Garrett remained unbeaten since his move up to 133 pounds by knocking off undefeated defending national champion Corey Brewer of Oklahoma, the event's top seed. He rallied from an early 7-2 deficit for an impressive 14-9 victory to claim his third title, joining four-time champion Logan Stieber (Ohio State, 2011-14) and fellow three-time champions Ben Askren (Missouri, 2004-06), Andrew Howe (Oklahoma/Wisconsin, 2009-10, 13) and fellow Big Red great Mack Lewnes (Cornell, 2008-10).
Dean will have a chance to join Garrett on that list a year from now after earning his second crown with a dominant 15-6 major decision victory over 12th-ranked Dominic Abounader of Michigan. That came after the morning's 3-2 triumph over No. 9 Willie Miklus of Missouri, Dean's first win of the year that didn't come with bonus points attached to it. He also extended his own personal win streak to 44 matches while avenging last season's fourth-place finish at Las Vegas.
Rounding out the championship performances was a dominant 11-1 finals win by Realbuto over No. 15 Bryce Hammond of Cal-Bakersfield. He had the only takedown of the first period and tilted Hammond for four backpoints to end the first period up 6-0 and never looked back. After a tight two-point win over Andrew LaBrie in the first round, Realbuto ran through the field, including earning a 16-0 technical fall over No. 17 Jadean Bernstein of Navy in the semifinals.
Missouri won the team title with 154 points with Cornell settling in as the runner-up with 113 points. Cornell won the 2010 title and has now finished in the top six in each of the last eight seasons and five times in the top three. The Big Red has won 17 individual titles dating back to 2004, including at least two in three straight years.
After losing his semifinal match to third-ranked Isaac Jordan of Wisconsin at 165, Pickett dropped a narrow 4-3 decision to Daniel Lewis of Missouri before pinning Harvard's Devon Gobbo in the fifth-place match midway through the second period. Freshman heavyweight Jeramy Sweany earned a major decision over Virginia's Pat Gillen to begin the day, but fell short in consecutive matches to Ohio State's 18th-ranked Nick Tavanello and Cal Baptist's Joseph Fagiano to end the tournament in eighth place.
Alive entering the day in the wrestlebacks, freshman Joe Galasso (149) and junior Chris Dowdy (157) lost decisions to open the day and end their tournament.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Four Big Red wrestlers advanced to the semifinals and three more remain alive in the wrestlebacks after day one of the 2015 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Friday. Cornell finished the first two sessions of the two-day tournament in fourth place with 69 points.
Senior Nahshon Garrett (133) and juniors Duke Pickett (165), Brian Realbuto (174) and Gabe Deam (184) each advanced to the semifinals and will compete for spots in tomorrow's championship round in session three. Also still alive for spots on the podium at one of the nation's most competitive tournaments will be freshmen Joe Galasso (149) and Jeramy Sweany (285) and junior Chris Dowdy (157), all of whom advanced to the quarterfinals.
Despite only fielding nine wrestlers due to an injury to 125-pounder Dalton Macri, the Big Red still ended the first session with seven wrestlers into the quarterfinals and sitting in sixth place as a team. Once there, four reached the semis with three earning bonus point victories to get there.
Garrett and Dean were especially dominant, with both earning bonus point wins in all three matches on the day. Garrett earned a tech fall and a fall before his major decision victory over No. 12 Josh Martinez of Air Force. Dean, who has won every match of the season with bonus points attached, earned a pair of high-scoring tech falls before dominating in a major decision victory over Navy's 19th-ranked Mathew Miller, 12-4.
Realbuto continued to get better as the day went on at 174, pinning eighth-seeded Brian Harvey of Army in the second period of his quarterfinal match. Realbuto, the third top two seed with the No. 1 slot at 174 pounds, was victorious over a pair of Ivy wrestlers in his first two matches, including rallying from an early 4-2 deficit in an 8-6 triumph over Brown's Andrew LaBarie.
Pickett took a hard road, needing to win four matches to advance to the semis at 165 pounds, and he did just that with a major and three regular decisions. The highlight was a 4-1 decision over No. 19 David McFadden of Virginia Tech.
Freshman Jeramy Sweany earned two wins at heavyweight, including a 3-2 victory over ninth-seeded Brock Horwath of Wisconsin, and freshman Joe Galasso (149) and junior Chris Dowdy (157) joined the usual suspects in the round of eight. All three were impressive in tight losses in the quarters, including Sweany's 6-4 defeat to No. 2 Ty Walz of Virginia Tech. All three were done in by higher seeded wrestlers in the round and will look to earn valuable points in Saturday's wrestlebacks.
Dylan Realbuto won three matches in the first session, including a pair in the wrestlebacks, but was topped by Army West Point's Logan Everett in the consolation fourth round, 6-1, in his fifth match of the morning. Cornell's 197-pounder Jake Taylor also dropped a pair of decisions, falling to No. 16 Mark Martin of Ohio State 8-5 before falling in sudden victory overtime to Oregon State's Cody Crawford.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now