Nebraska clinches team title; sends three wrestlers to finals of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational
By Mike Finn, WIN Editor
LAS VEGAS ” Nebraska’s Jordan Burroughs, Brandon Browne and Craig Brester, all No. 2 seeds, reached the finals of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational by securing victories in the Saturday morning semifinal round in the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Burroughs defeated Harvard’s J.P. O’Connor, 3-2, at 157 pounds and will advance to wrestle No. 1 ““seed Jordan Leen of Cornell who beat Boise State’s Adam Hall, 8-5.
Browne decisioned West Virginia’s Kurt Brenner, 5-1, at 174 pounds to put the Husker in the finals against Michigan’s No. 1 seed Steve Luke who dominated Indiana’s Trevor Perry, 12-4.
Brester also reached the finals, which begin at 5 p.m. PST on Saturday night, when he tallied a 13-3 major decision against Purdue’s Logan Brown. The Husker will face Army’s Richard Sparks who defeated Cal State Bakersfield’s Riley Orozco, 9-4, in the other semifinal.
The trio of finalists helped the Huskers build a 22.5-point margin and statistically clinch the team championship over No. 2 Cornell, 106.5-84.
Pittsburgh stood in third place with 81.5 points, followed by Minnesota with 80.5 points.
The Big Red and the Panthers of Pitt each advanced two wrestlers a piece to the finals: Leen and Mack Lewnes, the top seed at 165, for Cornell and Pitt’s Tyler Nauman, who surprised Michigan’s No. 2 seed at 141 pounds, and heavyweight Zach Sheaffer, who majored Ohio State’s Corey Morrison.
The following are highlights of all the semifinal bouts:
125 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Rollie Peterkin overcame a 4-1 first-period deficit to dominate Virginia Tech’s Jarrod Garnett, 12-5. The Quaker put the Hokie on his back twice; the first two-point nearfall giving Peterkin a 5-4 lead to end the first period.
“¢ Minnesota’s Zachary Sanders scored his third takedown with 45 seconds left in the match to clinch a 7-3 victory over Arizona State’s Anthony Robles, who cut the Gopher’s margin to 4-3 with a two-point nearfall while riding Sanders in the second period.
133 pounds
“¢ Top-seed James Kennedy of Illinois scored a takedown in both the first and second periods and added a riding time point for a 6-2 victory over Bucknell’s Dave Marble.
“¢ Andrew Hochstrasser, the No. 3 seed from Boise State, scored an escape with six seconds left to give the Bronco a 5-4 victory over No. 2 Jayson Ness of Minnesota. The Gopher used a first-period takedown and two-point nearfall to lead 4-0 before Hochstrasser rallied with a reversal at the end of the first period and a two-point nearfall while riding Ness the entire second frame.
141 pounds
“¢ Harvard’s Corey Jantzen led 2-0 and used a crap-ride to slip in a half and pin Arizona State’s Chris Drouin in 2:02.
“¢ 11th-seed Tyler Nauman scored six straight points ” four on a pair of two-point nearfall points ” in the second period ” to dominate No. 2 seed Kellen Russell of Michigan, 11-3.
NOTE: Ohio State’s defending NCAA champion J Jaggers, who was upset by Jantzen, 4-3, in the quarterfinals on Friday, was eliminated from placing when he lost to Minnesota’s Mike Thorn in the consolation quarterfinals.
149 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Darrion Caldwell of NC State scored the match’s only takedown with 45 seconds left in the second period and prevailed over Penn’s Cesar Grajales, 4-1.
“¢ No. 2-seed Lance Palmer of Ohio State rode Wisconsin’s Kyle Ruschell the entire second period and tallied a third-period escape to beat the Badger, 2-0.
157 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Jordan Leen of Cornell added a third takedown midway in the second period to preserve an 8-5 victory over Boise State’s Adam Hall, whose reversal with two seconds left in the first cut Leen’s margin to 4-3.
“¢ Nebraska’s Jordan Burroughs scored the match’s only takedown with 1:10 left in the third period and held onto beat Harvard’s J.P. O’Connor, 3-2.
165 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Mack Lewnes of Cornell took Bucknell’s Andy Rendos to his back for to lead 5-0 in the first 20 seconds and added 4:09 riding time to control Rendos, 8-1.
“¢ No. 6-seed Colt Sponseller of Ohio State rode No. 2 Stephen Dwyer of Nebraska the entire second period, which gave Buckeye the riding time advantage in a 2-1 victory over the Husker.
174 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Stephen Luke of Michigan scored five takedowns ” three in the first period ” to major Indiana’s Trevor Perry, 12-4.
“¢ No. 2 seed Brandon Browne scored a takedown and two-point nearfall in the final 1:10 of the bout to break open a close match and beat West Virginia’s Kurt Brenner, 5-1. The Mountaineer trailed 1-0 after two periods but held a 1:16 riding time advantage.
184 pounds
“¢ Top-seed Louis Caputo of Harvard scored a first-period takedown, a second-period reversal and added a 1:07 riding time advantage to beat Purdue’s A.J. Kissel, 5-0.
“¢ No. 2-sed Kirk Smith of Boise State fell behind 2-0 on a quick takedown by unseeded Joe LeBlanc of Wyoming and rallied back with six takedowns of his own ” three takedowns in the final period ” to dominate the Cowboy, 16-8.
197 pounds
“¢ Army’s Richard Sparks scored a takedown and two-point nearfall in the final period and added a riding time point to beat Riley Orozco of Cal State Bakersfield, 9-4. The two wrestlers exchanged takedowns and escapes in the first period, which was tied 3-3.
“¢ Craig Brester scored three of four takedowns in the first period and majored Purdue’s Logan Brown, 13-3, in a rough match that saw the Boilermaker penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct in the third period. Brester’s final takedown came with two seconds left in the bout.
Heavyweight
“¢ No. 8 seed Mitch Monteiro of Cal State Bakersfield scored a takedown and two-point nearfall in the final 50 seconds to clinch a 11-6 victory over Columbia’s Ryan Flores. Monteiro built a quick 5-0 lead by takingn Flores to his back before the Lion rallied with a takedown and two stalling points against Monteiro to cut the margin to 7-5 in the third period.
“¢ No. 2-seed Zach Sheaffer of Pitt jumped on top 5-0 with a takedown and three-point nearfall in the first period and built up over four minutes of riding time to blank Ohio State’s Corey Morrison, 11-0.
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