NIACC's Church falls in semifinals

COUNCIL BLUFFS - NIACC's Isaac Church was pinned by Pratt's Easton Taylor in 3 minutes, 42 seconds in their 141-pound semifinal match Saturday morning at the NJCAA national wrestling tournament at the Mid-America Center.

Church (16-3) will now face Southeast's Ely Olberding in a consolation semifinal match. The winner of the Church/Olberding match will wrestle for third place with the loser falling to the 5/6th place match.

NIACC's 149-pounder Cordell White (13-4) pinned Caeleb Ishmael of Southwestern Michigan) in 1:22 Saturday morning to advance to the consolation semifinals.

White faces Clackamas' Reggie Raiz in the 149-pound consolation semifinal match. The winner of the White/Raiz match advances to the third-place match while the loser will wrestle for 5/6th.

Church advanced to the 141-pound semifinals with three wins on Friday. He took a 17-5 major decision from Snow's Will Korth in his second round match, pinned Nassau's Ryan Paladino in 7:27 in the third round and edged North Idaho's Hunter Bidelman 4-2 in the quarterfinals.

White opened his national tournament with a 1:26 fall of Otero JC's Dakota Taavialma. White was pinned by RCTC's Cohen Wiste in 6:31 sending White to the consolation bracket.

White bounced back with three wins Friday to advance to the all-American round. White took a 18-7 major decision from Labette's Jamarius Koshko, pinned Triton's Anthony Bitner in 1:50 and stuck Northwest's Caleb Nadig in 3:54.

White has nine falls in his 13 wins this season.