Men's College Notebook: All Eyes On Las Vegas

For years, the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational has been one of, if not the, premier in-season college tournament each year. Held over two days in Las Vegas, CKLV routinely features the top programs and top wrestlers as they head into second-semester action.

With National Duals already taking place this year, some of the most familiar teams in the field will not be traveling to Las Vegas this weekend – Ohio State, Oklahoma State, Nebraska, and NC State, to name a few. In addition, with all the high-end matches from National Duals, some squads are not sending all 10 of their starters—#4 Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech, #5 Hunter Garvin of Stanford and #2 Simon Ruiz of Cornell, among them.

But that doesn’t mean there will not be a ton of fireworks, as wrestling fans can still get their fix of competition this weekend. The tournament is set up with each school allowed to send one wrestler per weight class.

One note of interest, there is only one former champion in the field, Zeth Romney of Cal Poly. He won the 133-pound bracket last year but is now up at 141 pounds.

Action begins on Friday at noon (ET), with the quarterfinals going down at 9 p.m. (ET). After a second weigh-in, the semifinals will be Saturday at 1 p.m. (ET). The event concludes with the medal matches at 6 p.m. (ET).

All the action can be streamed on FloWrestling.

The pre-seeds are now out, and he is a breakdown of the top competition.

#10 Stevo Poulin of Iowa State is the top seed, coming off his All-American season last year at Northern Colorado. One to keep an eye on is Stanford’s Nico Provo, who is slated to make his season debut. Provo made a name for himself by winning the 2023 CKLV and moving up to #1 in the national rankings. He missed all of last season and was last in action at the 2024 NCAA Championships.

Fresh off a win over two-time NCAA finalist Drake Ayala of Iowa, #3 Evan Frost of Iowa State is the top seed. It was his first bout at 133 pounds this season, coming off previous bouts at 141 pounds this year as he made his descent. He took second each of the last two years. Stanford’s Tyler Know went on to capture All-American honors last year after placing fifth at CKLV. Redshirt freshman Dillon Campbell of Virginia Tech has been impressive since winning the starting spot, off to a 9-1 start.

The weight class features a pair of top-10 wrestlers, in top seed Anthony Echemendia of Iowa State, who holds the #6 national ranking, and #5 Zeth Romney of Cal Poly. Romney took second last year at 133 pounds.

Three of the top-four ranked wrestlers are all in action. #2 Kaleb Larkin of Arizona State is out to a 7-0 start. #3 Lachlan McNeil transferred to Michigan this year after three All-America seasons at North Carolina. Larkin has already scored a major decision over McNeil this year. #4 Jacob Frost, an All-American last year at 141 pounds, was just named the starter at Iowa State this week after winning a best-of-three wrestle-off over teammate Paniro Johnson.

West Virginia’s Ty Watters is one of only two #1s to be entered. After his season was cut short last year due to injury, he has started this year 5-0. The deep field at 157 pounds also includes #3 Daniel Cardenas of Stanford, a 2024 All-American before redshirting last year, and #6 Vincent Zerban of Iowa State, a 2025 All-American at Northern Colorado.

Returning NCAA finalist (at 157 pounds) Joey Blaze of Purdue is the top seed and clear favorite as the lone wrestler in this bracket ranked in the top 15.

#7 Danny Wask of Navy, #8 MJ Gaitan of Iowa State, and #12 Beau Mantanona of Michigan lead the field. A second Stanford wrestler expected to make his season debut, Lorenzo Norman, took second last year and is the fourth seed.

This might be the bracket with the most unproven wrestlers on the national stage. #7 Brock Mantanona redshirted at Michigan last year. #10 Isaac Dean transferred to Iowa State from Rider for his final season. One wrestler catching some national attention for being under the radar is #11 James Conway of Franklin & Marshall.

One of the deeper weight classes, with four top-10 wrestlers. Four-time All-American Rocky Elam is in his first season at Iowa State. #6 Justin Rademacher of Oregon State is coming off a redshirt season and a U20 World title. #7 Bennett Berge made his season debut for South Dakota State last week. #8 Joey Novak is an All-American from Wyoming.

Iowa State’s Yonger Bastida is the other current #1 that will be in action. A second All-American is in the field, Taye Ghadiali, who is in his first season at Michigan after transferring from Campbell.

Outside of all the action in Las Vegas this weekend, here is a look at the top duals:

• #20 Pitt vs. #14 Lehigh – Friday at 7 p.m. (ET) on FloWrestling
• #6 Nebraska vs. #12 Missouri – Friday at 9 p.m. (ET) on FloWrestling
• #14 Lehigh vs. #1 Penn State – Sunday at 1:00 p.m. (ET) on B1G+
• #13 Rutgers vs. #10 NC State – Sunday at 3 p.m. (ET) on FloWrestling

There is also a trio of tournaments this weekend to keep an eye on: Kent State Open, Patriot Open and SIUE Cougar Clash. The Cougar Clash appears to have the top completion, as Oklahoma State, Missouri, Northern Iowa and Illinois are the top-25 schools to be sending participants.