MASON CITY, Iowa – NIACC’s Wismit Moinius (So., Naples, FL) and Basil Minto (Fr., Cape Coral, FL) both won North Central District Wrestling Championships on Saturday afternoon.
The wins will help their cases for high-seeds going into the NJCAA National Championships in Rochester, Minnesota on February 24 and 25.
Moinius accepted an injury forfeit by Ellsworth’s Taylor Lashbrook to cap off an unusual championship run. Moinius only wrestled one match during the tournament, which was an 11-7 decision over Ridgerwater College’s (MN) Javior Portillo. Moinius, who’s ranked-sixth at 141 in the NJCAA, won his first round bout by forfeit over Rochester Community and Technical College’s (RCTC) Jered Kemp.
Minto, who is ranked-seventh at 184, used a late takedown to drop Iowa Central’s Christian Mays 3-1 in the championship. He opened his tourney run with a pin in 4:44 against Ridgewater’s Kevin Hahn, and followed with a 5-1 decision over RCTC’s Shelby Deno.
Moinius and Minto will be joined at the national championships by at least four other Trojans. The top-five in each class qualified for the tournament.
Sophomore Jameel Bryant (St. Petersburg, FL) battled through a foot-injury to place second at the 174 class. He was dropped in the championship by Jahwon Akui of Iowa Central by a 10-2 major decision. He advanced through the first round by forfeit and beat Iowa Lake’s Thomas Moman in the semis 4-3.
Andres Torres (Fr., Windsor, CA) placed fourth at 125, Michael Guerrero (Fr., Eloy, AZ) placed fifth at 197, and Mark Tiedemann (So., Charles City, IA) placed fifth at 285 to round out NIACC’s top-five finishes.
The NIACC wrestlers who did not qualify may still get wildcard berths to nationals.
In the team standings, NIACC placed third out of nine with 100.5 points. Iowa Central won the team title with 166, and Iowa Lakes was second at 111.5.
The Trojans only have Nationals left of the schedule.
