Dec. 3, 2010
Day One Results
LAS VEGAS - Utah Valley seniors Benjamin Kjar, Flint Ray and Justin Morrill are all still alive at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational after solid showings on Friday. The trio will all strive for placement at the highly touted invitational on Saturday.
The fourth-seeded and 11th-ranked 125-pounder Kjar got off to a good start as he won his opening match over conference-foe Trent Sprenkle from North Dakota State by a 3-2 decision score. Kjar then locked heads with the fifth-seeded and 14th-ranked Jarrod Garnett in the quarterfinals. Kjar and Garnett battled back and forth throughout the match and it took multiple overtime periods to decide a victor in the important bout. In the end, Garnett edged out Kjar by a point 5-4.
With the loss, Kjar finished going 1-1 in day number one. He will begin his journey in the wrestleback bracket Saturday morning with Navy's Aaron Kalil.
Eighth-seeded and 14th-ranked 133-pounder Ray started off the tournament with a bang as he won his first match by fall over Arizona State's David Prado just 1:30 into the match. Ray then won his next two bouts as he defeated North Dakota State's Justin Solberg by technical fall (16-0) and the No. 11 ranked Kelly Kubec from Oregon State by decision (4-0).
Following the victories, Ray then found himself in the quarterfinals paired with the Tooele, Utah-native and top-seeded Andrew Hochstrasser from Boise State who is ranked second in the nation. Ray put up a battle against the All-American but in the end he found himself on the wrong end of a 15-1 score. Ray finished the first day with a 3-1 record and will begin action Saturday morning with the 12th-ranked Ian Paddock from Ohio State.
Morrill at 141-pounds began the tournament with an opening loss as he fell to the second-ranked James Kennedy from Illinois 12-2. Morrill bounced back nicely however as he rolled off three consecutive wins in the wrestlebacks over UNC-Greensboro's Michael Crowley, NC State's Darius Little and Indiana's Mitchell Ritchey.
Morrill finished day one with a 3-1 record and will open up Saturday by facing a fellow opponent in Air Force's Cole VonOhlen who is ranked 17th.
Five other Wolverine grapplers were in action and they all lost their opening bouts of the tournament as sophomore Josh Wilson (149), redshirt-freshman Abner Cook (157), senior Jeb Clark (165), senior Casen Eldredge (184) and freshman Trevor Rupp (197) all found themselves wrestling in the wrestleback brackets after their first matches.
Wilson, Cook and Clark all bounced back nicely from their opening losses to pick up wins in their second matches.
Cook and Clark both went on to win another match as they each finished with identical 2-2 records at the invite. Cook picked up his wins over Columbia's Jake O'Hara and West Virginia's Ryan Goodman, while Clark defeated Dickinson State's Nick Zumwald and eighth-ranked Mike Miller from Central Michigan.
Wilson wrestled his way to a 1-2 record in his first appearance at the invitational. He defeated Duke's Christopher Piccolella 8-0 but then fell to Ohio State's Sean Nemec in his final match.
For Eldrege, the invite marked his first action of the season. Eldredge finished going 0-2 as he received a tough draw and had to start against the third-seeded Travis Rutt from Wisconsin. Eldredge lost 10-2 to Rutt and 9-2 to Columbia's Nicolas Mills in his second match. Rupp also ended with a 0-2 clip, as he had to pull out of his second match against Brandon Schull from Brown and take a medical default.
The Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational will conclude on Saturday. Following the invite, UVU will head to the UNK Loper Open in Kearney, Neb., on Dec. 11.
