Wrestling: Rogers Headed to Title Match
December 01, 2007 04:25 PM | General
By Steve Stone for MSNsportsNET.com
December 1, 2007
LAS VEGAS, NEV. - Senior Dustin Rogers of the West Virginia University wrestling team has advanced to the finals of the heavyweight championship round at the 26th annual Cliff Keen Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 1, in Las Vegas, Nev.
After winning three matches on Friday, Rogers won by forfeit in the semifinals as No. 1 seed Tervel Diagnev of Nebraska Kearney could not participate due to injury. Rogers will wrestle No. 3 J.D. Bergman of Ohio State in the finals.
Jared Villers also competed in the semifinals of the 197 pound championship bracket, but was defeated by No. 2 Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin, 13-0. Villers then earned a 7-3 decision over Edinboro’s Pat Bradshaw in the consolation rounds to advance to the third place match tonight. In last year’s invitational, Villers led the Mountaineers with an eighth place finish.
Rogers and Villers will each wrestle in their final bouts tonight. The championship finals and consolation finals are set to begin at 5 p.m. PST.
The Mountaineers began the day in 12th place out of 50 squads with 39.5 points but were unfortunate in the beginning of Saturday’s consolation rounds after two of three wrestlers were eliminated in their first bout.
Senior Zac Fryling (157) defeated Jonny Bonilla-Bow of Hofstra in a 12-8 decision to keep hope alive for a third place finish. However, a concussion and a shoulder injury forced Fryling out of the rest of the tournament with an injury default.
David Jauregui (149) began his day by falling to Old Dominion’s Kylan Baxter in a close 4-3 decision to garner his second loss in the double-elimination tournament. Chance Litton (174) also began the day with a loss after falling to Tyler Berhacci of California Davis in a 5-1 decision.
