It sometimes bears repeating. Several coaches believed there were as many as five teams in the mix for the title at the 55th annual NAIA National Championships at Jacobson Exhibition Hall in Des Moines, Iowa. 

After Thursday’s first two sessions, it became clear there were as many as seven teams still in the mix, but local favorite Grand View leads second-place Southern Oregon by 6.5 points at the end of the first day of competition.

Grand View pushed a tournament-high nine wrestlers into the quarterfinals, followed by Southern Oregon’s seven. Oklahoma City and Campbellsville each have six. 

After Grand View and Southern Oregon, Great Falls sits third with 36.5, Oklahoma City is fourth with 33 and Montana State-Northern is fifth with 30.

On the day, the fourth-year Viking program won 18 matches and lost just three. 

Great Falls had nine wrestlers alive in the third round of championship action, but only moved four into the quarters. Kamron Jackson, Great Falls’ 197-pounder, has spent the least amount of time on the mat of anyone thus far, picking up two falls in under a minute. Along with Jackson, Myles Mazurkiewicz moved into the quarters at 141 pounds with a 3-2 win over Campbellsville’s Tommy Pretty in a rematch of the 133-pound championship final from 2012. Returning champion Anthony Varnell also reached the quarters as did 125-pounder Danny Luttrell.

Luttrell topped returning All-American Paulie Hansen 6-5 to start the round off for the Argonauts.

Pretty beat Mazurkiewicz twice at last year’s tournament, as well. For the Great Falls junior, redemption wasn’t a good enough word to use.

“I can’t describe it in words,” said Mazurkiewicz, who was swarmed by coaches and teammates following the victory. “(He’s) the guy beat me three times at the national tournament. He’s the only guy who’s ever beaten me here. The feeling is overwhelming. I’m so excited and it’s going to be fun to see what happens next.”

Having met in the finals two years ago, Pretty knocked Mazurkiewicz into the consolations early last year and repeated the victory again in the consolation semifinals.

“When I saw the draw, last year the draw was very similar,” he said. “But he wrote the books last time, and I decided this was my chapter.”

After getting taken down in the first period, Mazurkiewicz slapped on a cradle late in the second period after riding strong for most of the second. Mazurkiewicz took neutral in the third and held on for the victory.

“I was working a front headlock the whole time and started to roll out to a wrist and he ended up curling right up for it,” he said. 

Mazurkeiwicz will face Grand View’s Gustavo Martinez in a match which has huge implications on the team race. Martinez majored Chrisitan Franks of Menlo and was one of seven Viking wrestlers to pick up bonus victories in the championship third round. 

The upset bug bit nine returning All-Americans on the day, with seven, including Pretty, going down in the third round of championship matches. Among them were returning finalist Leviticus Roberson of Midland, who was upended by Shorter’s Andrew Ewers at heavyweight.

Baker’s Nathan Sommer pinned returning runner-up Noah Hatton of Great Falls to strike another blow to the Argonauts title hopes. 

Three past NAIA champions charged into the semifinals – Southern Oregon’s Mitchell Lofstedt at 125, Varnell at 141 and Montana State-Northern’s Evan Hinebauch at 184 pounds.

Lofstedt advanced to the quarters with a 16-1 techincal fall over Bo Newport of Baker. He pinned Morningside’s Alex Rust in the opening round. Lofstedt will face Dickinson State’s Bryden Lazaro in Friday morning’s quarterfinal round.

Varnell got past Lindsey Wilson’s DeMonte Riley 5-2 after pinning Cumberland University’s Matt Scheve in his opening match. Varnell will face upstart Joel Olivas of Baker in the quarterfinals. Olivas upended seventh-ranked Garret Lambrecht of Morningside to earn the right to face Varnell. 

Hinebauch, ranked just fourth in the final NAIA rankings coming into the tournament, pinned Dickinson State’s Jesse Hellinger in the third period to advance. He’ll face Campbellsville’s Allen Scruggs in the top bracket quarterfinal. 

Nine wrestlers have notched two falls on the championship side, with Jackson leading the way with a total time of 1:16 spent on the mat. 

Midland’s Matt Katusin, a returning runner-up at 133 pounds has two falls, as does Oklahoma City’s Kevin Hardy, who finished third a year ago at 165 pounds for Notre Dame College. Hardy transferred to OCU when Notre Dame College opted to move up to NCAA Division II and was ineligible for NAIA and NCAA post-season championship consideration. 

