As opposed to my personal December traditions of watching conference championship football games and gaining several pounds, the wrestling Buckeyes have made it a habit to bring home individual and team titles from the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
For the fourth time in the last five seasons, the Buckeyes have crowned multiple champions and they captured their first team title at the illustrious tournament since 2012 with only seven of their ten regular starters in the lineup.
Nathan Tomasello and Micah Jordan paced the Buckeyes with championships at 133 and 149 while Jose Rodriguez took a runner-up finish at 125.
Rodriguez silenced some of his critics this weekend with a runner-up finish to Virginia Tech’s Joey Dance at 125. The Buckeye lightweight has drawn some harsh words due to his unproven ability but he showed that he can hang with some of the nation’s best this weekend.
Jose finished in second place despite being unseeded to begin the tournament and knocked off the fifth seeded Brent Fleetwood in the second round. In the semifinals, Rodriguez tech falled seventh seed Trey Andrews of Northern Colorado 17-1. In the finals, Rodriguez led top-seeded Joey Dance of Virginia Tech in the third period, but a late Dance takedown cost Rodriguez the bout by the score of 4-3.
Nathan Tomasello showed a little rust in his first action of the season at 133, but still had enough to win his second straight CKLV title. While we are used to seeing Tomasello win by bonus points he only won a single bout by bonus before winning his last four merely by decision.
The two-time All-American defeated the number eight and number five seeds en route to the championship match, where he defeated third-seeded Stevan Micic of Michigan by the score of 3-2.
Brendan Fitzgerald filled in for Ke-Shawn Hayes at 141 as Hayes suffered an injury in training and will be out of commission for the next four to six weeks. Fitzgerald had a rough go of it, going 1-2 on the weekend and bowing out of the competition on Friday evening. Joey McKenna of Stanford avenged a semifinal loss last year to Bryce Meredith of Wyoming in the finals with a 3-1 victory for the title.
While some coaches will advise athletes not to read their own press clippings, Micah Jordan must have heard the criticism that he doesn’t score many bonus points. The redshirt sophomore added to his team lead in the victory column this season with his title at 149 and improved to 17-0 on the young season. Jordan wrestled with marked aggression and scored three pins on Friday.
On Saturday, Jordan defeated a pair of wrestlers ranking in InterMat’s top ten, first beating Central Michigan’s No. 7 Justin Oliver 9-4 in the semifinals before taking the title over Edinboro’s No. 8 ranked Pat Lugo in the championship. Jordan defeated Lugo 7-3 to earn his second consecutive CKLV title.
Jake Ryan’s tough season only seems to be getting tougher as he failed to place despite entering the tournament as the ninth seed. Ryan lost to a pair of seeded wrestlers, losing first to Arizona State’s ninth seeded Shields before being eliminated by Bucknell’s Victor Lopez. Ryan finished the tournament 1-2. Minnesota’s Jake Short earned the title at 157 with a 3-2 victory over Central Michigan’s Colin Heffernan.
Cody Burcher lost another tight match to Arizona State’s Anthony Valencia before rattling off four straight victories to reach the consolation quarterfinals. Once there, Burcher dropped a decision before injury defaulting out of the seventh place match. Burcher finished 8th in a weight class ultimately won by Michigan’s Logan Massa, who upset Wisconsin’s Isaac Jordan in the finals.
Bo Jordan is slowly rehabbing from a minor surgery, so Seth Williams took the mat at 174. Williams went 1-2, winning his first match in the wrestlebacks before bowing out. Zahid Valencia of Arizona State defeated Cornell’s Brian Realbuto 3-2 to earn the title at 174.
Myles Martin started the tournament at 184 with a major decision and a pair of pins before dropping a minor upset to a very tough Zack Zavatsky 6-4 in the semifinals. In the wrestlebacks, Martin earned another major decision and a tech fall to earn 3rd place at 184. Cornell’s two-time NCAA champion Gabe Dean dispatched Zavatsky with a 19-4 technical fall in just five minutes, proving that he is going to be difficult to dethrone in March.
Kollin Moore entered the tournament undefeated at 10-0, but suffered his first official collegiate loss in the semifinals to top-seeded Brett Pfarr of Minnesota. Moore was unable to get any of his explosive leg attacks working against the experienced Pfarr, but he was able to get back on track in the consolation bracket as he won a pair of matches to finish third at 197. Pfarr defeated Virginia Tech’s Jared Haught 14-1 in the championship bout.
Heavyweight Kyle Snyder represented Titan Mercury in Ukraine this weekend so he was unable to make the trip to Las Vegas. Buckeye Josh Fox was able to step into the lineup but had the misfortune of drawing Arizona State’s Tanner Hall in the first round. Fox ended the weekend 1-2 with a win in the wrestlebacks. Connor Medbery of Wisconsin repeated his victory over Ty Walz from the All-Star Classic with a 6-4 victory for the heavyweight championship.
Ohio State won the team title edging an upstart Wisconsin team 118.5-113.5. Virginia Tech rounded out the top three with 103 points. Minnesota joined the Buckeyes as the only teams to have multiple individual champions, but it wasn’t enough to get the Golden Gophers any higher than fourth place as a team.
The Buckeyes will return to Columbus for their first home match of the season on Thursday as they host No. 3 Missouri in what should be an excellent dual meet. Check back next week for a full preview of the Missouri dual meet and any news as it becomes available.
