Season in Review: Eads’ All-America Award Highlights Wrestling Season
Oskaloosa–Led by its first All-American in five years, William Penn men’s wrestling team capped off its 2019-2020 on a positive note.
In what was a so-so campaign for the Statesmen, Joe Eads (So., Morrison, Ill., Biology) stepped up down the stretch and claimed a plethora of impressive wins to reach the podium. The sophomore 149-pounder went 4-2 in his first appearance at the NAIA National Championships to place seventh.
Months before he accomplished his goal being an All-American, Eads and his teammates opened the year in early November with a dual against old rival Central. The navy and gold were outmatched on that night, falling 52-0.
They evened their mark just a few nights later by receiving a forfeit win against Waldorf. The tournament schedule commenced that weekend at the Grand View Tournament. While the team had little success in the Open division, several team members did well in Freshman-Sophomore division, including heavyweight Maxwell Diaz (Fr., Miami, Fla.) reaching the finals. Preston Wiest (Fr., Troutsville, Va.) placed third as well.
After dropping several a handful of dual meets to close out the pre-holiday portion of its schedule, WPU returned to the mat in January. Eads lost in his bout against Trey Heckadon in William Penn’s dual versus Graceland, but that weekend, he avenged that loss at the Central Invitational.
That victory was just the start for the sophomore, who went 7-3 over the next few weeks.
The final home event of the season witnessed the Statesmen putting on their best show as they dropped Hannibal-LaGrange 37-12.
Sitting outside the top 20 nationally entering the Heart of America Athletic Conference Championships, Eads needed to have a breakout day in order to earn an automatic berth for nationals. He did manage a big upset to reach the third-place match, but could not get past Heckadon in the rubber-match between the two, seemingly ending his season.
Darwin Diaz (Fr., Pembroke Pines, Fla., Sociology) notched a pair of wins at the Championships as well.
New life was breathed into Eads’ season following the meet as he collected an at-large bid for nationals. From there, he took full advantage of his opportunity, knocking off several top-20 opponents en route to a 4-2 record (three falls) to garner the program’s first All-American award since 2015.
Eads finished the year at 27-18, including 20 falls. Maxwell Diaz (13 wins, 11 falls) and Darquell Pierre (Sr., St. Petersburg, Fla., Sociology) (16 wins) also hit the double-digit mark for victories.
“We continued to make strides in the right direction through a tough and challenging year,” Head Coach Aron Scott said. “We battled through some injuries and sicknesses that really hindered our performances in duals and tournaments. Despite these difficulties, the team remained positive and improved on an individual basis. While we are very excited about Joe’s individual accomplishment of getting an All-American, we had our sights set higher as a team and we know that we are capable of much more.”
“We are still a young team and have some exciting talent that will be coming out of a redshirt year this upcoming season so we are very excited about the future of William Penn wrestling,” Scott added. “The work ethic and positive energy of this team and that of our leaders will continue to push us higher in our aspirations.”
