East Lansing, Mich. – Utah Valley wrestling opened the 2022-2023 season at the Michigan State Open on Saturday. Five Wolverines placed at the tournament, with Isaiah Delgado and No. 19 Haiden Drury leading the way with fourth-place finishes.
"This was a great tournament to start the year out with. We were tested against great competition almost every match. We thought Isaiah performed especially well having just moved up to 149 this past week. Our ranked guys wrestled well, and Chase had a couple of solid matches to get himself into the placement rounds. We had some freshmen compete well with Kase, Stockton, and Tyson. Sophomore Haddock and Junior Nelms completed well and won some matches against good competition. We also saw some great improvements from Jax that are promising for the season. One area we saw a need for improvement was our finishes. We will be spending some time in the room on that after losing some great opportunities to score.
We are looking forward to getting the rest of the team on the mat next week at the Cowboy Open, then continuing our preparation for our first Big 12 dual and the Roadrunner Open the following week," said UVU head coach Greg Williams.
Utah Valley had three ranked wrestlers in the field as Drury finished fourth in the tournament and went 3-1 on the day. Drury picked up wins over Vince Perez of Central Michigan by an 8-4 decision, and a 5-2 decision over Dylan Koontz of Ohio State. Later in the day, Drury dropped a 5-0 decision to Jesse Mendez of Ohio State before winning in the consolation semifinals 7-3 over Jake Manley. Drury's day ended before the third-place match when had to withdraw due to injury.
No. 18 Smith picked up two victories to start the day with a 6-1 decision over Mikey Kaminski of Northern Illinois and then defeated Patrick Nolan of Michigan before ending his day early by medical forfeit.
Evan Bockman was ranked No. 23 by InterMat and started strong with victories early over two Big Ten opponents in a 9-2 decision over Isiah Pettigrew of Illinois and a 7-3 decision over Northwestern's Evan Bates. Bockman lost in the semifinals to the top overall seed and No. 6 Gavin Hoffman from Ohio State before his day ended with a medical forfeit before the fifth-place match.
Utah Valley's Isaiah Delgado wrestled at 149 today and finished fourth in the field. He is coming off a 16-1 year, where he won three tournaments. His day started with a victory by fall over Mason Kleinberg of Findlay University before working his way through the consolidation rounds with victories over teammate Tyson Humphreys and wins over Anthony Federico and Kevon Davenport both from No. 23 Illinois.
Chase Trussell finished fifth at 285 with morning victories over Matt Wroblewski of Illinois and Donovan King of Olivet College. Trussell dropped his quarterfinal match to No. 3 Mason Perris of Michigan. Trussell defeated Ryan Vasbinder of Michigan State by medical forfeit for fifth place.
Other Wolverines in the field finished: Kase Mauger (125) 2-2, Kobe Nelms (133) 2-2, Tyson Humphreys (141) 2-2, Stockton O'Brien (149) 2-2, Jaxon Garoutte (157) 3-2, Cameron Haddock (165) 2-2, Danny Snediker (165) 0-2, Hunter Morse (174) 0-2, and Jack Forbes (197) 0-2.
Utah Valley will compete next week in the Cowboy Open in Laramie, Wyoming, before opening Big 12 duals with California Baptist on Nov. 18 and heading to the Roadrunner Open on Nov. 20.
