Day 2 Results
Will Speight (Bedford, Ohio/Bedford H.S.) has secured All-American accolades at 184 pounds for Lourdes University on Friday at the NAIA National Championships held inside Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan.
Speight, seeded fourth in the tournament, picked up a win in the morning quarterfinals before falling in his semifinal contest Friday night.
"This was a heart-breaking loss in the national semifinals," head coach
Dock Kelly III said afterwards. One mistake cost us the match. I'm still very proud of the way that William Speight competed today. We will have him ready to compete again tomorrow morning."
In Friday morning's quarterfinal match against fifth-seeded Tyson Beauperthuy of Doane, Speight took the lead with a late takedown in the opening period to build a 3-1 advantage after three minutes. The fourth-ranked senior then added another takedown early in the second to increase his lead to 6-2 heading into the final stanza. Speight added one more takedown in the third to secure a 9-5 decision, capturing All-American honors and moving into Friday night's semifinal.
Speight faced top-seeded Isaiah Luellen of Grand View in the semifinal bout. After a scoreless opening period, Speight picked up a stall point as well as an escape point after starting the period in the down position to take a 2-0 lead into the final two minutes. With Speight on top to start the third, Luellen evened the match with an escape and a stall point of his own. The top seed then registered the lone takedown of the match with just over a minute to wrestle, adding another stall point and one for riding time to pick up a 7-2 decision.
As a team, Lourdes heads into the final day of competition with 10 points, and is in a tie for 30
th place in a field of 55 schools.
Speight will close out the 2023-2024 season on Saturday with a chance to still finish in third place. He will face Montana State-Northern's Rylin Burns in the consolation finals before wrestling for either third or fifth place. Speight defeated Burns in a 16-3 major decision on Thursday in the second round of competition. Action begins at noon inside Hartman Arena.
