EOU Men’s Wrestling Moves Up to No. 7 in National Polls
By Garrett Christensen on Friday, November 18th, 2022 in More Top Stories Northeastern Oregon News
LA GRANDE – (Release from Eastern Oregon University) The NAIA released the first official Men’s Wrestling Coaches’ Top 20 Poll Thursday morning and the Mountaineers climbed up one spot from their preseason ranking to No. 7.
“The team as a whole is continuing to grow and get better,” Coach Dustyn Azure said. ” We can’t think too much into a rating at this point, as a coaching staff we are proud of our team for competing hard and being all in every day.”
The bump in the rankings come after a couple of strong weekends. The first saw the Mountaineers dominate at their own Mountaineer Open racking up 13 Placewinners and three first-place finishes. Kyle Knudtson, Jay Smith, and Noel Orozco all finished as the winners of their brackets.
A weekend later Eastern traveled out to Des Moines, Iowa for the Grand View Open and put together a strong performance in arguably the most competitive field they will see until the NAIA Championships in March. 40 teams competed at the Open including six other top-10 teams in the national rankings. No. 1 Grand View, No. 2 Life, No. 5 Marian, No. 8 Ottawa, No. 9 Providence, and No. 10 Cumberlands all brought their best to the tournament that also included strong NCAA Division I talent in Iowa State and Nebraska. Eastern had five grapplers place at the tournament lead by 197-pounder Marco Retano who took third.
“We need to continue with our process and continue waking up each morning making sure we get the most out of each day in order to be our best,” Azure said.
As the now No. 7 team in the nation, EOU also had 10 individuals earn rankings in their respective weight classes, one more than in the preseason rankings. Braden Carson made his debut in the rankings as EOU’s newest addition to the top-25 of the 141-pound weight class. All ranked individuals are listed below.
INDIVIDUAL RANKINGS:
| WEIGHT | RANK | WRESTLER |
| 125 | 23 | Luciano Fasulo |
| 133 | 17 | Hunter Sparks |
| 133 | 21 | Zach Mauras |
| 141 | 9 | Jaxon Morlan |
| 141 | 18 | Braden Carson |
| 174 | 10 | Keegan Mulhill |
| 184 | 4 | Kyle Knudtson |
| 197 | 5 | Marco Retano |
| 197 | 6 | Jay Smith |
| 285 | 3 | Noel Orozco |
The Mountaineers are on the cusp of conference competition with their next competition scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, Nov. 18. EOU will take on No. 20 Southern Oregon in a CCC dual scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. in Ashland, Ore.
