Oklahoma leads Missouri after quarterfinals of Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational

Oklahoma's Matt Reed shoots a single leg on Navy's Jadaen Bernstein in the 174-pound quarterfinals on Friday. Photo: Tony Rotundo, WrestersAreWarriors.com

LAS VEGAS, Nev. - No. 7 ranked Oklahoma placed five into the semifinals, the most of any team, and holds a 4.5 point lead over No. 8 Missouri after the first day of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

There are 12 teams in the most recent NWCA Div. I Coaches Poll in the competition and the team race is still very much up for grabs.

Oklahoma has 85 team points, led by 2015 NCAA champion Cody Brewer of OU, the top seed at 133 pounds. The other Sooner semifinalists are No. 12 seed Ryan Milhoff at 125, No. 4 seed Davion Jeffries at 149, No. 3-seed Clark Glass at 165 at No. 4 seed Ross Larson at heavyweight.

Missouri has 81.5 points and four semifinalists, led by 2014 NCAA champion and top seed J’Den Cox at 197. Also advancing to Saturday morning’s semifinals are No. 1 seed Lavion Mayes at 149, No. 2 seed Blaise Butler at 174 and No. 5 seed Willie Miklus at 197. Butler was a runner-up at last year’s Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, competing for Virginia, before transferring to Missouri for this year.

Four past NCAA champions, all who received No. 1 seeds here, have advanced to the semifinals, Brewer, Cox, Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State at 125 and Gabe Dean of Cornell at 184.

No. 18 ranked Minnesota continues to remain hot, finishing the first day in third place with 78.5 points. The Gophers led after the first session by one point over Missouri and Oklahoma. The four Minnesota wrestlers in the semifinals are No 2 seed Tommy Thorn at 141, No. 11 seed Jake Short at 149, No. 3 seed Brett Pfarr at 197 and No. 2 seed Michael Kroells at heavyweight.

In fourth place with 69 points and four semifinalists is No. 14 ranked Cornell, followed by No. 6 ranked Virginia Tech in fifth with 58.5 points and four semifinalists.

Rounding out the top 10 are No. 9 Michigan in sixth with 51 points, No. 3 Ohio State in seventh with 50.5 points, Kent State in eighth with 48.5 points, Purdue in ninth with 47 points and No. 25 Northern Iowa in 10th with 46.5 points

The only unseeded semifinalist is Zach Zavatsky of Virginia at 184 pounds. In the second round, he knocked off the No. 2 seed, defending Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational champion Blake Stauffer of Arizona State, 8-4. His semifinal win was over another unseeded wrestler, Ryan Christensen of Wisconsin, 3-1. He will face No. 6 seed Domenic Abounader of Michigan in the semifinals.

Returning champion Nahshon Garrett of Cornell has moved up to 133 pounds this year, and has reached the semifinals. Seeded No. 2, Garrett will battle No. 6 George DiCamillo of Virginia in the semifinals.

Leading Virginia Tech’s efforts is No. 1 seed Ty Walz at heavyweight, who was a runner-up at this tournament last year. Walz has drawn No. 4 seed Ross Larson of Oklahoma in the semifinals.

The highest seeds to fall in the quarterfinals were a pair of No. 2 seeds.

Purdue’s No. 2 seed at 157, Doug Welch, who lost to Army West Point’s No. 7 seed Russell Parsons, 6-4. Parsons broke a 3-3 lead to go ahead 5-3 in the third period. Welch escaped late but could not get a takedown, and Parsons added a riding time point.

Northern Iowa’s No. 2 seed at 165, Cooper Moore, was pinned in 2:25 by Purdue’s No 10 seed Chad Welch.

There were some key medical forfeit losses in the quarterfinals, as No. 4 seed and returning finalist Dylan Peters of Northern Iowa did not compete at 125 and No. 3 seed Johnni DiJulius of Ohio State was also a quarterfinal scratch at 133.

