Ten members of the Baker University wrestling team competed at the NAIA Central Regional Championships in Oskaloosa, Iowa, at William Penn University Saturday.

“I thought we wrestled very well,” head coach Jimmy May said. “There were a lot of good performances.”

Baker placed fifth out of nine teams at the regional tournament with 79 points, finishing behind regional champion Grand View University (Iowa), runner-up and conference opponent Missouri Valley College (Mo.), Oklahoma City University (Okla.) and Waldorf College (Iowa).

“Fifth place is about where I thought we would finish,” May said. “Oklahoma City, Missouri Valley and Grand View have a lot of experienced guys and this tournament proved that.”

The team was without senior Levi Calhoun and freshman Jordan McGuire due to injuries, but they had already qualified for the national championships in the regular season.

“If we would’ve had Jordan and Levi, we might have had a chance at finishing fourth,” May said. “Fifth place is still about where I thought we would end up in the tournament, though.”

Baker will still send 10 wrestlers, including Calhoun and McGuire, to the NAIA National Championships March 4-6, in Oklahoma City.

Freshman Alan Callahan will be joining McGuire at the 125-pound weight class. Junior Andrew Hurla is competing at 149 pounds, freshman Nathan Sommer at 157 pounds, freshman Joe Pace and junior Clarence Jordan at 174 pounds, freshman Cody Hanel at 184 pounds, freshmen Jacob Nowak and Brandon Gebhardt at 197 pounds and Calhoun will compete as a heavyweight.

With seven out of the 10 wrestlers going to the national championships being freshmen, the team is hoping that the tougher competition at the regional and national championships will be beneficial in the future.

 ”The tournament was really tough, but most of the national qualifiers still had some success,” Hanel said. “Coach May had us well-prepared and I imagine that practice will be tough for next week, too. Hopefully we can bring home an All-American and have some success and national tournament experience for the years to come.”

Pace led the team by scoring 15 points and placing fifth in his weight class. Sommer scored 11.5 with a fourth-place finish, Gebhardt scored 11 points with a fifth-place finish and Nowak and Hanel scored 10.5 points each with fourth and fifth-place finishes respectively.

"It was a good experience," Sommer said. "It is way tougher than high school, but it was a good experience for the guys that competed to make us stronger for nationals and for next year."<br/>