Dec. 4, 2010
Complete Results
LAS VEGAS - Utah Valley senior 125-pounder Benjamin Kjar led the Wolverine wrestling team at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational this weekend as he placed seventh at the prominent tournament.
With just eight wrestlers competing in all for UVU, the Wolverines placed 21st out of 36 teams with 27 points. UVU finished ahead of Air Force, West Virginia, Columbia, North Dakota State, San Francisco State, Cal State Fullerton, Duke, Brown and NC State to name a few.
The No. 11 ranked Kjar and fourth-seeded 125-pounder started strong as he picked up a victory in his first match on Saturday by defeating Navy's Aaron Kalil by decision, 8-2. Kjar then matched up with the eighth-seeded and 17th-ranked Jason Lara from Oregon State and Kjar got off to a great start in the bout as he led 2-0 early. In the middle of the second period Lara managed to get Kjar in a cradle and pin him (4:10).
With the defeat, Kjar found himself wrestling in the seventh place match with sixth-seeded Steve Bonanno from Hofstra. Both Kjar and Bonanno held one another scoreless for the first couple of minutes of the bout. With Bonanno up 1-0 in the third period, Kjar managed to get an escape point and tie the bout meaning it would take sudden victory overtime to declare a victor. At the end of the first overtime, Kjar got the best of the 16th-ranked opponent as he scored a takedown to win the match 3-1 and place seventh.
The placement was Kjar's third straight at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
"The guys wrestled well this weekend and the team is coming along," UVU head coach Greg Williams said. "We have some young guys who need to work on a few things to be able to compete and be able to beat some of the better guys. We need to get more confidence that we can beat the higher-seeded guys even if we are only a freshman or a sophomore."
"Overall I feel good about our results but I feel bad about Flint and his injury," Williams added.
Both Flint Ray (senior, 133-pounder) and Justin Morrill (senior, 141-pounder) ended up dropping their first matches of day number two which meant an end to their solid tournament runs. Ray ended up having to pull out of his bout with Ohio State's Ian Paddock due to a shoulder injury that he suffered in his final match on Friday. Morrill took on the 17th-ranked Cole VonOhlen from Air Force and ended dropping the match by decision, 7-3.
Kjar, Ray and Morrill all finished with 3-2 records at the invite.
UVU will be back in action next Saturday, Dec. 11, in Kearney, Neb., when it takes part in the UNK Loper Open. The Wolverines will then be off until after Christmas and will head to Greensboro, N.C., to participate in the Southern Scuffle Dec. 29-30.
