Las Vegas, Nev. – Five Kent State wrestlers
survived a grueling day one of the 30th annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas
Invitational Friday inside the Las Vegas Convention Center. Senior Nic
Bedelyon (Lewistown, Pa.) and sophomore Tyler Small (Littlestown,
Pa.) each went 3-0 and advanced to Saturday’s semifinal round, while
three other Golden Flashes went 3-1, moving on to the round of 12.
Bedelyon cruised into the semifinals with three comfortable
victories at 125 pounds. He pinned Brown’s Billy Watterson in the third
period, before scoring a 16-6 major decision over Army’s Scott Filbert.
Bedelyon then only needed 1:02 to stick Indiana’s Zachary Zimmer in the
quarterfinal round.
Small was dominant in a 9-0 major decision over Northern
Colorado’s Casey Cruz in the first round of the 141-pound bracket. Small
then downed Hofstra’s Luke Vaith 6-1 to advance to the quarterfinals,
where he topped Nebraska-Kearney’s Dalton Jensen 6-4.
Junior Mallie Shuster (Newville, Pa.) is just one win
away from clinching a top eight placement after going 3-1 on Friday. Shuster
claimed a first round upset of Ohio State’s Josh Demas 8-2. Demas was
ranked 14th in the nation and seeded third in the 157-pound
bracket. After a setback to Joshua Kreimier of Air Force, Shuster won by
injury default against Navy’s Zach Basich and edged Hofstra’s Tyler
Banks 4-2.
Junior Keith Witt (Oak Harbor, Ohio) dropped his
opening match 4-1 against No. 7 Matt Wilps of Pittsburgh, but battled back with
three straight victories, including a 9-0 major decision over
Bakerfield’s Oren Grosvirt-Dramen.
Senior Brendan Barlow (Westerville, Ohio) also went
3-1 with a major decision. His victims included Jared Erickson (Air Force),
Charles Merrill (Calif. Baptist) and Dustin Dennison (Utah Valley State).
Sophomore Brandonn Johnson (Middletown, Md.) claimed
a pair of major decision wins in the consolation bracket, before falling 6-4 in
sudden victory to Nebraska’s Tyler Koehn.
Junior Stevie Mitcheff (Lorain,Ohio) and senior Marcel
Clopton (Shaker Hts., Ohio) each went 1-2. Mitcheff (133) drew No. 8
Garrett Drucker (Oregon State) in the opening round, while Clopton (149) ran
into No. 20 Taylor Walsh (Indiana) in his first bout.
Senior Ross Tice (Brookfield, Ohio) and junior Casey
Newburg (Union, Ohio) each suffered injuries in their openers and did not
continue.
One of 34 teams competing, the Golden Flashes sit in ninth
place with 40.5 points. Action resumes Saturday at noon Eastern.
Aaron Chimenti
Assistant Director, Athletic Communications
Kent State University
Contact for Football, Wrestling, Softball
