NAIA Dual of the Week: #3 Southern Oregon vs. #8 University of Providence

SOU first-year coach Gabby Weyhrich is leading her program to an historic season so far. Photo courtesy of SOU Women’s Wrestling.

ASHLAND, OREGON - In a dual that featured two top-10 NAIA teams, #3 Southern Oregon downed visiting Cascade Collegiate Conference rival, #8 University of Providence, 26-18. The NAIA National Duals champion SOU hosted the event last night on the Southern Oregon campus in the Bob Riehm Arena.

Putting out a lineup entirely made up of seniors on an evening that honored their graduating athletes, SOU (8-0) sent out seven ranked wrestlers to square off with a very deep Providence (6-2) lineup that featured nine ranked wrestlers. In all, the event had seven wrestlers ranked in the top three and 16 total ranked women. The Argos placed 5th at National Duals in the NAIA division.

The outcome of last night’s dual was still in question, with Southern Oregon holding a 19-17 lead, when the Raiders star 170-pounder, 4x All-American Joye Levendusky stepped on the mat and sealed the win with a 10-0 first-period technical fall over Providence Joji Miner-Ho. Levendusky terminated the match with a 4-point suplex. The win moved #2 ranked Levendusky’s record to 22-1 on the season.

The first four matches of the night all featured matchups between ranked opponents, with the first two matches featuring all top-3 women.

At 101, Providence #1 ranked Ira Navarro won convincingly over #2 ranked Esthela Trevino 14-4. With the win, according to TrackWrestling, Navarro moves to 12-2 on the season while Trevino moves to 19-3. Two of Trevino’s losses have now come at the hands of Navarro, who also beat her earlier this season 13-6. 

The bout at 109 featured a matchup between SOU’s #3 ranked 2x All-American Natalie Reyna and #3 ranked freshman star Erin Hikiji of Providence. In the end, Reyna held off a mounting Hikiji comeback to win the match 6-5 and put the dual at 5-4 Argos. With the victory, Reyna moved to 13-4 on the season, while Hikiji fell to 28-4.

116 featured #1 ranked Ashley Gooman of Providence, who showed why she’s the top-ranked NAIA wrestler in the country with a 1st period technical fall over #8 Macie Stewart of SOU. The win put the Argos ahead temporarily 9-4.

In the next bout, SOU’s #10 ranked Glory Konecny pinned #15 ranked Alicia Frank at 123, followed by an upset win at 130 when unranked Jordynn Robson scored another fall for the Raiders over #19 Gabriella Parini, putting Southern Oregon ahead 14-9. 

The dual went back and forth for the next few matches, a part of the night that featured a big win for SOU’s #2 ranked Emily Se, who scored a fall at 143 over #7 ranked Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp, the 2021 NAIA national champion.

Just as the narrative went in the semis and finals at the NWCA National Duals last month, the score was close heading into the final two matches, putting the weight again on SOU’s two heavyweights to win the dual. In Louisville, it was Levendusky (170) and Kristoff (191) who played the heroes. This time is was #2 ranked Levendusky again and #14 ranked Karrah Smith who got it done, with Levendusky scoring the technical fall, and Smith earning a 7-1 decision over #17 ranked Lexi Tupuola, securing the 26-18 win for the Raiders.

These programs will see each other again in a few weeks, as both will head to the Cascade Collegiate Conference tournament on February 25th, a qualifying event for the first-ever sanctioned NAIA Women’s Nationals in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 10-11.

BOX SCORE
Southern Oregon 26, University of Providence 18
101 – #1 Ira Navarro (UP) over #2 Esthela Trevino (SOU) TF 14-4 (4:55). (1-4)
109 – #3 Natalie Reyna (SOU) over #3 Erin Hikiji (UP) by dec. 6-5. (4-5).
116 – #1 Ashley Gooman (UP) over #8 Macie Stewart (SOU) TF 10-0 (1:10). (4-9)
123 – #10 Glory Konecny (SOU) over #15 Alicia Frank (UP) by fall 4:33. (9-9)
130 – Jordynn Robson (SOU) over #19 Gabriella Parini (UP) by fall 5:32. (14-9)
136 – #4 Paige Respicio (UP) over Kira Satnick (SOU) TF 10-0 (3:40). (14-13)
|143 – #2 Emily Se (SOU) over #7 Waipuilani Estrella-Beauchamp (UP) by fall 1:54. (19-13)
155 – #10 Sadie Antoque (UP) over Averie Stockwell (SOU) TF 11-0 (4:38). (19-17)
170 – #2 Joye Levendusky (SOU) over Joji Miner-Ho (UP) 10-0 (1:39). (23-17)
191 – #14 Karrah Smith (SOU) over #17 Lexi Tupuola (UP) by dec. 7-1. (26-18)