Related: Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational Placewinners
LAS VEGAS -- Behind five true freshmen and a pair of redshirt freshmen, the sixth ranked Ohio State wrestling team captured the 2011 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Michigan finished second, while Wyoming rounded out the Top 3.
Logan Stieber, a redshirt freshman from Monroeville, Ohio, not only earned the individual title at 133 pounds, but his 10-5 win over Aaron Schopp of Edinboro in the final lifted the Scarlet and Gray to the team title as well. After an initial day in which he pinned all three of his opponents, L. Stieber began the second day of competition with a 14-6 major decision win against Michigan's Zach Stevens.
The Buckeyes were also backed by two runner-up finishes by freshman Hunter Stieber (141) and redshirt-sophomore Peter Capone (HWT). Following his exciting win over No. 1 Kellen Russell of Michigan the day before, H. Stieber met fifth ranked Michael Mangrum in the final and dropped a 6-3 decision. In the semifinals, H. Stieber, the younger brother of L. Stieber, defeated Tyler Small of Kent State, 6-2.
Capone, a Johnson City, N.Y., native, recorded a 5-2 victory over Levi Cooper of Arizona State as one of the remaining four in the heavyweight bracket, but then suffered a setback in the final vs. Clayton Jack of Oregon State. At the 6:51 mark, Capone was pinned by the eighth ranked Jack.
Redshirt sophomore Nick Heflin finished third at 174 pounds. The Buckeye from Massillon, Ohio, was able to rebound from a 3-2 loss to Ryan DesRoches (Cal Poly) and win back-to-back matches for the Top 3 finish. In the wrestlebacks, Heflin downed Indiana's Ryan Leblanc, 3-1, in sudden victory before posting a 3-2 triumph in the third-place matchup vs. Patrick Martinez. It was the second meeting in the tournament between Heflin and Martinez and Heflin won the first meeting by the same 3-2 score.
After posting a 2-0 record on day one, 125-pounder Johnni Dijulius lost, 5-2, to Cornell's Frank Perrelli in the semifinals. However, the true freshman from Aurora, Ohio, answered with another win vs. Trent Sprenkle of North Dakota State. The previous day, Dijulius downed Sprenkle, 11-8. Competing for third place, Dijulius matched up against Steve Bonanno (Hofstra) and fell, 8-2, for a fourth-place finish.
Wrestling four times Saturday, redshirt junior C.J. Magrum was fifth at 184 pounds. A 9-4 victory against Thomas Ferguson of North Carolina preceded advancement on a Matt Ryan (West Virginia) forfeit. What came next were back-to-back tiebreaker bouts en route to the Top 5 finish. First, Magrum, who hails from Oak Harbor, Ohio, dropped a tough 3-1 tiebreaker to Boise State's Jacob Swartz. However, Magrum countered with a 3-1 tiebreaker win of his own when he beat Luke Rebertus of Navy.
Like Magrum, freshman Cam Tessari (Monroeville, Ohio) also wrestled four times Saturday and finished sixth at 149 pounds. Consecutive wins (5-2 decision over Nebraska's Brandon Wilbourn and a 5-3 victory vs. Scott Sakaguch of Oregon State) to open the day, kept Tessari in contention for third place, but a 7-6 tiebreaker loss to David Habat of Edinboro dropped him to the fifth-place bout where he lost to Josh Wilson of Utah Valley, 4-2.
Redshirt freshman Josh Demas (157 pounds) also finished in the Top 6. A medical forfeit by Harvard's Walter Peppelman advanced Demas to a meeting with Dakota Friesth of Wyoming. Demas defeated Friesth, 9-4, before dropping a 5-0 decision to North Dakota State's Steven Monk. In the fifth-place matchup, Demas, who hails from Westerville, Ohio, was pinned in 2:28.
Freshman Derek Garcia was forced to bow out of the tournament Friday because of an illness, while classmate Andrew Campolattano did not place.
Up next, the Buckeyes will wrestle at Pittsburgh at 7 p.m. Dec. 9 before returning to the Buckeye state to face Kent State in Kent, Ohio, at 1 p.m. Dec. 11.
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