Four Wildcats Set to Compete at NAIA Men’s Wrestling Championships
WICHITA, Kan. - Baker men's wrestling will send four wrestlers – Hunter Hall, Kevin Lund, Saoul Prado and Nikolas Slatoff – to the 2025-26 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships this upcoming weekend, hosted by Visit Wichita at Heartland Credit Union Arena in Park City, Kan. on March 5-7.
It marks the second straight national appearance for Prado and Slatoff, who each made it to the second round of the consolation bracket last year, and the first trip for Hall and Lund, who are both competing in the 197-pound bracket.
Slatoff was the Heart runner-up at 149 pounds after rolling to four straight wins to reach the championship match before bowing out due to injury. It was his second straight All-Conference finish after the senior from Henderson, Nev., took third at conference last year. With a 25-4 record, he will wrestle as the seventh seed and face Garrett Pace of Reinhardt in the first round on Thursday.
Wrestling at 125 pounds, Prado (22-7) will face No. 12 Jesse Lewis of Wayland Baptist in his first match of the tournament. The senior grappler, who hails from Las Vegas, secured his second straight top-six conference finish after placing sixth at the Heart meet and was one of three Wildcats to earn an at-large bid to Nationals.
Hall and Lund will both make their NAIA debut on Thursday after finishing in back-to-back spots at the Heart Championships. Wrestling for the first time this season, Hall went 3-3 in his matches in Oskaloosa, Iowa, and placed sixth, while Lund also tallied three wins and came in seventh.
In the first round at 197 pounds, Hall will take on No. 14 Elias Corona of Southern Oregon and Lund will square off against the two-time reigning national champion in Grand View's Garavous Kouekabakilaho.
The three-day national tournament will begin at 11 a.m. on all three days with the event kicking off on Thursday, March 5 and running through Saturday night (March 7), culminating with the championship finals at 7 p.m.
You can watch a live stream of the matches on FloWrestling, the NAIA Network, and the Urban Edge Network, while live results and brackets can be found through TrackWrestling. A link to the preliminary bracket can be found HERE.
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