CHADRON, Neb. – For the first time in 17 years, the Chadron State College men's wrestling team has four entries in the NCAA Division II Men's Wrestling Championships, which will be held this Friday and Saturday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Quade Smith (125 pounds),
Keegan Gehlhausen (184 pounds),
Mason Villwok (197 pounds) and
Eli Reese (285 pounds) have all qualified for the national tournament, giving CSC its most qualifiers since 2009.
Three of the Eagles' four qualifiers received pre-tournament seeds (8 of 18 wrestlers in each weight are seeded).
Keegan Gehlhausen – the reigning national runner-up at 184 – has a No. 2 seed this year at that weight while Villwok will be the No. 6-seeded 197-pounder and Smith is seeded No. 7 at 125.
The most recent NWCA rankings from March 6 match the national brackets, so Gehlhausen, Villwok and Smith have the same respective national rankings.
This is Gehlhausen's third career national qualification as the redshirt senior will be seeking to end his career with a second All-American honor after his second-place finish last season.
Reese qualified for nationals last season with Gannon, but he is making his first career appearance with Chadron State. Smith and Villwok have qualified for nationals for the first time in their careers.
The action will get underway at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center with the preliminaries and first round beginning at 9 a.m. MT (10 a.m. local/CT) Friday. The second session, featuring the quarterfinals and first and second-round consolation matches, will begin at 4 p.m. MT/5 p.m. local.
On Saturday, the semifinals and wrestlebacks will start at 9 a.m. MT/10 a.m. local before the championship finals will take place at 6 p.m. MT/7 p.m. local on Saturday night.
A free live stream of the competition will be available on NCAA.com. Live results and bracket updates will be available on FloWrestling. Tickets can be purchased online at
this link.
Looking Back
Chadron State finished in third place in the team standings and had two regional champions, two third-place finishers and seven total placers at the Super Region 6 championships held on February 28 in Golden, Colorado.
RECAP:
Eagles Secure Two Regional Champs, Four National Qualifiers
Keegan Gehlhausen was able to defend his 2025 regional title at 184 pounds, but 197-pound sophomore
Mason Villwok gave CSC a second champ from the No. 3 regional seed line, defeating both top-two regional seeds (Colorado Mesa's Gabriel Carranza and Nebraska-Kearney's Jackson Kinsella), who were each ranked in the top seven nationally and had defeated Villwok earlier in the season.
Quade Smith and
Eli Reese both snagged the third and final qualification spots at their weight, coming on top in winner-take-all matches.
Caleb Chaves (141 pounds) and
Logan Berger (174 pounds) finished on the wrong side of that showdown, losing the winner-to-nationals matches and placing fourth, while
Tayten Gillette was sixth at 165 pounds.
In the team standings, Chadron State's 100 points trailed only Nebraska-Kearney (142) and Adams State (124), leading Colorado School of Mines (95.5) and Colorado Mesa (86.5).
Thanks to Gehlhausen and Villwok's bracket triumphs, Chadron State was one of only three schools with multiple regional champions alongside Nebraska-Kearney and Adams State, who had three each. CSC's four total national qualifiers were also the third-most in the region behind UNK's seven and ASU's six.
CSC Bracket Previews
Quade Smith - 125
After redshirting in 2024-25,
Quade Smith is in his fifth season as part of the Eagles program and his persistence has paid off with a first career nationals trip, where he will be seeded No. 7 overall.
Smith earned his trip the hard way. He was pinned by Jason Goodin of Colorado School of Mines in the first round of regionals, but won four consecutive matches to battle back and finish third, including a 7-0 win over Goodin in the 3
rd/4
th place match.
The Utah native has a 23-5 record this season. His first opponent will be either senior Ben Aranda (12-8) of St. Cloud State or freshman Ricky Springs (17-5) from Newberry. Aranda and Springs will have a pigtail preliminary match early Friday as the tourney is getting underway.
If Smith wins his opener, he will tangle with either Cooper Davis (23-9 )of UNC Pembroke or No. 2 seed Anthony Aniciete, a sophomore from Tiffin. Smith and Aniciete, who has a 19-2 record this season, met at the Midwest Classic this season with Aniciete narrowly beating Smith 4-2. Aniciete placed fourth at that tournament while Smith was fifth.
Other seeded wrestlers on Smith's side of the bracket include No. 3 seed Jack Parker of Grand Valley State (14-1) and Western Colorado's Devin Gomez at the No. 6 seed (23-8). Another RMAC wrestler, Isaiah Gamez of Adams State, is the No. 1 seed. Both Gomez and Gamez have defeated Smith this year.
Keegan Gehlhausen - 184
Chadron State's highest-seeded wrestler at this weekend's competition, Gehlhausen's clear goal is to exceed his runner-up finish from the 2025 championships. A new 184-pound champion will be crowned after West Liberty's Ty McGeary, a three-time reigning champ, graduated after beating Gehlhausen for his third title last year.
The Pinedale, Wyoming native is seeking to become the third Chadron State wrestler to make multiple national championship finals and the third CSC wrestler to win a national championship. He would join his head coach,
Brett Hunter, and Josh Majerus in both clubs.
As the No. 2 seed, Gehlhausen – who boasts a 15-1 season record – is at the bottom of the 184-pound bracket. His first opponent is sophomore Bradley Mayse of Grand Valley State (27-11), who placed third in Super Region 3. If Gehlhausen wins that match, his likely opponent will be No. 7 seed Patrick Jackson of Gannon (28-2), who himself awaits the winner of a preliminary match in the first round. Jackson placed fourth in the Midwest Classic earlier this year.
