TEMPE, Ariz.. – A program-record three Little Rock wrestlers advanced to the evening championship session of the 2022 Pac-12 Championships, taking home hardware for finishing within the top four.
Triston Wills led the way with a third place finish in the 174-pound bracket, while
Jayden Carson and
Josiah Hill each took home fourth overall at 125 pounds and 285 pounds, respectively.
"This weekend was a good weekend because we've done something we've never done before," said head coach
Neil Erisman. "We had a couple guys fighting in rounds to go to Nationals and we've never had more than one athlete in that position up until this weekend, so that meant several guys wrestled above where they were supposed to on paper."
"I know some guys didn't accomplish what they wanted but we're making progress, so that's exciting and something to be proud of. I'm optimistic that our season isn't over and that we will potentially get a wild card and send Triston to Nationals."
Results | Photo Gallery 1 | Photo Gallery 2
Triston Wills - 3rd place, 174 pounds
Despite narrowly dropping his first round match to CSU-Bakersfield, Wills had a big next two in a row to claim third in the bracket. First, Wills downed Aaron Olmos from Oregon State, who was ranked #29 in the NCAA Coaches Poll and #27 via Intermat, by 7-1 decision thanks to a strong third period. The Derby, Kansas native went into the final two minutes up 2-1, electing to start on bottom to earn an escape point, before a takedown and two-point near fall within the last 45 seconds sealed the victory.
Wills wrestled the foe he lost to in the first round, Roadrunner Albert Urias, who sat at #31 on Intermat going into the weekend, to seal a revenge win and pick up his fifth ranked match of the year. It was again a handy decision, this time with an 8-1 decision. Once again, the redshirt sophomore showed grit in the final period, going in 3-0 before tilting for back points and taking his opponent down once more for the win.
After the tournament, Wills took on second-place finisher Adam Kemp from Cal Poly for a true second allocation match following the tournament. He pushed the Mustang to overtime and then tiebreakers but one final escape allowed Kemp (#15 in the NCAA Coaches Poll, #13 via Intermat) to hang on to the automatic qualification at 174 pounds.
Wills posts a final record of 14-13, as only two losses were against unranked opponents this season while five of his wins were against top-33 foes. With four at-large bids remaining in his weight class, he has a chance at earning a wild card to the NCAA Tournament, which will be announced Tuesday, March 8.
Jayden Carson - 4th place, 125 pounds
At 125 pounds,
Jayden Carson was wrestling for an automatic bid to Nationals in his third place match, as the weight class was one of four in the Pac-12 that advances the top three athletes. His bout ended up being a rematch of the first round against Stanford's Logan Ashton, who Carson had bested by 2-1 decision to advance to semfinals.
While Carson fell 13-3 to #4 ranked Brandon Courtney of Arizona State in semifinals, he battled back in consolation semifinals with a 4-3 decision over CSU-Bakersfield's Eddie Flores before barely missing the auto bid in the rematch versus Ashton, 3-1. However, the fourth place finish was the redshirt sophomore's first time earning hardware on the podium, having also appeared at 125 pounds for Little Rock in the inaugural 2019-20 season.
Josiah Hill - 4th place, 285 pounds
The other Trojan that advanced to semifinals was heavyweight
Josiah Hill, downing his Cal Poly opponent in overtime with a takedown and pin. The redshirt freshman fell to #2 ranked Cohlton Schultz from Arizona State in his next bout, but the redshirt freshman picked up a second fall in the consolation semis against Stanford, pinning Peter Ming for the second time this season.
That was the seventh pin of the year for the Bakersfield, California native, tying teammate
Tyler Brennan, who also earned his seventh win by fall over the weekend. While Hill went on to finish fourth in a 12-2 loss to CSU-Bakersfield, it was a strong showing for him at his very first Pac-12 Championships.
Little Rock took sixth as a team with 71 points, the most scored yet by the Trojans at the conference championships. They finished 12 team points behind fifth place CSU-Bakersfield as the third-year program continues to make strides each year.
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