Tanner Kriss and Travis Budke were the only Tiger wrestlers to punch their tickets to the NCAA Championships in two weeks in Birmingham, Ala., each with a third-place finish at the NCAA Super Regional 4 Tournament in Chadron, Neb. Fort Hays State had eight wrestlers still alive entering Saturday, but Kriss and Budke were the only Tigers to finish in the top four to advance.
Kriss won two matches on Saturday to claim third place, doing so in convincing fashion. The No. 5 ranked wrestler at 197 pounds defeated Chris Leak of Chadron State by a 16-4 major decision, then defeated Justin Rockhill of New Mexico Highlands with a pin in 1:07 in the consolation final.
Budke, a former TMP-Marian standout, defeated Zak Slotten of Colorado Mesa 3-2 in overtime and then defeated Ray Hall of CSU-Pueblo 3-2 in regulation to finish third at 174 pounds. Budke is one of three seniors on the Tiger wrestling team this year.
At 133 pounds, Rory Wilkinson was blanked in the consolation semifinals by Martin Ramirez of Adams State and then blanked again in the fifth-place match against Isaiah Hurtado of San Francisco State.
At 141 pounds, C.J. Napier lost to Brock Coutu of Nebraska-Kearney 7-3, then lost in the fifth-place match to Corbin Bennetts of Western State 3-1 in overtime. It was the second time in the tournament that Bennetts defeated Napier.
At 149 pounds, Noah Killip lost 5-1 to James Martinez of Colorado Mesa. He then defeated Austin Cordova of Colorado Mines for fifth, but was unable to challenge Martinez for the fourth spot at nationals since he lost to Martinez earlier in the tournament.
At 157 pounds, Derek Koehn lost to Chase White of Nebraska-Kearney by pin, then defeated Bruce Zurek of Chadron State to finish fifth. Koehn, like Killip, was unable to challenge fourth-place finisher John Crowley of Colorado Mines for his spot at nationals since he lost to him earlier in the tournament.
At 165 pounds, Sam Thoman lost to Trevor Grant of CSU-Pueblo by pin, but bounced back to defeat Brock Lamb of Simon Fraser for fifth. Thoman also could not challenge for a spot at nationals after losing to Grant, who took fourth place.
At 184 pounds, Zack Grimes lost to Jordan Debus 14-7 and then lost in the fifth-place match to Igor Gomzin 14-3.
– FHSU Sports Information –