WICHITA, Kan. – The University of Providence men's wrestling team season ended this weekend at the NAIA National Championships in Wichita, Kan.

None of the six wrestlers who qualified reached All-American status. Brock Rodrigues lost in the Quarterfinals, while three of wrestlers reached the blood round through the consolation bracket; meaning that if they had won, they'd have been considered an All-American. Unfortunately, the Argos lost all three.

"There's plenty of disappointment around the fact that we didn't have any All-Americans," head coach Steve Komac said. "It's definitely something that we're capable of, and something we believe this program can do year in and year out. It's definitely something that we need to be able to do. It wasn't for lack of effort anywhere. All six guys won matches, all six guys filled in three rounds of the tournament. We got down to three kids left in the blood round last night, and we lost all three of those matches. Close, tough, contested matches but still matches that we need to find a way to win."

As the coaching staff reflects on the entirety of the season, the coaching staff reflects on the perseverance of their student-athletes. From lack of opponents, to doing online instruction, to dealing with all the challenge that comes with wrestling in a pandemic, the team has overcame a lot together.

"They've done so much," Komac said. "The expectations that were placed on them to be allowed to compete. It's different all over the country and our kids did everything that was asked of them. We not only appreciate it from them, but we have great respect for them to do that. To get six kids late in the tournament like we did, it felt like we did a good job with the kids. We felt like they did a good job of being prepared. We're very pleased with our kids and the attitudes and the efforts and the buy-ins. We have a great coaching staff with our assistant coaches Cole and Ty. They do an awesome job. Nobody is panicking but there is definitely work to do and things to improve on for the future."

Below are the full results from the six Argos at the NAIA National Tournament.

Joel Avila (125 lbs.)
After receiving a bye in the first round, Avila fell to (2)Lucas Nelson (Brewton-Parker) by decision 9-3. Avila won his next two matches to get to the blood round, before eventually falling to Gage Hudson (Cumberland) 10-6.

Coach Komac - "We're very excited about what Joel does and what Joel can do. He's a junior college All-American a year ago and he brings a lot of athletic ability to his matches. We definitely felt like in his case, the one thing that was missing was to be in top matches with other top kids in the country. Joel just didn't get that. He did extremely well in the limited matches that we had, but the pace and intensity of the National Tournament is just at another level. He did some great things, but we definitely found that the speed was up a level than our season competition, especially in Joel's bracket."

Eli Walston (133 lbs.)
Walston, who was ranked 12^th in the nation, started off strong, defeating his first opponent Jimmy Balazy (Lourdes) 7-2. After falling to the #5 seed Esco Walker (Cumberland) in the second round, he won his first round of the consolation bracket before eventually falling to Alex Pena (Wayland Baptist).

Coach Komac - "This is the first time Eli has ever been to a National Tournament. He won a couple matches here. He lost to one of the opponents who is in the finals tonight, and the other loss was to an All-American. Both his opponents he lost to were All-Americans. He had good matches. He wrestled well and he wrestled hard, he just unfortunately lost to some great kids."
 
Chris Mesa (141 lbs.)
Mesa received a bye in the first round, but ran into tough competition right away when he took on the #1 kid in his weight class, Baterdene Boldmaa (Doane). He fought hard, but ended up losing 12-4. After winning his next match in the consolation bracket, Mesa was defeated by Kershawn Laws (Cumberland).

Coach Komac- "Chris competed very well in that early match against the #1 seed. The wrestler from Doane was the outstanding wrestler of the year a tournament ago and Chris gave him a very solid match with good effort. He won two matches to battle back and then last night actually injured his shoulder which is an old injury, in his own match. Chris is a tough kid. It's hard to wrestle with an injury after it happened. He's a very tough kid."

Brock Rodrigues (149 lbs.)
Rodrigues also received a bye in the first round, and won by decision over Bailey Moore (Marian) in the second round. He then lost to #6 John Fox (York) in the quarterfinals, and then again to #2 Anthony Maia (Cumberland) in the blood round.'

Coach Komac - "Brock won his first match and made the quarterfinals. He was in a great match in the quarterfinals. He ended up getting pinned late in the match, but he was actually winning the match at the time. He ended up losing his last match as well. He's been banged up all season and still been wrestling pretty well. He's a true freshman. He's got four years of eligibility with us still. He's got a lot of potential."

Jordan Komac (165 lbs.)
Komac, ranked 6^th in the country, was upset by Elliot Rodgers (Marian) in the second round. Having to win three matches in the consolation bracket, Komac won the first two matches, including over #12 Conor Holman (Oklahoma City). In the blood round, he took on the top-ranked wrestler in the country in Kyle Caldwell (Grand View), losing a close match via decision 1-0.

Coach Komac - "Jordan's bracket was one of those brackets that got turned upside down fairly early with many of the top seeds getting beat. Jordan lost in the second round of the tournament, so it was going to take a long ways to get back. He won the next couple of matches to get into the blood round and he lost a 1-0 match to the #1 seed. Jordan can wrestle with anybody in the country. He's got a few adjustments he needs to make to win those matches against the top seeds."

KC Buday (285 lbs.)
Buday received a bye in the first round, but ran into the #1 seed Brandon Reed (Lindsay Wilson) in the second. After falling to Reed, Buday pinned Mike Ruiz (Vanguard) to advance to the third round of the consolation bracket, where he lost to #10 Benito Hernandez (Ottawa) by decision, 8-7.

Coach Komac - "KC is one of those very bright spots for our team. We graduated an All-American last year in Justin Harbision and KC stepped up. He's just getting better fast. He lost a tough one in the blood round Saturday night. It was a very good match - he had a chance to win it. We see KC in a position to where he's very capable of getting All-American honors in the future."

The spring semester is being offered through face-to-face instruction, with adaptations and mitigation protocols to reduce risk to COVID-19 exposure. The University continues to support and enforce the use of masks while inside a University and continues to support physical distancing of at least 6 feet. Visitors accessing campus facilities must make arrangement for access. Further details can be found at www.uprovidence.edu/coronavirus/.