Menlo News
 
Sat, Mar 6, 2010 - [Men's Wrestling]
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All-American Christian Martinez - MenloOaksSports.com
OKLAHOMA CITY - Two Menlo College men's wrestlers finished their season on a high note by bringing home hardware at the NAIA National Championships on Saturday at Oklahoma City University's Abe Lemons Arena. Sophomore Christian Martinez placed fourth at 141 to become an All-American while junior 125-pounder Jason Moorhouse placed seventh to earn Honorable Mention All-American status.
   
The accomplishments of Martinez and Moorhouse give the Oaks men's wrestling program 42 All-Americans in its first nine years of competition. Martinez was an Honorable Mention All-American, placing seventh as a freshman in 2009. The duo is the first to win hardware at the NAIA National Championships under first-year head coach Joey Martinez.

 

Martinez defeated Great Falls' Jason Costello by an 8-3 decision in his first consolation wrestleback match to guarantee a top eight finish, but wasn't done yet. He took care of Cumberlands' Timothy Mitchem with an 8-2 decision and then got by McKendree's Kyle Williams, 7-4. In the match for third place, Martinez ran out of steam and fell 13-3 to Cumberland's Mikey Davis. Martinez finished with a 5-2 record at the event.

 

Moorhouse defeated Dana's Aaron Wilcox by an 8-3 decision to reach the consolation quarterfinals before losing a sudden-victory heartbreaker to Cumberland's Larone Madison, 3-1. It was his second loss in extra time at the tournament. Moorhouse gathered himself to defeat Zach Meury of Missouri Baptist, 3-0, to place seventh and finish his season with a win. Moorhouse went 4-2 at the nationals.

 

At 149, senior Cody Gibson fell just short of placing. Gibson needed to win twice more to secure a spot in the consolation quarterfinals, but couldn't get by Dickinson State's Jordan Ewan, losing a 5-2 decision. He defeated Simon Fraser's Alex Stemer by decision to advance to his final match. Gibson was 2-2 in the competition.

 

Seniors Josh Emmett (157) and Mike Cavanaugh (174), and junior Adrian Gonzales (165) were each knocked out of contention prior to Friday's evening session. Menlo entered Saturday night's championship final session in 20th place in the team standings.