Slatoff, Carrasco Titles Highlight Baker Wrestling’s Outing at Connor Oppenheim Open
CRETE, Neb. - With the tournaments being held on back-to-back days, the Baker men's and women's wrestling teams traveled to Crete, Neb., this past weekend to compete in the Connor Oppenheim Open, hosted by Doane.
The Wildcats came away with a pair of individual titles - one from each tournament - with Nikolas Slatoff coming out on top of the 149-pound bracket of the men's Open competition, while Johanna Carrasco finished first at 180 pounds in the women's Amateur division.
Slatoff, who is ranked ninth nationally, rolled to four straight wins on Saturday before knocking off the NAIA's seventh-ranked wrestler, Jaden Two Lance of Wayland Baptist, in the title match. It was Slatoff's second championship of the season after the senior from Henderson, Nev., took first at BU's Dan Harris Open to open the year.
Carrasco won all four of her matches on Friday by pin, starting off with back-to-back pins in the first period and then sealing her title with a takedown in the first-place bout.
Kylie Robledo (117) and Nevaeh Wardlow (180) each joined Carrasco with placement finishes on Friday. Robledo won five of her six matches and placed third in the Elite division at 117 pounds, while Wardlow went 2-2 with a pair of pins to finish fourth in the Elite 180.
Hailee Crosland and Willow Dubois both notched four wins in Crete, with Crosland winning three straight to reach the fifth round of the consolation bracket in the Elite division at 160 pounds. Wrestling at 124 pounds of the Amateur division, Dubois rattled off consecutive tech falls before eventually bowing out in the fifth round as well.
On Saturday, Baker had three other wrestlers earn top-three finishes alongside Slatoff as Nat'aani Prado (133) and Noah Sample (165) claimed runner-up honors and Nakkos Benton (149) added a third-place finish in a solid all-around day for BU.
Prado won three straight matches, including an overtime victory in the quarterfinals, to advance to the title match at 133 pounds, where he fell in a hard-fought decision by one point, 11-10. Sample tallied four victories at 165 pounds and outscored his first three opponents by a whopping 52-19 margin. Benton marked a team-high five wins and closed the tournament on an epic 23-20 win in the placement match to place third.
Friday's tournament wrapped up the first half of the 2025-26 season for the BU women, who had a busy start to the year with seven competitions in five weeks. They will be back in action following the winter break, opening up 2026 with a dual at William Woods on January 6 at 5 p.m. in Fulton, Mo.
Meanwhile, the Baker men will have one more weekend of competition before heading into the break. The Wildcats will compete at the Heart Duals, hosted by St. Ambrose, on Saturday, Dec. 13, starting at 10 a.m. in Davenport, Iowa.
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