WICHITA, Kan. -- Horacio Godinez (So.) from The Evergreen State College took eighth place in the 141-pound weight class to earn All-American honors as the 2026 NAIA Men's Wrestling Championships concluded on Saturday, March 7 at the Heartland Credit Union Arena. Godinez, seeded #15, was defeated in the seventh place match by #3-seeded Sammy Shires of Cumberland University (Tenn) 6-1 on Saturday. The top eight finishers in each weight class were named All-American.

Godinez is the first Geoduck to be named an All-American in men's wrestling since Evergreen added the sport prior to the 2023-24 season. He is also the first Evergreen men's wrestler to compete at the NAIA Championships.

In the seventh place match, Shires gained a 3-0 lead on a takedown with 44 seconds left in the first period. Shires increased his lead with a reversal at the 1:25 mark in the second period before Godinez cut the margin to 5-1 by earning an escape with 17 seconds remaining. Neither wrestler scored during the third period, although Shires added a point at the end for riding time.

Shires defeated Godinez twice during the NAIA Championships. He edged out Godinez 8-7 in the second round of the championship bracket in their first meeting.

During the NAIA Championships, Godinez defeated #6-seeded Jared Dinh from Cumberland (Tenn.) with a 16-1 technical fall in the third consolation round and downed #1-seeded Adrian Ayala 9-5 in the fourth consolation round. Godinez achieved a 4-3 record during the tournament and finished the season with a 37-7 overall record to set the Evergreen record for wins in a season. He also holds Evergreen's career record for victories with a 61-14 record (.813) in two seasons with the Geoducks.

Godinez scored a total of 10.5 points in the team standings. Even with one competitor, Evergreen placed 33rd out of 63 teams in the tournament.