Wrestling: Four Advance at Las Vegas Invite
December 02, 2006 10:13 AM | General
December 2, 2006
PRIMM, Nev. - West Virginia University wrestler Jared Villers remains in the 197-pound championship bracket, while Zac Fryling (157), Chance Litton (184) and Dustin Rogers remain alive in their respective consolation brackets at the Las Vegas Invitational in Primm, Nev., on Saturday, Dec. 2.
Villers has wrestled as strong as he has all season so far in Las Vegas as he awaits his quarterfinal bout on Saturday. After a first round bye the Akron, Ohio, native earned a 17-0 technical fall against Mesa State’s Keenan Jennings three minutes into the bout. He then faced Eastern Wrestling League (EWL) foe Eric Cassidy of Pitt in the third round, coming away with a 15-1 major decision.
Villers is now 9-0 on the season. His quarterfinal opponent on Saturday, Missouri’s Max Askren, is the brother of 2005 174-pound NCAA champion Ben Askren.
Fryling won a pair of matches in the first and second rounds against UT-Chattanooga’s Jake Yost (11-3) and Wyoming’s Alex Rieder (15-6) before falling 11-3 to Pitt’s Matt Kocher in the third round. The Lansdale, Pa., native rebounded with a 12-5 win over Rider’s Dave Miller on Friday evening.
Litton defeated Brown’s Matt Geulinger 10-5 in his opening round bout before dropping a 13-0 major decision to Harvard’s Louis Caputo. In his lone consolation match of the day Litton defeated Western State’s Charlie Phifer 8-6.
After a first round bye Rogers knocked off Hofstra’s Matt Pollock 8-6, but lost bye way of pin (3:50) in the third round to Missouri’s Mark Ellis. The Corning, Calif., did not have to wrestle any consolation matches on Friday.
The Mountaineers, who only took only seven wrestlers to this year’s tournament, currently sit in 30th-place after the first day of wrestling. Up-to-date brackets can be found at TheWrestlingMall.com.
Wrestling begins on Saturday morning at 9 a.m. with the first session that features all bouts up through the championship bracket semifinals and consolation finals. The tournament champions will be decided at 5 p.m. in the day’s second session.
