Three Mustangs reached as far as the quarterfinals as Cal Poly finished 24th out of 35 teams in the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas.
No. 6 ranked 174-pounder graduate Adam Kemp, No. 6 ranked 149-pounder redshirt sophomore Chance Lamer and redshirt freshman 133-pounder Zeth Romney all started off the tournament 2-0 but couldn’t advance to day two of the tournament as they each lost their next two bouts.
Romney took home his first two bouts quite convincingly by way of decisions over two Top 30 ranked wrestlers in Utah Valley’s Haiden Drury and Nebraska’s Jacob Van Dee.
He fell in his next two bouts to two top 15 ranked 133-pounders in Iowa State’s No. 8 ranked 133 pound wrestler Evan Frost by technical fall and then to Ohio State’s No. 15 ranked wrestler Nic Bouzakis.
Kemp and Lamer both won their opening matches convincingly and narrowly won their next bouts by only a few points. After Kemp and Lamer were both just edged out by their opponents in the quarterfinals, they both medically forfeited their consolation matches.
Redshirt freshman 125-pounder Dom Mendez started off the day for the Mustangs with an upset over the No. 28 ranked wrestler at 125 pounds in Virginia Tech’s Eddie Ventresca before falling to one of the top pound-for-pound wrestlers in the nation in Purdue’s Matt Ramos via a 9-5 decision.
Mendez went on to grab two more wins in the consolation bracket to go 3-2 in the tournament.
Redshirt sophomore 141-pounder Abe Hinrichsen also came out of the tournament with two wins of his own going 2-2 in the invite.
Redshirt junior Legend Lamer, redshirt sophomore Elijah Blake and redshirt sophomore Cole Jackson all finished with 1-2 records in the 157, 165 and heavyweight weight classes respectively.
Other Mustangs who participated but couldn’t come out with a win include redshirt sophomore Kendall La Rosa at 184 pounds and redshirt freshman Wesley Wilson at 197 pounds in for redshirt sophomore 197-pounder Jarad Priest.
The next time the Mustangs take the mat is on Dec. 29-30 when they travel to Hoffman Estates, Illinois to participate in the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships, hosted by Northwestern University.
