Henneman Places Fifth, Clary Finishes Eighth as NAIA National Championships Conclude

By: 
Ryan Wronkowicz

Led by a fifth-place finish from Nick Henneman (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.) and an eighth-place effort from Noah Clary (Upper Sandusky, Ohio/Upper Sandusky H.S.), Lourdes University finished in a 16th place as a team on Saturday at the NAIA National Championships held at Hartman Arena in Park City, Kan. 
 
The Gray Wolves posted 30.5 points for the two-day evening, just one point behind 15th place Missouri Valley.  Lourdes was just 5.5 points shy of 11th place. 
 
“We didn’t finish as strong as we had hoped, but I am proud of our guys,” head coach Dock Kelly III said afterwards.  “They battled all the way to the end, and they left it all on the mat.  I am also pleased with the fact that we placed 16th as a team.  That accomplishment will earn us an invitation to the national dual tournament next year.” 
 
Henneman, at 141 pounds, was the first Gray Wolf to take the mat and continued his weekend dominance against Reinhardt’s Trent Leon.  After a scoreless opening period, the Lourdes grappler chose down, escaped in three seconds which followed by a quick takedown.  He added four for a near-fall to lead 7-0 after two periods.  A scoreless third followed, and Henneman was awarded a point for riding time to give him the 8-0 major decision. 
 
Clary followed on the mat at 174 pounds but was unable to produce the same result.  He fell behind after the opening period against Eastern Oregon’s Keegen Mulhill and was not able to recover, suffering a 9-1 major decision setback, sending him to the seventh-place contest. 
 
Henneman returned to the mat against Blake Mulkey of Marian in the consolation semifinals and fell behind 6-0 in the opening 30 seconds.  He battled back to within one, 7-6, by period’s end and evened the score with a quick escape to being the second.  The match remained tied through regulation time before Mulkey scored a takedown with about 25 seconds left in sudden victory, sending Henneman to the fifth-place contest. 
 
The redshirt-junior bounced back in his fifth-place match with his fourth dominating performance of the weekend.  He jumped out to a quick 10-0 lead following a takedown and a pair of four-point near-falls, he finished off Austin Wallace-Lister just 1:38 into the contest with a pin.  Henneman, a two-time All-American, finished one place shy of his best effort of fourth in 2019. 
 
Clary closed out the competition for the Gray Wolves against Chase Short of Montana State-Northern in the seventh-place match.  Again, he fell behind early in the opening period and was not able to battle back, suffering a 13-1 setback in a major decision.  Clary’s eighth place effort earned him All-American honors for the first time in his career. 
 
“All five our national qualifiers will be returning next year, so the future is very promising for the Lourdes University wrestling program,” Kelly concluded. 
 
       
 

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