Bunce Falls in All-America Round to Pace WPU at Nationals
Wichita, Kan.–All four qualifiers won at least one match, but unfortunately none could advance to the second day and reach the podium as the William Penn men’s wrestling team competed at the 66th Annual NAIA Men’s Wrestling National Championship Friday.
WPU scored 10.5 points on the first day of the event to sit in a tie for 27th, but unfortunately have no grapplers left in the Championship.
Kael Bunce (Jr., Stockbridge, Mich., Mechanical Engineering) highlighted the navy and gold efforts by winning three matches at 157 pounds and reaching the All-America round.
The junior opened his day by upsetting #16 seed Tristan Zamilpa of Doane (Neb.) with a dominating 13-0 major decision. Bunce was then unfortunately demoted to the consolation bracket after falling to #1 overall seed Giovanni Bonilla of Grand View, 15-2.
He responded well, though, dropping Tavoris Smith (Concordia-Neb.) 10-0 and Drake Vannoy (Oklahoma City) 8-7. Unfortunately, with a podium spot on the line, he could not produce one more upset, coming up just short to #6 seed Steven Villalobos of Life (Ga.) 9-6.
149-pounder Cameron Hargrove (So., Bolingbrook, Ill., Undecided) also notched multiple victories. All of his work was done on the consolation side, however, after falling to #14 seed Dayton Marvel of Campbellsville (Ky.) 11-9 in his opening bout.
Hargrove then won 8-7 over Hunter Wagner of Ottawa (Kan.) before pinning Aric Williams of Dakota Wesleyan (S.D.) in a time of 4:40. The sophomore’s nationals trip, which was the second of his career, ended in the next round as he was defeated 8-4 by Christopher Gaxiola of Menlo (Calif.).
174-pounder Makail Stanley (So., Oreana, Ill., Biology), who was also making his second nationals appearance, stayed in the winner’s bracket out of the gate with a 13-7 win over #13 seed Maximus Zamora of Menlo.
The sophomore was denied his second upset in a row with a 5-2 loss to #4 seed Nakoda Siegel (Montana State-Northern) and was then eliminated with a 12-4 setback to #14 seed Keegan Muhill of Eastern Oregon.
Branson Bottorff (Jr., Mackinaw, Ill., Industrial Technology) joined Stanley with one victory. After succumbing to #15 seed Nathan Critchfield (Indiana Tech) by an 8-1 score, he remained alive in the competition by winning by fall against Levid Rodriguez of Campbellsville in a time of 5:00.
The junior’s tourney run unfortunately ended in the ensuing match as he was pinned in 2:18 by #16 seed Elijah Hynes of Central Methodist.
“I am really proud of our performance today,” Head Coach Aron Scott said. “Our guys wrestled hard and left it all out on the mat. I was happy to see everyone win a match and get a guy to the blood round (All-America round). We did not get the results we wanted, but we are coming away better wrestlers and are looking forward to next season. We have a lot to be proud of and build upon.”
