College wrestlling: Jackrabbits finish third in Las Vegas

Posted

LAS VEGAS — South Dakota State wrapped up a successful weekend on the wrestling mat Saturday at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational with a third-place finish in the team standings and eight individuals placing in the top six of their respective weight classes.

Leading the way for the Jackrabbits was junior 165-pounder Tanner Cook with a runner-up finish. Cook advanced into the championship match due to a medical forfeit by his scheduled semifinal opponent Austin Yant of Northern Iowa.

In his title bout against second-seeded Julian Ramirez of Cornell, Cook fell behind 10-0 in the first 70 seconds of the match and was defeated by technical fall, 17-1.

Three other SDSU wrestlers who began the day in the semifinals wound up with sixth-place finishes, mostly notably second-seeded Clay Carlson at 141 pounds. For the second time this season, Carlson was upended by Northern Iowa’s Cael Happel, dropping a 4-1 decision Saturday after the two previously met two weeks ago in the finals of the Daktronics Open.

Carlson later withdrew from the tournament, resulting in his sixth-place finish.

At 125 pounds, Tanner Jordan was edged, 6-3, by fifth-seeded Richard Figueroa of Arizona State in their semifinal matchup, then later was beaten by Nebraska’s Liam Cronin and Malik Heinselman of Ohio State.

Eighth-seeded heavyweight A.J. Nevills’ bid to reach the title bout was thwarted by Northwestern’s Lucas Davis, 8-2. He also dropped his final two matches of the day to place sixth.

Tanner Sloan was the Jackrabbit wrestler to find the most success on the mat Saturday as the top seed in the 197-pound division posted a 3-0 record on the day to finish with a 6-1 mark in the two-day event and a third-place showing. Sloan claimed a win by injury default 32 seconds into his match against Arizona State’s Kordell Norfleet, then tallied wins over Silas Allred of Nebraska, 12-5, and Evan Bockman of Utah Valley, 4-3.

Cade DeVos also wrestled for third place in the 174-pound class, but fell by a 6-4 count in his placing matchup against Christopher Foca of Cornell. DeVos began the day with his second win of the tournament over North Carolina State’s Alexander Faison, 9-5, and received a medical forfeit to move into the third-place match.

Nebraska claimed the team title with 137.5 points on the strength of winning three individual titles. North Carolina State was second with 127.5 points, while the Jackrabbits finished third with 123 points. Michigan (96.5), and Northern Iowa (96) rounded out the top five in the 33-team field.

UP NEXT

The Jackrabbits are off from competition until Dec. 18, when they host Nebraska in dual action at Frost Arena. Start time is slated for 2 p.m.