Our Redhawk wrestlers traveled to Marshall, Missouri this past weekend to wrestle at the most prestigious NAIA wrestling tournament in the Nation, the Missouri Valley Invitational.

The 40-team individual tournament consistently brings the top-ranked teams and wrestlers to battle it out in what many call pre-Nationals.

MARSHALL, Mis. - On day one, all of our Red Hawk wrestlers wrestled tough in the Missouri Valley Invitational. 

Advancing the furthest were Chris Guizar, Tomas Jacobo, Tyler, Diaz, Carlos Martinez, and Jacob Vincent.

Both Tyler Diaz and Jacob Vincent made it to the second day, with Vincent reaching the semi-finals and Diaz wrestling in the blood round (top 12).

On day two Diaz went first for the Red Hawks against Josey Jernegan from St. Mary's.

In the first round, both wrestlers, battled back and forth without a score, in the second round Jernegan got a quick escape and came back to get a late-round takedown to lead 4-0.

In the third round, Diaz scored an escape and then attacked and stalked, but the defensive opponent kept away, and the score ended 1-4, which knocked Diaz out of the competition.

On his way to the semi-finals, Jacob Vincent had four solid victories, one was against the number nine-ranked wrestler in the nation and the number two seed in this tournament.

The semi-finals started with Vincent being the aggressor and his opponent (Jakob Jerabek), a full 285 pounds and 6 feet 6 inches tall, chose to defend and stall keeping the score 0-0 in the first round. 

In the second round, Vincent chose the bottom. At the whistle, he had a quick stand-up and near escape. However, he felt his knee pop in the action as he was driven out of bounds.

On the restart, Vincent could not bend his knee, and after fighting for a minute was eventually turned to his back and was pinned, dropping him to the consolation matches.

After consulting with the coaches, it was decided that Vincent should sit out the rest of the tournament, as opposed to chance further injury. This ended his tournament with a sixth-place finish.

On his way to the semi-finals appearance, Vincent had a decisive win over Alton Allen of Briar Cliff University, who is ranked 9th in the nation. With the victory, and Vincent's outstanding performance, will help move him up in the National rankings for the rest of the season.

Next up, in two weeks, will see all of our team wrestling at the Menlo Open, the final regular season competition in preparation for regionals on February 16-17.