Wrestlers sweep CBC, eye national tourney

Wrestlers+sweep+CBC%2C+eye+national+tourney

Story by Lauren Bechard

The No. 19 Baker University wrestling team took care of business in its last home dual of the season with a 49-0 sweep over Central Baptist College on Jan 30.

“Everybody came out and performed how we know we can,”senior Jakob Price said. “We put together our game plan, everybody wrestled their own style, and we just took it to them.”

Friends and family of the Wildcat wrestlers packed Collins Center to watch the dual, which was also senior night.

“It felt good to get out there and wrestle in front of a good crowd,” Price said. “It was a great way to go out.”

A notable performance by sophomore Aaron Seybold took place during the 157-pound bout when the sophomore took down his opponent in just 14 seconds.

While he may have had the most impressive feat of the night, Seybold noted his teammates’ optimal performance at this point in the season.

“We’re doing really well,” Seybold said. “We’ve really come together as a team and everybody is starting to peak at the right time.”

The dual featured two other pins, the first of which came during the 133-pound match, when senior AJ Gassman pinned his opponent in 6:30. In the 165-pound weight class, Price earned a pin over his opponent in 1:30.

Sophomore Connor Middleton, junior Beau Bennett, and seniors Alan Callahan, Drew Harbinson, Johnathon Hambleton and Michael Faison all won their respective weight classes to help the ‘Cats defeat CBC.<br/>

Bennett, 285 pounds, grabbed the Wildcats’ fifth Heart of America Athletic Conference Athlete of the Week honor of the season on Monday after his 3-2 decision during the CBC dual and his 3:59 pin against Mike Wright of Hannibal LaGrange College on Jan. 28.

Both Price and Seybold have high expectations for their team as they both hope the BU wrestlers will qualify and place at nationals. Price says the team still has some work to do, though.

“We’ve been doing good, but we haven’t reached our potential,” Price said. “We have a lot of goals and we haven’t met all of them. We can still do it, though, if we take these next three weeks and work hard.”

Price said the team needs to “come in every day and work just as hard off the mat as we do on the mat.”

The Wildcats will return to Collins Center for the Jimmy May-hem Open beginning at 9 a.m. on Sunday.

The tournament is named after former head wrestling coach Jimmy May, who coached at BU for five years