Redshirt sophomore Zeth Romney pulled off a historic performance at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Saturday, Dec. 7, going undefeated and winning the 133-pound weight class championship.
It was the first 133-pound title for a Cal Poly wrestler at the tournament in 15 years.
Romney, who went into Friday as the No. 12 ranked wrestler in his weight class, pulled off multiple upsets on his path to victory, culminating in a 7-3 decision win over 2024 All-American and No. 7 ranked Evan Frost from Iowa State.
He was the only wrestler out of the 20 to make the finals who was not from a power conference school.
On the first day of competition, Romney was nearly untouchable in three matches, winning in the first round by a 19-2 technical fall victory over Chase DeBlaere and notching a fall over No. 28 Derrick Cardinal in round two.
His closest contest of the tournament came in the semifinals, where he fell short in last year’s invitational. This year, he found a way against No. 15 Nic Bouzakis, where he emerged with a 6-5 upset decision win to push him through to day two.
The road to the title was clear on the second day of wrestling, and Romney was undefeated again, beating No. 22 Jacob Van Dee in the semifinals before making history against Frost to close the tournament.
The matchup was personal for Romney, who had been knocked out of the Cliff Keen Invitational by Frost in the semifinals last year.
Van Dee was another familiar face from the 2023 tournament, where Romney had pulled an upset victory in their second-round matchup.
Romney is in the midst of a dominant sophomore season, having won the Pac-12 Wrestler of the Week award for back-to-back wins against nationally ranked opponents at the Tiger Style Invite back in November.
Romney will continue to lead the way for the Mustangs as they prepare for two head-to-head matchups back at home on Dec. 19 against Cal Baptist at 5:30 p.m. and Northwestern at 7 p.m..