Nine Badger grapplers competed at the Cliff Keen Invite and the team was led by a first place finish from junior Dallas Herbst at the 197 lbs. division. Herbst went undefeated at the invite, winning all five matches. Four of his wins were by pins with the fifth coming as a major decision victory. In the finals, Herbst, who was seeded second, faced the No. 1 seed, Max Askren from Missouri and in the final seconds, pinned him at 6:47. Herbst improves to 13-0 on the season and now has 40 career falls, which is seven away from Lee Kemp's record of 47.
Five other Wisconsin wrestlers placed in their respective weight classes. Senior Craig Henning finished third overall at 157 lbs. In the third place match, he faced Pittsburgh's Matt Kocher and captured a 4-2 decision. Before the third place bout though, Henning had a rematch against Big Ten Conference foe Mike Poeta from Illinois in the semi finals. Poeta defeated Henning at the National Wrestling Coaches Association All-Star Classic back on Nov. 19 and the Illini grappler won again, 6-1 on Saturday. Before the bout with Poeta, Henning won four straight and finished the invite 5-1.
Junior Kyle Massey also captured a third place finish at heavyweight. Massey won six straight to make it to the quarterfinal match against Tervel Dlagnev from Nebraska-Kearney. Massey lost a close 3-1 decision but came back to defeat John Wise from Illinois in the third place match, 9-2.
Sophomore Kyle Ruschell also placed for the Badgers, finishing fifth at 141 lbs. He dropped his first match of the invite but also won three straight to advance to the semifinals where he faced Ohio State's Jeff Jaggers. Jaggers, who was seeded second defeated Ruschell with a pin in 3:20 but Ruschell prevailed 5-3 in the fifth-place match against Ryan Williams from Old Dominion.
Junior Zach Tanelli went 5-2 at the invite and finished seventh overall at 133 lbs. He opened with a major decision win (13-1) over Virginia Tech's Nick Murray but then dropped his next match, 4-2 to Hofstra's Louie Ruggirello. Tanelli then went on to win three-straight to make it into the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals, Tanelli faced North Carolina-Greensboro's Jeff Hedges and dropped a close 6-5 decision. Tanelli then met Navy's Joe Baker in the seventh place match and win by a 5-2 score.
Sophomore Trevor Brandvold also finished seventh at 184 lbs. Brandvold finished the invite 5-2 which included a tight 4-3 decision over Penn's Lior Zamir in the seventh place bout.
At 125 lbs., senior Collin Cudd won three-straight during the wrestleback rounds but then dropped his first match of the year against Nikko Triggas from Ohio State by an 8-3 score. Cudd finished the invite 3-2.
At 165 lbs., senior Jake Donar won his first match 5-1 against Jason Coyne from Navy but had an early exit from the invite after dropping his next two matches.
Junior Justin Peterson won his first three matches of the day at 174 lbs. before falling 6-4 to Penn's Scott Giffin. Peterson had one more bout in the round of 32 and dropped another close 8-6 decision to Virginia Tech's Eric Decker.
The Badgers return to dual action next weekend with a match at Northern Iowa on Friday, Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. and then open the Big Ten season in Columbus, Ohio at 6:30 Monday, Dec. 10 against No. 16 Ohio State. Select Badgers were to compete at tomorrow's Northern Iowa Open but the event has been cancelled due to the weather.
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