By: Erika Moreno / Delta Staff Writer

Elias Vaoifi is a wrestler at Missouri Valley College and he is really excited to be given the opportunity to represent Samoa in the World Wrestling Championships located at Nur-Sultan Kazakhstan.

“My biggest inspiration for wrestling is definitely just my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and, you know, performing for him and glorifying him and doing everything I can to make the message about him bigger,” Vaoifi said. 

Coach Patrick Giangrosso and Coach Shane Reickard are traveling with Vaoifi to Nur-Sultan.

“He looks at the wrestling end of it, you know through a different eye than most people do,” Giangrosso said. “He really thinks about things like ‘how I’m doing moves and why I’m doing it’.”

Mike Machholz is the head wrestling coach for the Men’s Wrestling Department at Missouri Valley College. He said he is excited to see the progress that Vaoifi has made since last year when he was ranked 4th in the Nation.