Duo to represent RedStorm in NAIA nationals

Rio Grande/NAIA Sports Information
     KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Two student-athletes will represent the University of Rio Grande in the 2025 NAIA Men's Wrestling National Championships hosted by Visit Wichita, beginning Thursday, at Park City Arena in Park City, Kan.
     The 68th edition of the annual event will take place with six sessions across three days. The action begins on Thursday and concludes on Saturday.
     Junior Justin Bartee (Point Pleasant, WV) earned an automatic qualifier to the national event based on his fourth-place finish at 184 pounds in the Mid-South Conference Championship on February 14.
     Senior Mitchell Freeman (Point Pleasant, WV) will be participating as an at-large selection at 165 pounds after finishing sixth in the MSC Tournament.
     Bartee (19-14) will face third-seeded Tyson Beauperthuy of Doane (Neb.) University in the opening round of his weight class, while Freeman (13-17) drew top-seeded Jonathan Kervin of Indiana Tech in his opening round matchup.
     All matches at the national championships for Sessions I through V will be stream live via FloWrestling. Access to the live results and brackets can be found through TrackWrestling. The championship bouts on Saturday, during Session IV, will air on the NAIA Network and the Urban Edge Network.
     Four schools will arrive in Wichita with a full roster of 12 wrestlers, in Cumberlands (Ky.), Grand View (Iowa), Southeastern (Fla.), and Life (Ga.). Providence (Mont.), Indiana Tech, and Doane (Neb.) will make the trip with 11 wrestlers; while Embry-Riddle (Ariz.) and Southern Oregon will travel with 10 wrestlers each.
     In total across the 10 weight classes, 280 wrestlers were selected to compete for a chance at being named a national champion in their respective weight class.
     The Cascade Collegiate Conference leads all other conferences with 62 total wrestlers qualifying, while the Heart of America Conference follows with 46 wrestlers qualifying. The Appalachian Athletic Conference and the Mid-South Conference follow close to each other with 39 and 38 wrestlers qualifying, respectively.
     Brackets were verified and approved by the NAIA-Wrestling Coaches Association Bracketing Committee.
     Previously, a 16-member committee consisting of conference raters and oversight members met to select the remaining at-large qualifiers. Next, the 16-member committee, determined the ranking order of each weight class. This was used as the basis for the Bracketing Committee and later verified.