California Baptist University
Midlands Invitational
Morton and Haas Place on Day Two of the Midlands Championships
12/30/2024 3:24:00 PM | Wrestling
HOFFMAN ESTATES, IL--- On the final day of the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, the California Baptist University wrestling team earned a pair of placers at the NOW Arena.
Nathan Haas and Drayden Morton brought home the placers for CBU in session four in the 184 and 165 lbs brackets, respectively. Haas made it to the semifinals of the championships bracket before placing 6th, while Morton battled his way through the consolation bracket to claim a fifth-place finish for the Lancers.
Haas nearly pulled off his second upset of the tournament in the semifinals as he went toe-to-toe with #29 Shane Cartagena-Walsh of Rutgers. The match went to sudden victory, but it would be Cartagena-Walsh who would secure a takedown in the overtime frame and make his way to the finals. Haas would fall into the consolation bracket, where he would battle for placement. In the bracket, Haas matched up with #22 Maximus Hale from Penn and lost 4-1 in a decision to find himself in the fifth-place match. Haas would take on Ian Bush of West Virginia in the match and would claim sixth place in the bracket after losing in an 8-3 decision to Bush.
Morton would be the second placer for the Lancers as he would compete at 165 lbs. Morton bested Brett Smith of Northern Illinois in the blood round to secure placement in the bracket and would then be matched up with E'Than Birden of Ohio State. Morton would add another win to his day over Birden with a 5-3 decision over Birden and would secure at least a spot in the fifth-place match. Morton would come up short to top-seeded #13 Hunter Garvin of Stanford in the next match to earn a spot in the fifth-place match. Morton would secure fifth place via a medical forfeit as Evan Maad of George Mason was unable to compete.
The other competitor on day two for the Lancers was Carter Schmidt, who would come up slightly short in the blood round of the 174 lbs bracket. The match would go into tiebreakers after the two wrestlers went scoreless in sudden victory. Marty Larkin of Michigan State would earn the win 2-1 in the first tiebreaker and move on to the placement matches.
NEXT: The Lancers will open 2025 with a road dual against Utah Valley on Saturday, January 4 at 5 PM PT.
