COMPLETE TOURNAMENT RESULTS

POWDER SPRINGS, Ga. – Southern Oregon's Aaron Gandara and Evan Potter defended their top-three NAIA rankings with tournament championships on Saturday at the Life University Open.

The No. 3-ranked Gandara won the 157-pound bracket and the No. 2-ranked Potter was perfect at 141 for the No. 9 Raiders, who also had a third-place finisher in 125-pounder Vonn Fenn. Tyler Rhue (141 pounds) and Asher Ruchti (197) placed fourth, Dylan Clark (133) and Adrian Chavez-Morales (184) were fifth, and Kyle Sieminski (125) and Dylan Straley (157) finished sixth.

Gandara, after opening with a technical fall and two decisions, finished his run with back-to-back sudden victories. He defeated No. 16 Ryan Bennett of Southeastern (Fla.) in the semifinals and No. 11 Fabian Padilla of Life (Ga.) in the final, both by 4-1 scores.

Potter maintained his perfect record with five bonus-point wins. After pinning Southeastern's Jackson Crawford in his first match, his next two opponents – the unattached Jacob Ruiz and No. 12 Nick Moore of Campbellsville (Ky.) – bowed out with injury defaults. Potter was a 15-3 semifinal winner over No. 8 Thomas Williams of St. Thomas (Fla.), and his first-place match opponent forfeited.

Fenn, ranked No. 12 at 125, outlasted No. 13 Clarence Lee Green of Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) in his third-place match. Ruchti, ranked No. 9 at 197, also advanced to the third-place match in his bracket but sat it out.

Alex Hernandez, SOU's No. 3-ranked 174-pounder, won his first match before leaving his next with a medical forfeit. He didn't appear in the rest of the tournament.

SOU is off until working on its 7-0 dual record against Cal Poly Humboldt on Dec. 6 in Ashland.

COMPLETE SOU PLACES
1st place – Evan Potter (141), Aaron Gandara (157)
3rd place – Vonn Fenn (125)
4th place – Tyler Rhue (141), Asher Ruchti (197)
5th place – Dylan Clark (133), Adrian Chavez-Morales (184)
6th place – Kyle Sieminski (125), Dylan Straley (157)
No place – Simon Graeber (133), Travis Thorpe (149), Alex Hernandez (174), Noah Talavera (174), Braylin Ruchti (184), John White (197), Sebastian Echeverria (285)