Grand View heavyweight Eric Thompson pinned both of his opponents to lead the Vikings in bonus points. 

55th NAIA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS
Team Scores
(Top 10)
1. Grand View 45, 2. Southern Oregon 38.5, 3. Great Falls 36.5, 4. Oklahoma City 33, 5. Montana State-Northern 30, 6. Campbellsville 29, 7. Missouri Valley 26.5, 8. Midland 24, 9. Baker 23.5, 10. Lindsey Wilson 23

Quarterfinal Matchups
125 
Larone Madison (U. of the Cumberlands) vs. Danny Luttrell (Great Falls)
Kory Kistner (Morningside) vs. Sean Silva (Embry-Riddle)
Kidd Gomez (Oklahoma City) vs. Deteoreious Prayther (Missouri Baptist)
Mitchell Lofstedt (Southern Oregon) vs. Bryden Lazaro (Dickinson State)

133
Tim Thurston (Campbellsville) vs. Matt Katusin (Midland)
Omi Acosta (Grand View) vs. Travis Barroquillo (Indiana Tech)
Angel Garcia (Menlo) vs. Nathan Galloway (Shorter)
Adam Joseph (Concordia-NE) vs. Keith Klink (Lindsey Wilson)

141
Chris Teague (Campbellsville) vs. Jacob Williams (Concordia-NE)
Anthony Weerheim (Montana State-Northern) vs. Nick Coffman (Grand View)
Joel Olivas (Baker) vs. Anthony Varnell (Great Falls)
Gustavo Martinez (Grand View) vs. Myles Mazurkiewicz (Great Falls)

149
Esmond Ford (Missouri Baptist) vs. Shay Shive (Missouri Valley)
Bradley Steele (Dickinson State) vs. Jimmy Eggemeyer (Southern Oregon)
T.J. Moen (Grand View) vs. Nicholas Clark (York-NE)
Eric Burgey (William Penn) vs. Anthonie Linares (U. of the Cumberlands)

157
Conor Young (Campbellsville) vs. Mickey Cheff (Montana State-Northern)
Nik Turner (Oklahoma City) vs. David Rios (Menlo)
Jimmie Schuessler (Grand View) vs. Jeremy Padilla (Waldorf)
Trever DeVestern (Dakota Wesleyan) vs. Charlie Pingleton (Lindsey Wilson)

165
Ethan Hinebauch (Montana State-Northern) vs. Jared Wildeboer (Morningside)
Nathan Sommer (Baker) vs. Kevin Hardy (Oklahoma City)
Pat Nord (Jamestown) vs. Brian Lemmon (Southern Oregon)
Brad Lower (Grand View) vs. Derek Mestrovich (Southern Oregon)

174
Nathan Downs (Hannibal-LaGrange) vs. Joseph Stephens (Lindsey Wilson)
Joe Sievert (Morningside) vs. Ty Knowler (Grand View)
Derek Peperas (Oklahoma City) vs. James Haywood (Lindsey Wilson)
Brock Gutches (Southern Oregon) vs. Tanner Martin (Indiana Tech)

184
Allen Scruggs (Campbellsville) vs. Evan Hinebauch (Montana State-Northern)
Jarid Price (Baker) vs. Derrick Rottenberg (Southern Oregon)
Austin Vanderford (Southern Oregon) vs. Robert Shadrach (Baker)
Brian Block (Morningside) vs. Weston Keleher (Missouri Baptist)

197
Jamelle Jones (Campbellsville) vs. Derek Nighster (Grand View)
Kamron Jackson (Great Falls) vs. Jesse Alter (Missouri Valley)
Joshua Marsh (Midland) vs. Courtney Freeman (U. of the Cumberlands)
Mitchell Eichenauer (Oklahoma City) vs. Spencer Adams (Campbellsville)

285
Joe Kent (Missouri Baptist) vs. Brandon Gebhardt (Baker)
Andrew Ewers (Shorter) vs. Jacob Combs (Waldorf)
Eric Thompson (Grand View) vs. Jose Lopez (Dickinson State)
Mike Brown (Oklahoma City) vs. Dillon Heesch (Concordia-NE)