PARK CITY, Kan. — Two wrestlers from Montana will be competing in the semifinals of the NAIA Men’s Wrestling Championship at Hartman Arena on Saturday.
Montana State-Northern wrestler NaKoda Siegel of Colstrip, the No. 4 seed at 174 pounds, won his first three matches by decision on Friday.
Joining Siegel in the semifinals will be KC Buday of Providence, who went 3-0 at 285 pounds, including two overtime victories. Buday, the No. 2 seed, is a redshirt senior from Great Falls.
Siegel, a redshirt junior, is set to wrestle No. 1 seed Isaiah Luellen of Grand View (Iowa) in the semifinals.
Buday will be matched with No. 3 Austin Harris of Life (Georgia) in the semis.
Also for the Lights, at 184 pounds Austin Vanek of Cut Bank is still in the tournament. After losing his first-round match to Sawyer Hobbs of Providence by fall in 1:28, Vanek won two matches by decision, another by injury default and a fourth by decision.
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Hobbs and Vanek are set to meet again in the consolation bracket Saturday.
Both Vanek and Siegel have clinched All-American honors for the Lights.
For the Argos, Bridger Hall of Potomac will also be competing on Saturday after posting a 4-1 mark on Friday at 165 pounds. He eliminated teammate Jordan Komac of Great Falls 4-2 in overtime. Komac posted a mark of 2-2.
Hall is set to meet Matt Jenkins of Reinhardt in a consolation match Saturday.
Sawyer Hobbs of Providence is also still alive at 184. Hobbs, of St. Anthony, Idaho, opened with two pins before losing in the quarterfinals. He bounced back with a decision in the fourth round of consolation.
The other Northern wrestlers were all eliminated from the tourney. At 149 pounds, Martin Wilkie of Havre posted a 3-2 record.
Devin Crawford (165) of Helena was 2-2 at 165 for Northern.
Rylin Burns, another Colstrip wrestler for the Lights, posted a 2-2 record at 174.
At 197, Carl Hansen of Elko, Nevada, had a 1-2 mark for Northern.
Joel Avila (133) of Indio, California, was 2-2 for UP as were teammates Aden Graves of Sidney (157) and Liam Swanson of Great Falls (197).
Hall, Hobbs and Buday have clinched All-American status for UP.
Another Treasure State wrestler, Keegan Mulhill of Bozeman, was 3-2 at 174 pounds for Eastern Oregon.
Grand View is leading the team race with 127 points. Providence is eighth with 34 points and Northern 14th with 27 points.