SHREVEPORT, La.  -- Vanguard men's wrestling concluded the season at the National Wrestling Coaches Association National Championships and the Lions finished 14th as a team and had Fernando Barreto Jr. take a podium as he placed third at 141 pounds.
 
125 Pounds:  Hector Hernandez faced Anthony Gaetani of Albany in his first match and Gaetani made two quick scoring moves to open the event.  Hernandez countered with an escape and a takedown to trail 5-4 after one period, but Gaetani dictated the pace from there and made a pin to claim the victory.  Hernandez moved to the consolation side of the bracket and faced Jake Stetz of Slippery Rock (Penn.).  The Lion fought hard. but a rapid start by Stetz netted the SRU wrestler a 13-0 lead after one frame.  Hernandez went on to score seven points in the final 90 seconds of the bout but could not close the rest of the gap in time.
 
133 Pounds:  Robert Villegas started his Thursday against Patrick Procopio of West Chester, and though Procopio acquired the first takedown, Villegas made an escape and a takedown to lead 4-3 after the first period.  The Lion got turned around to start the second but swung the bout in his favor with two escapes and a takedown the rest of the way, finishing off Procopio with a pin in the third.  He then faced Menlo's Jeremiah Steele but Villegas could not find his offensive footing, as the Lion got only one escape in a 7-1 decision defeat to the Oak.  But Villegas was not done and he flew through his next two encounters.  He blanked Justin Muller of Springfield Tech 10-0 and Nathan Gipson of Apprentice University (Ind.) 8-0 to reach the round of eight.  He then faced fifth-seeded Blaise Verdino of Liberty University and Verdino made an opening escape and then a takedown to lead 4-0.  Villegas made a reversal with nine seconds left to trail by two and cut it to one in the third period as Verdino was called for stalling.  However, that came with 24 seconds left and Villegas could not find another scoring move in the remaining time.
 
141 Pounds:  Barreto Jr. started the bracket against Brennan Bolen of Western Michigan and the Lion was dominant, racking up two takedowns and rolling another into a pin to win within 40 seconds of the match starting.  He then strolled through his next bout against Alexis Zendejas of Western Washington with a 21-6 blowout, as Zendejas only recorded escapes.  He then cleared Kenneth Lambert of Clemson with a first-period pin to make it three easy wins in a row.  But Barreto Jr. got tripped up in the quarterfinals against Zachery Espalin of Tarleton State.  Espalin registered a 7-1 lead by the midway point of the second period, and though Barreto Jr. made three more points the rest of the match, he could not make a takedown and dropped a close 7-4 decision to the eventual champion.  But Barreto Jr. still had a life left and, in the consolation bracket, he faced Anthony Dicks of Tarleton State. Saturday dawned and Barreto Jr. was refreshed and stomped his way to a 22-5 technical fall victory before the full-time buzzer sounded.  He then squared off with Jakob Brown of Apprentice and Barreto Jr. continued to roll with a 21-6 victory in just one period of action.  Then, for the third match in a row, the Lion tallied over 20 points, as Barreto Jr. won by the same 21-6 line over Garrett Good of Liberty.  In the tussle for third, the Vanguard wrestler would face Ivan Acosta of Menlo, but Barreto Jr. was in a groove.  He finished off his season by registering over 20 points for the fourth match in a row on Saturday, beating Acosta 22-7 in just under two full periods.
 
165 Pounds: Mason Hernandez fought Chad Blanke of Iowa State to start his run and Hernandez made a takedown in the second and a nearfall move in the third to claim a 10-4 decision victory.  The Vanguard wrestler then engaged with Keaton Fischer of West Chester and Hernandez held a 6-2 lead in the second period with two takedowns.  But a shift in energy went Fischer's way as he made an escape and a takedown in both the second and third frame to escape with a 9-6 decision.  Hernandez bounced back nicely with a pin with three seconds left in the first period against Dylan Galant of Utah Tech, which set him up against Ezekiel Burkholder of Toledo.  Hernandez valiantly battled Burkholder, but he could not overcome the Rocket, who won 17-8 to advance.
 
184 Pounds: Keagen Kroeger tussled with Aidan Lazas of Rutgers to start his tournament but neither wrestler could find much of an edge.  It was 0-0 after two periods but Lazas made an escape with 45 seconds on the clock to swipe a 1-0 win from Kroeger.  The Lion responded with a sizzling 15-0 win over Carlos Thomas of UMASS in the first frame, which then pitted him against Tyer Lynde of Stony Brook in the next bout.  Kroeger made the first scoring move with an escape in the second, but the third period went to Lynde, who made an escape and a takedown to leap ahead 4-1.  With a bonus point for riding time tacked on, Lynde advanced with a 5-1 decision.
 
197 Pounds:  Isaiah Hernandez was seeded in eighth in the bracket and saw Eli Lupton of Lyon (Ark.) arrive as his first opponent.  Hernandez was clinical in a 19-3 rout of his opponent, who only made three escapes in the meeting.  That pushed Hernandez forward into a tussle with David Darroch of Washington State and Hernandez got the first takedown at 1:53 in the contest.  Darroch made an escape and a takedown, with Hernandez making an escape to tie things at 4-4 in the third frame.  But despite his evasion, Darroch had more riding time to lock in a bonus point and win 5-4.  Now in the consolation bracket, Hernandez took on Samuel Villasenor of Florida State and made three takedowns in the first to lead 9-2.  Villasenor then picked up a couple of escapes and some penalty points to make things close, but Hernandez made one final escape to edge out for an 11-8 victory.  The next draw was Andrew Husband of Kansas State and the two punched plenty of points on the board.  Husband struck for the first seven before Hernanez closed the distance with nine points in a short span to trail 13-9 after three thrilling minutes of wrestling.  The scoring suddenly disappeared in the middle period and Hernandez fought for all his worth over the final two minutes.  He made an escape, picked up a penalty point, and got a takedown to make the score 16-14, but he could not make another scoring move before the clock ran out.
 
285 Pounds: Roman Torres started against Aiden Stringer of Cincinnati and Torres polished him off with a pin before the end of the first period.  He then faced sixth-seeded Wade Wheeler of Liberty and despite using all his strength, Torres could not pick up any points, falling 2-0.  Coming back against Anthony Scala of Wayne State in the consolation bracket, Torres picked up his second pin of the day 41 seconds into the bout.  The Lion moved on to face Raul Garcia of San Jose State but unfortunately, his run would end there, as Garcia led 8-3 entering the third period and pinned Torres to secure the win.
 
What was Said?  "We had a great showing this weekend, highlighted by Fernando becoming an All-American.  We had RJ losing in the blood round and all the other guys got some very good experience competing at the national tournament.  It's great that we will be returning six of our seven qualifiers as we continue to build on our strong foundation," said Head Coach Caleb Flores.