Tanner Hoops | Staff Writer

The Buena Vista University (BVU) wrestling team took part in the Cobber Open in Moorhead, Minnesota, on Saturday, Nov 21, and were highlighted by strong performances by the Beaver entries at 141 pounds.

Shane Vaughn, who competed in the freshman 141-pound division, advanced to the quarterfinals after an opening round bye. After falling 6-2 in his quarterfinal match, Vaughn pinned his next four opponents to take 3rd place.

“Overall, I thought I wrestled pretty well,” Vaughn said. “It would’ve been nice to win the first one, but I’m pretty pleased with the way that I was able to come back from that. As a team, we competed well against some tough competition. We had a lot of close matches, and just need to keep working and building towards where we want to be at the end of the year, which is a team that is ranked nationally.”

Nashid Barrow, who competed for the Beavers in the Gold 141-pound division, made his season debut facing three Division 1 opponents in as many matches. Barrow, a sophomore ranked 5th in his weight class in Division 3, defeated Minnesota’s Ben Brancale 4-2 before falling to Northern Iowa’s Tyler Willers 9-8. In the consolation bracket, Barrow fell to Minnesota’s Gannon Volk 7-1.

“We competed better this week than the previous week,” Head Wrestling Coach Jeff Breese said. “We are young and learning how to win. We walked away somewhat frustrated, not with the effort, but because we didn’t close out some matches we had a chance to win. Overall, it was a good confidence builder even though we didn’t get as many wins as we could have had.”

The Beavers open up Iowa Conference action Wednesday, Dec 2, with a road dual at Coe College.

Photo by Taylor Staab