The NAIA National Tournament capped off another year of new accomplishments for the Baker University wrestling team.
The third-year program finished 11th overall and had four of its 12 wrestlers earn All-American status.
“It was a good weekend for Baker wrestling,” head coach Jimmy May said. “We had four All-Americans and one made it to finals. Every one of our 12 kids won matches, so it was good for Baker wrestling.”
Junior Brandon Gebhardt led the Wildcats by finishing as the national runner-up in the heavyweight bracket. Gebhardt made a statement early by pinning his first two opponents. He followed up the pins by defeating Missouri Baptist University’s Jeff Kent by decision 8-3 and outlasting Shorter University’s Andrew Ewers to advance to the championship match. Gebhardt went up against Grand View University’s Eric Thompson, who pinned all of his opponents except one, when he beat 14-0 by major decision. Thompson pinned Gebhardt as well, but Gebhardt was still pleased with his experience in the tournament.
“It was really exciting actually,” Gebhardt said. “I lost to (Thompson) at regionals and the whole tournament really was just trying to make my way back to see him again. It was a really exciting feeling. Honestly, my whole goal for this year had been to get All-American, so it was just icing on the cake to get (to) the finals.”
After being knocked off in his opening match, senior Jarell Price fought back to place fifth in the 149-pound weight class. Price placed seventh overall at last year’s national tournament and is now the program’s first two-time All-American.
“He wrestled really tough,” May said. “He had to come from the back side to get all the way to fifth. He wrestled some tough kids and won some really close matches. He finished his career … I think he has won around 140 plus matches in his college career.”
To round out the list of All-Americans, freshman Robert Shadrach and junior Jarid Price battled it out for seventh place in the 184-pound weight class. Jarid and Shadrach went into overtime deadlocked at 1-1 before Shadrach was able to get a pin.
“What was going on in my mind in that match was to just get it over,” Shadrach said. “As much as I love both of us being All-Americans, it’s not fun to wrestle your teammate.”
While BU plans to take time to recuperate from the season, May is already excited for next year as the team returns a majority of its wrestlers.
“We have Clarence Jordan and Jarell Price who will be graduating (this year),” May said. “Everyone else will be back, so we’re excited about that. We aren’t taking anything for granted, but we have some pretty good recruits coming in, so that will give everyone else some company.”