[Men's Wrestling] Vaughan goes 3-2 at Nationals; finishes top 12

DES MOINES, IA- St. Andrews University junior heavyweight Aaron Vaughan (JR/Dinwiddie, VA) went 3-2 on Friday on the first day of the 61st NAIA National Wrestling Championships at Jacobson Exhibition Center in Des Moines, Iowa. SAU ended up placing 35th out of 53 schools represented with 4 points from Vaughan.

Vaughan, 10-2 this season and unseeded, upset the #7 seed, Bryson McGowan, from Oklahoma City 6-2 in the first round to advance to the round of 16. Vaughan racked up 4 minutes of riding time in the bout. McGowan would go on to place 8th.

Vaughan then suffered his first loss of the tournament falling by major decision 14-1 to the #10 seed, Brandon Reed, from Lindsey Wilson (Ky.) to drop into the consolation bracket. Reed would go on to place 4th.

He then pinned his first foe, the #9 seed from Dickinson St. College (ND) in the consolation round in 55 seconds with an impressive cradle. Vaughan, then advanced to the second round of Consolations Friday evening where he went on to defeat his next foe from Marian (IN) 6-3 and advance to the round of 12.

Vaughan then lost a hard-fought bout 5-3 to #5 seed Quandre Chisolm, who would go on to place 6th while knocking Vaughan out for the tournament and just one win shy of becoming an All-American wrestler. Vaughan trailed 1-0 entering the third period in the match and tried to hit a Granby roll to escape and got caught on his back for two near fall points before escaping to give Chisolm the 3-1 lead. Vaughan then gave up a last-second takedown while getting two stall points but fell 5-3.

Vaughan, the AAC runner-up, finishes the year 13-4 and was one of only three AAC wrestlers to even advance to the Round of 12. The AAC also had their first all-American from Reinhardt in their first year sponsoring wrestling.

Head coach Joe Baranik said, "Aaron had a huge day beating two seeded wrestlers while his losses were to 2 All-Americans. I'm proud of him and he wrestled well as a junior. He had a nice pin at the Nationals and made SAU proud going 3-2 in his first trip. We're hoping he can be ranked at the start of next season and looking forward to a great senior year as a football player and wrestler."

Coach Baranik, Coach Denzel Vaughan, and Aaron are pictured below with legendary Iowa Coach and wrestler, Dan Gable.