Cal Poly wrestling placed tenth at the 39th annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Friday, Dec. 3 and Saturday, Dec. 4 inside the Las Vegas Convention Center.
The weekend was dominated by fifth-year senior Evan Wick, who won the tournament in the 165-pound division.
The top-seeded transfer from Wisconsin ended the tournament with a 5-0 record. He took down the reigning NCAA champion Shane Griffith from Stanford and was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler for the meet.
In the finale, Wick fell behind early to the three-time Pac-12 champion Griffith, who scored an escape in the first period. Without scoring in the second period, Wick started the third period with bottom position and scored an escape and takedown to complete the 6-2 comeback and win by decision.
This is the first time in 10 years that a Mustang has won the 165-pound division at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
Other outstanding performances came from redshirt sophomore Adam Kemp and redshirt freshman Antonio Lorenzo. The 14-seeded Kemp at 174 pounds upset the third seed in Christopher Foca (Cornell) and fifth seed Troy Fisher (Northwestern) to give himself a semi-final match-up against second seed Ethan Smith (Ohio State).
Kemp, the transfer from Fresno State, fell to Smith in a close 3-2 decision and ended his meet with a sixth-place finish.
On Friday, unseeded Lorenzo took an early second-round defeat to top-seeded Patrick Glory of Princeton University, but rallied the rest of the meet and took fifth place. Lorenzo went on to win four of five matches after the loss, including a 5-2 victory over the third-seeded Malik Heinselman of Ohio State.
The Mustangs ended with 60.5 points as a team as the first place Nebraska Cornhuskers earned 125. This is the first time since 2011 the Mustang has left Las Vegas with multiple place winners.
The next meet will find designated Mustang wrestlers competing in the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships on Dec. 29-30 at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.