Las Vegas, Nev. – Senior Nic Bedelyon
(Lewistown, Pa.) kept his perfect season in tact Saturday, winning the
125-pound bracket of the 30th annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas
Invitational. Kent State also got a fourth place finish from senior Brendan
Barlow (Westerville, Ohio) and a sixth from sophomore Tyler Small
(Littlestown, Pa.) at the Las Vegas Convention Center.
Currently ranked No. 3 in every national poll, Bedelyon
began Saturday with a dominant 8-1 victory over No. 9 Steve Bonanno. He
then met a familiar foe in the finals, No. 5 Frank Perrelli of Cornell.
Perrelli kept the match scoreless in the first period, but a third period
takedown by Bedelyon made the difference in a 3-1 decision. It was the only
close match of the tournament for Bedelyon, who went 5-0 on the weekend,
improving to 16-0 on the year.
After dropping his second round match on Friday, Barlow came
storming back to win five straight matches, including three consecutive on
Saturday. He eliminated No. 18 Kyle Frey of Drexel with an 8-3 decision
and scored a takedown in sudden victory against No. 12 Ben Apland of Michigan
to win 3-1. Just 24 hours after being pinned by Cal Poly’s Atticus
Disney, Barlow got revenge Saturday with a 7-3 victory in the consolation
semifinals. He then came up on the short end of his second overtime match
of the day in a tiebreaker, falling to No. 9 Tucker Lane of Nebraska.
Small dropped three matches on Saturday in what was arguably
the toughest bracket of the tournament. He dropped a 6-2 decision to Ohio
State’s Hunter Stieber and was edged 5-3 by Nebraska’s Jake
Sueflohn. In the fifth place match, Small gave last year’s national
runner-up, Boris Novachkov (Cal Poly) all he could handle in a 5-3 setback.
Juniors Mallie Shuster (Newville, Pa.) and Keith
Witt (Oak Harbor, Ohio) each dropped their only match of the day, coming up
one win shy of placing.
Kent State returns to the M.A.C. Center next weekend hosting
Missouri on Friday, Dec. 9 and Las Vegas Invitational champion Ohio State
Sunday, Dec. 11.
Aaron Chimenti
Assistant Director, Athletic Communications
Kent State University
Contact for Football, Wrestling, Softball
