CLIFF KEEN INVITE - LAS VEGAS Gophers win tough tourney
Stieber becomes just second wrestler to capture four titles
By Mike Finn LAS VEGAS — Come March, Ohio
State’s Logan Stieber hopes to become just the fourth all-time NCAA Division I wrestler to win four individual titles at the nationals in St. Louis. But before that, the 141-pound Buckeye has to accomplish equally impressive regular-season goals, which is what Stieber did Dec. 6 at the Las Vegas Convention Center when he became just the second wrestler to win four Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational championships. To tie the mark set by Stephen Abas,
the former NCAA champion from Fresno State, Stieber defeated Virginia Tech’s Devin Carter — the same wrestler the Buckeye defeated in last year’s NCAA tournament for his third national title — by a 12-3 margin. For his efforts, Stieber was named
Outstanding Wrestler for the third time at this event. "This is an amazing tournament and
has gotten even better this year,” said Stieber. “Every year, it got tougher and tougher. It’s nice to wrestle a tournament like this and get full matches, get tired and see how I feel in the third period and see if I can score points.” This marked the first tournament that
Carter competed at 141 pounds after starting this season at 149 pounds. Did it help Stieber to have someone like the Hokie All-American back at 141? “I think it helps me, but I wouldn’t have
minded if he stayed up there,” Stieber said. “Devin is a great kid, who I know personally. He’s an awesome competitor and will make me or anyone get better.” Stieber was one of two top-ranked wrestlers to win a championship in the 33rd annual event. Another was Minnesota’s Dylan Ness,
who rallied to beat Nebraska’s second- ranked James Green, 4-3. Unlike previous high-scoring meetings,
there were only two takedowns in this match; the first coming from Green in the first period and the second coming from Ness in the third period.
Returning NCAA champion Nick Gwiazdowski of North Carolina State captured the Cliff Keen Invitational championship at heavyweight. Tony Rotundo photo.
“When you wrestle a guy so often, we
both know that we do well,” said Ness, who pinned three foes in Las Vegas. “He’s a phenomenal wrestler and we both go at it. We might have been too conser- vative on our feet but I think the next match will be a lot more high scoring.” Ness was one of two individual champi-
ons for Minnesota, which captured the team title; outdistancing Ohio State by a 146-120 margin. The other Gopher title was earned by 133-pound Chris Dardanes, who defeated Michigan’s Rossi Bruno, 7-3, in the finals. Two other formerly top-ranked wrestlers — 174-pound Logan Storley and 197-pound Scott Schiller — failed to win their weight classes. Storley settled for fourth place after los-
ing to Virginia’s Blaise Butler, 9-7 in sud- den victory of their semifinal. Schiller lost to Iowa State’s Kyven Gadson, 5-3, in the title bout. “This tournament was about me finding myself,” said Gadson, who lost to Schiller in last year’s third-place match at the NCAA tournament but scored a pair of takedowns to beat the Gophers in the Convention Center. “I found out that I can wrestle. I can wrestle if I decide to.” Meanwhile, Nebraska’s Robert Kokesh ignored Butler’s upset of Storley, when
the second-ranked wrestler scored two takedowns; the second came in the clos- ing seconds to beat Butler, 6-2. Cornell also recorded two individual championships from 125-pound Nahshon Garrett, who defeated Virginia Tech’s Joey Dance, 6-4, for his second straight CKLV title; and by 149-pound Chris Villalonga, who blanked Michigan’s Alex Pantaleo by a 4-0 margin. Unfortunately, Cornell saw Gabe Dean, previously the nation’s top-ranked wrestler at 184 pounds, settled for fourth place. Dean first lost to Oregon State’s Taylor Meeks in the semifinals before also falling to North Dakota State’s Hayden Zillmer in the third-place match. Winning the 184-pound championship
was Arizona State’s Blake Stauffer, who defeated conference rival Meeks, 5-2, in the title bout. Another conference matchup in the
finals came at heavyweight where NC State’s Nick Gwiazdowski, the defending national champion, defeated Virginia Tech’s Ty Walz, who upset 2013 CKLV champion Adam Coon of Michigan in the semifinals. Perhaps the most exciting match came
at 165 pounds, where a pair of video reviews helped give Virginia’s Nick Sulzer a 4-2 win over Indiana’s Taylor Walsh.
33 USA Wrestler
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