The event is being webcast live by Flowrestling. The morning session begins at 9:00 a.m. Pacific time with a consolation round scheduled, followed by the semifinals at 10:00 a.m. Pacific Time. They will wrestle all of the consolation rounds in that morning session, through placement matches from fifth through eighth. The championships finals are set for 3:00 p.m. Pacific, with the first place and third place matches in each weight class being held.

CLIFF KEEN LAS VEGAS INVITATIONAL
At Las Vegas, Nev., Dec. 4

Semifinal pairings with seed listed

125 pounds
No. 1 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State) vs No. 12 Ryan Milhoff (Oklahoma)
No. 2 Joey Dance (Virginia Tech) vs. No. 3 Ronnie Rios-Bresser (Oregon State)

133 pounds
No. 1 Cody Brewer (Oklahoma) vs No. 5 Earl Hall (Iowa State)
No. 2 Nahshon Garrett (Cornell) vs. No. 6 George DiCamillo (Virginia)

141 pounds
No. 1 Solomon Chishko (Virginia Tech) vs. No. 5 Micah Jordan (Ohio State)
No. 2 Tommy Thorn (Minnesota) vs. No. 3 Todd Preston (Harvard)

149 pounds
No. 1 Lavion Mayes (Missouri) vs No. 4 Davion Jeffries (Oklahoma)
No. 2 Michael DePalma (Kent State) vs. No. 11 Jake Short (Minnesota)

157 pounds
No. 1 Ian Miller (Kent State) vs unseeded Bryce Steiert (Northern Iowa)
No. 6 John Boyle (American) vs. No. 7 Russell Parsons (Army West Point)

165 pounds
No. 1 Isaac Jordan (Wisconsin) vs. No. 4 George Pickett (Cornell)
No. 3-Clark Glass (Oklahoma) vs No. 10 Chad Welch (Purdue)

174 pounds
No. 1 Brian Realbuto (Cornell) vs. No. 5 Jadaen Bernstein (Navy)
No. 2 Blaise Butler (Missouri) vs. No. 6 Bryce Hammond (CSU-Bakersfield)

184 pounds
No. 1 Gabe Dean (Cornell) vs No. 5 Willie Miklus (Missouri)
No. 6 Domenic Abounader (Michigan) vs. unseeded Zach Zavatsky (Virginia Tech)

197 pounds
No. 1 J’Den Cox (Missouri) vs. No. 4 Jacob Smith (West Virginia)
No. 2 Max Huntley (Michigan) vs. No. 3 Brett Pfarr (Minnesota)

285 pounds
No. 1 Ty Walz (Virginia Tech) vs. No. 4 Ross Larson (Oklahoma)
No. 2 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) vs. No. 11 Tanner Hall (Arizona State)

Team Standings after Day 1
1 Oklahoma 85
2 Missouri 81.5
3 Minnesota 78.5
4 Cornell 69
5 Virginia Tech 58.5
6 Michigan 51
7 Ohio State 50.5
8 Kent State University 48.5
9 Purdue 47
10 Northern Iowa 46.5
11 Virginia 46
12 American 43.5
13 Csu Bakersfield 41.5
14 West Virginia 37.5
15 Army West Point 36.5
16 Navy 36
17 Iowa State 35
18 Bucknell 32.5
19 Columbia 31.5
20 North Dakota State University 30
21 Wisconsin 28
22 Harvard 27
23 Northern Colorado 26.5
23 Utah Valley University 26.5
25 Arizona State University 25.5
26 Oregon State 22
27 Cal Poly 18
27 Hofstra 18
29 Brown 17.5
30 Binghamton University 16.5
31 Air Force 16
32 California Baptist University 15.5
33 Boise State 14.5
34 Nebraska-Kearney 12.5
35 San Francisco State 9
36 The Citadel 5.5
37 North Idaho College 4
38 Newberry 3
39 Gateway Bible Institute 1.5
40 Western Wyoming College 0