straight appearance for Bober, Ewalt, Hancock and Karibo, who all competed at the 2020-21 NAIA meet.
Bober, who holds a 29-10 record on the season, will wrestle in the 184-pound bracket in the No. 13 spot and face Kiernan Sherwood (14-6) of Campbellsville. At last year's nationals, the Burlington, Kan. product earned a pair of pins and advanced to the fourth round of the consolation bracket.
At 174 pounds, Ewalt (25-13) takes on No. 6 Chinges Tsermaa, who went 17-5 this season for Doane, in the opening round. Ewalt earned third place at the Heart of America Conference Championships this season and also picked up a pair of NAIA wins in 2021-22.
With a No. 16 ranking and 28-9 record, Hancock will compete against a 165-pound field, beginning with Devin Crawford (24-12) of Montana State – Northern. Competing in his third straight tournament, Hancock will look to build on a couple of second-rounds wins from his previous two outings.
Ranking fourth in the 197-pound bracket, Karibo (29-7) follows up a 2021-22 appearance that saw the hometown grappler (Wichita, Kan.) reach the quarterfinals in Park City. He will go up against Corban's Tyson Stover (19-6) in the opening round.
Carrying a 27-11 record, No. 15 Koelzer faces conference rival Bryson Anderson (17-15), who placed fourth for Missouri Valley at the Heart Championships on Feb. 18, in the first round of the 149-pound division. Coming off a Heart runner-up finish from this month's conference tournament, Koelzer looks to cap a terrific season that started off with a fourth-place finish at the Dan Harris Open on Nov. 6, 2022.
Wrestling will begin at 10 a.m. on Friday, March 3 and run through Saturday (March 4) evening, culminating with the championship finals at 7 p.m.
You can watch a live stream of the Pre-Championship matches HERE (FloWrestling) and the Championship matches HERE (ESPN3), while live results can be found HERE. A link to the preliminary bracket can be found HERE.
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