COLBY, Kan. – The Kansas Jayhawk Community College recognizes Fort Hays Tech Northwest wrestler Lazaro Crespo for his performance at the Fort Hays State University Bob Smith Open as the 184-pound wrestler finished second in his bracket with four wins including three falls as part of his tournament.

Crespo, the top-ranked NJCAA wrestler at 184 pounds, opened his day with a third-period fall over Dane Donigan of Newman University before adding a second-period fall over Kai Saito of Western Colorado University to advance to the quarterfinal round. In his next match against Owen Heiser of Air Force, Crespo turned a 1-0 deficit early in the second period into a 3-2 lead before going on to add an escape, takedown, and riding time point as part of an 8-3 victory to advance to the semifinals. Facing off against an NJCAA foe for the first and only time in the tournament in the semifinal round, Crespo jumped out to a 7-0 lead over Rodney Trotter of Labette and never looked back by adding a pair of takedowns in the second period which led to a fall with three seconds left in the period to advance to the championship match. Awaiting Crespo was NCAA Division 1 wrestler Brayden Thompson of Oklahoma State University who was a 2024 NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championship qualifier at 174 pounds as a freshman last season. Crespo worked a scoreless opening three minutes against Thompson before falling behind 4-1 after the second and eventually dropping his only decision of the tournament by a 9-3 score to finish as runner-up. 

This season, Crespo is 9-3 with seven wins by bonus points after finishing fourth last season at the 2024 NJCAA Wrestling Championships in Council Bluffs, Iowa. 

To qualify for a top performance, a wrestler must finish in the top three of their bracket in an open tournament, defeat an NJCAA Nationally-Ranked Opponent, or have a significant win in a dual that helped their team within the team scoring as part of a team dual victory. Each school is required to submit its top performances each week in order to be recognized by the KJCCC as having a wrestling top performance from the prior week.