Cal Poly wrestling finished the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational in 24th place on Friday, Dec. 2 and Saturday, Dec. 3 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The squad earned 11.5 points over the weekend, with redshirt freshman Luka Wick, redshirt sophomore Legend Lamer and redshirt freshman Trevor Tinker reaching the third round.
The team sent seven wrestlers to the event, and Wick went the farthest out of any Mustang.
Wick won in an 11-1 major decision over Michael Kilic of Arizona State in the first round at the 157-pound weight class. Following that, he was edged out 3-1 by Tommy Asley of Appalachian State before bouncing back with a pin of Navy’s George Ruiz in less than two minutes.
After the wrestlebacks, Wick won his first match of Friday night with a 5-1 decision over Cornell’s Gage McClenahan. Then, the redshirt freshman fell 6-4 in the fourth round of consolation to Cael Swensen of South Dakota State, finishing the tournament with a 3-2 record.
To open up Lamer’s matches, the 165-pound redshirt sophomore took the win over Kaden Hart of Nebraska-Kearney with a technical fall. After his first win, he dropped a 6-1 decision to William Formato of Appalachian State.
Then, Lamer won in a 9-7 decision against Clarion’s Cameron Pine to set up a matchup with Bubba Wilson of Nebraska. Wilson beat Lamer in an 8-0 decision in the third round of consolation.
The last Cal Poly wrestler who made the third round was Tinker, despite dropping his first match to Cale Davidson of Nebraska on a 4-3 decision.
The 285-pound Tinker bounced back with a pair of wins: the first over Chris Island of California Baptist, 7-1, and then a 10-5 victory against Luke Niemeyer of Bucknell.
Tinker eventually fell by a 13-0 major decision to Lewis Fernandez of Cornell in his consolation match.
Four other Mustangs were at the event. On Friday, graduate Ethan Rotondo, in the 133-pound weight class, was pinned by Brendon Fenton of Kent State in just under six minutes before falling to Derrick Cardinal of South Dakota State in an 8-6 decision.
In the 144-pound weight class, Lawrence Saenz went 1-2 on the weekend. His first match was an 11-6 decision loss to Garrett Kuchan of Air Force. After this, Saenz got a 13-3 win over Edinboro’s Amonn Ohl, and his weekend was capped off by a 7-6 loss to Joshua Koderhandt of Navy.
Jarad Priest, wrestling at 174 pounds, fell 4-0 to Ross McFarland of Hofstra and dropped his second match to Appalachian State’s Will Miller by a score of 10-5.
One weight class up, Brawley Lamer kicked off the weekend with a 9-6 win over CSU Bakersfield’s Jacob Hansen before his tournament came to an end with back-to-back losses.
The Mustangs will host Lindenwood University for their home opener on Sunday, Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. inside Mott Athletics Center.