Gehlhausen placed second at the tournament, and the wrestler who won and handed the Eagle redshirt senior his only loss of the season so far is also in this half of the bracket – No. 6 seed Branson Britten of Central Oklahoma, who topped Gehlhausen 8-1 in the Midwest Classic finals. Britten has a 23-4 overall record.
Other top seeded wrestlers at the weight include No. 1 seed Cole Glazier, a redshirt sophomore from St. Cloud State who possesses a perfect 20-0 record, No. 3 seed Darion Johnson of McKendree (23-3), who Gehlhausen defeated in the Midwest Classic semis, and No. 4 seed Damon Ashworth of Central Missouri (22-2), who placed fourth at last year's nationals.
Mason Villwok - 197
Villwok, a sophomore from Elkhorn, Nebraska, has been a rising star this season. Villwok will go to nationals with a 17-4 record and has racked up bonus points in many of his victories.
A First Team All-RMAC honoree alongside Gehlhausen, Villwok turned heads by avenging losses to nationally-ranked Gabriel Carranza and Jackson Kinsella and winning the regional title – enough that he now possesses a No. 6 seed and national ranking, his highest ever.
The CSC sophomore's first-round foe at nationals will be senior Jordan Blanchard of Wisconsin-Parkside (25-9), who placed third at Super Region 5. A second-round matchup awaits against either No. 3 seed Peyton Lemon of Ashland (25-5), who beat Villwok 8-2 in the Midwest Classic in December, or Marvelous Rutledge of Lander (19-9), the seventh-place finisher at nationals last year.
Other seeded threats include No. 1 seed Max Ramberg of Augustana (15-0), who could have a home-mat advantage competing in South Dakota and has two career top-six finishes at nationals, No. 2 seed Nick Johnson of Glenville State (27-1), a two-time regional champion, and No. 4 seed Jackson Kinsella of Nebraska-Kearney, who earned a top-four seed despite his regional championship loss to Villwok.
Kinsella, Ramberg and Johnson finished third, fourth and fifth – respectively – at last year's national tournament. Along with seventh-place finisher Rutledge, four All-Americans return at the weight.
Eli Reese – 285
Heavyweight
Eli Reese is the Eagles' fourth national qualifier and the only unseeded wrestler from the Eagles. He competed at nationals at 197 pounds last season for Gannon University, where he went 1-2.
Reese, who stands 6-foot-7, has a 13-7 record and placed third at the regional championships after securing a 2-1 victory in the third-place match with over two minutes of riding time.
Reece is on the top side of the bracket and has a first-round matchup against No. 4 seed Carter Blough of Grand Valley State (32-3), an eighth-place finisher at nationals last year. If Reese gets by his seeded opponent, he will see either No. 5 Freddie Retter of Kutztown (4-2) or West Liberty's Parker Bentley (22-10) in the second round.
Also in the top half is No. 1 seed Dorian Crosby of Gannon (14-0). Crosby finished third at last year's nationals and was the reason Reece needed to cut weight and compete at 197 to crack the starting lineup at his previous school.
The bottom side of the heavyweight bracket is led by No. 2 seed Crew Howard of Nebraska-Kearney (15-2). Crosby beat Howard 4-2 in the third place match at last year's nationals.
National/Conference Storylines
Chadron State will enter this weekend's championships with a No. 14 team tournament national ranking from the NWCA. CSC's highest all-time finish in the team standings was sixth with 58 points in 2007, the year current coach
Brett Hunter won his first of two national championships.
Gannon is the favorite to win the team title, entering the championships with a No. 1 ranking and the most qualified wrestlers with nine, but the Golden Knights will have competition from No. 2 Central Oklahoma (eight qualifiers) and reigning national champs Nebraska-Kearney (ranked No. 3, seven qualifiers).
Among RMAC teams, Adams State is ranked the highest (No. 9) and has the most qualifiers (six). The Grizzlies have three seeded wrestlers – No. 1 Isaiah Gamez at 125, No. 6 Jakob Romero at 133 and No. 3 Aaden Valdez at 157.
Chadron State ranks second among RMAC teams with four national qualifiers, ahead of Colorado School of Mines (three), Colorado Mesa (three), and CSU Pueblo, New Mexico Highlands and Western Colorado (one each).
Beyond ASU and CSC's three seeded wrestlers, other pre-tournament top eight grapplers from RMAC schools include Mines's Cody Thompson (No. 3 at 149), Mesa's Owen Cline (No. 6 at 157), NMHU's Ivan Smith, Jr. (No. 6 at 165), Western Colorado's Devin Gomez (No. 6 at 125) and Pueblo's Jacob Myers (No. 8 at 133).
Coach's Corner
Chadron State coach
Brett Hunter is entering his 14
th season as the head coach at his alma mater. Hunter led the Eagles to its first RMAC championship in nearly 20 years in 2023-24, which earned him the RMAC Coach of the Year and NWCA Region VI Coach of the Year honors.
In that landmark 2024 season, the Eagles finished with a 10-1 overall dual record, including an undefeated 8-0 mark in RMAC duals, with two national tournament qualifiers. At CSC, Hunter has coached six All-American wrestlers and four individual regional champions.
As a Chadron State student-athlete, Hunter holds the program record for most wins, finishing with a career record of 133-32. He is the school's only repeat national champion, winning NCAA titles at 165 pounds in 2007 and 174 pounds in 2009. Hunter was inducted into the Chadron State Athletics Hall of Fame in 2024.
