TOURNAMENT CENTRAL

MARSHALL, Mo. – Southern Oregon 133-pounder Evan Potter and 157-pounder JJ Talavera advanced to the semifinal rounds of their respective brackets Friday, boosting the Raiders to ninth place in the team standings after the first of two days at the Missouri Valley Open.

Two more Raiders are still alive in the consolation brackets at the 38-team tournament: Pancho Barrera (125 pounds), who reached the quarterfinals, and Justin Coon (133), who kept his run going with back-to-back bonus-point victories to end the day.

Top-ranked Grand View (Iowa) tops the team standings with 93 points and No. 12 Cumberlands (Ky.) is second with 92. The Raiders have totaled 51 ½ points, leaving them just nine points out of a top-five spot.

Potter – currently the NAIA's No. 14-ranked 133-pounder as a freshman – accounted for a team-high 13 ½ points and ran his record to 23-6 with three wins. He opened with a 15-0 technical fall over Graceland's Ryan Anderson and followed with a 6-1 decision over Campbellsville's Cameron Henderson. With four seconds left in the second period of his quarterfinal matchup, he pinned Jamestown's Antonio Ruiz.

Talavera, ranked 14th at 157, contributed 12 points and improved to 22-8 on the year with a perfect 4-0 day. After starting with a first-round pin of Oklahoma City's Connor Holman, he defeated three straight opponents by decision: Williams Baptist's Jonathan Vizcarrondo (3-2), Cumberlands' Thomas Ketchen-Carter (6-3), and Providence's Dougie Swanson (3-1).

The No. 12-ranked Barrera defeated Ethan Woods of St. Mary by fall (4:05) and Texas Wesleyan's Jeremy McPherson by 13-6 decision. In the quarterfinals, Grand View's Aden Reeves fought him off for a 13-10 win.

Coon went 3-1 on the day, adding bonus points to each of his victories. After a tourney-opening pin against Oklahoma City's Logan Chappell, Campbellsville's Zeke Escalera directed him to the consolation bracket. He responded with a technical-fall shutout over York's Jonathan Halk and an 18-second pin of Morningside's Logan Stumpf.

Travis Thorpe (149) and Ayden Wolgamott (174) contributed two wins apiece for the Raiders.

Wrestling starts again at 7 a.m. Pacific Time on Saturday.