Wildcats Split Senior Night Duals with Central Methodist

BALDWIN CITY - The Baker men's and women's wrestling teams earned a split in their Senior Night matchup against conference opponent Central Methodist on Thursday night in the Collins Center.

In a battle of top-20 teams, the 20th-ranked BU women pulled out a 24-23 victory over No. 18 CMU on a tiebreaker in the first dual of the night. The CMU men, who rank 15th nationally, won the men's dual by a score of 34-12.

Between duals, the Wildcats honored a total of 11 seniors - five women and six men - for their contributions to the BU wrestling programs. Those seniors included Johanna Carrasco, Jade Martin, Kylie Robledo, Mariam Shariq, Kylee Slyter, Joshua Broyles, Hunter Hall, Eli Messick, Saoul Prado, Nikolas Slatoff and Keeghan Troutman.

In the women's dual, Baker used a pair of hard-fought decisions courtesy of McKenna Haltom (145) and Madeleine Stone (207) and three forfeits from CMU's side to eke out the victory via the tiebreaker on total falls and forfeits.

With BU trailing by five at 17-12, Haltom worked out a 6-0 decision in the 145-pound match to bring the Wildcats closer. Then, in the decisive match with the score 22-20 in favor of CMU, Stone sealed the victory for the Wildcats after earning a 5-2 win in a ranked matchup at 207 pounds.

It marked the fifth dual win of the season for Baker, with all five victories coming on the 2026 portion of the schedule. BU has won five of its six matches since the holiday break, with the lone setback coming to No. 2 Grand View.

Central Methodist claimed seven of the 10 weight classes in the men's dual to run away with the dual late after a tight-knit start.

Saoul Prado (125) opened with a 6-2 decision in the first bout of the dual to spot BU a 3-0 lead. Slatoff picked up another three points for BU in the 149-pound match after earning an 11-4 victory to cut Baker's deficit to 9-6.

The Eagles came out on top of the next four and then, after their forfeit at 197 pounds, capped the dual with a pin at 285 pounds.

Up next, the Baker women will head to Midland's Warrior Open this weekend, with the single-day tournament set to start at 9 a.m. on Saturday, Jan. 31, in Fremont, Neb. Meanwhile, the Wildcat men will close out their regular season with a non-conference dual at home on February 7 against Saint Mary at 1 p.m. in the Collins Center.

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