The OCU men’s wrestling team has been named the Sooner Athletic Conference Champions for 2020.
The team took home the championship at the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference-SAC Championships at Mueller Sports Center in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, on Feb. 21-22.
The team, ranked 11 out of 13 teams in the Sooner Athletic Conference, won with a total of 225 team points, with the second place team, Indiana Tech, finishing with 203.5 team points.
The team also received a number of other achievements at the Championship. Head coach Sam Hazewinkel was named co-coach of the year at the tournament. Six OCU wrestlers were named individual SAC Champions: Montana Moon, criminal justice junior; Baltazar Austin Loza, criminal justice freshman; Jon McGowan, biology sophomore; Chase Vincent, business junior; Easton Rendleman, nursing sophomore; and Gage Johnson, human performance sophomore.
Jon McGowan, biomedical sciences sophomore, said the team has been focusing more on details and techniques leading into the SAC Championship, in preparation for the NAIA Championships.
“I would say that I do a lot of defense-specific things, working on my tie up and stuff; I’ll also work on positioning as well as being able to defend and attack from the same position. That is something I, personally, as well as we as a team, have been focusing on,” McGowan said. “Doing that has definitely impacted mine and everyone else’s results from this season, and you can tell just from our wrestling.”
McGowan said he has learned a lot from this season, which has helped with his own success on the mat.
“I think this season I have learned to just move forward because everything is not going to go your way every time, and when it doesn’t you still have to keep going and stay focused, and not get too stressed out, that is something that has really helped me this season,” McGowan said.”
McGowan also said he hopes the team’s success will encourage the entire campus community to become more engaged and excited about OCU wrestling.
“We have the chance to do something we haven’t done in a while, and I think possibly ever,” McGowan said. “We have a great coach who knows what he’s talking about and really knows what he is doing when he is teaching us, which I think gives us a really good chance at nationals next weekend.”
Baltazar Austin Loza was named tournament outstanding wrestler. Loza said he was very excited by both his individual win as well as being named outstanding wrestler for the tournament because he’s never had the chance to stand on the podium after a win and has never received the title of outstanding wrestler. He also said he has learned a lot from this season as well.
“This season has taught me to stay tough and stay in the match,” Loza said. “If there’s still time on the clock there’s points to be scored. I also learned how to slow down a little bit and I have been working on slowing down and winning my matches.”
Loza also said he had a message for both his coaches as well as the student body of OCU as the team heads into the NAIA Championship this weekend.
“I would like to thank my coaches and just tell them how grateful I am for them and the opportunity to learn from them,” Loza said. “And to the students at OCU, I am so excited to represent our school and hopefully be able to bring back a national title.”
The OCU men’s wrestlers will compete at the NAIA Championships, which will be held in Park City, Kan. on March 6-7: Montana Moon (125 weight class), Drake Foster (133 weight class), Jaxen Gilmore (141 weight class), Austin Loza, (149 weight class), Jon McGowan (157 weight class), Chase Vincent (174 weight class), Easton Rendlemen (197 weight class) and Gage Johnson (285 weight class).
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