Morgan Atkinson defeated Cyler Sanderson, 8-6 (Photo/John Sachs)The 149-pound Titan junior was happy to win on his home mat, but also just to see the tournament increase in stature.
"If this tournament gets any bigger, it'll have to be two days. We see the same California competition, like, every other weekend. It's nice to see some big teams come out here. We don't have the money or funding to go out there."
Titan head coach Dan Hicks (who also coached heavyweight Wade Sauer to a title) was quick to point out that the event actually hasn't increased in size, but rather in the caliber of the competitors.
"Since I've been here, we've had eight mats," Hicks said. "The last four years, it's been around 300-325 wrestlers. We had 310 today. What has changed is the quality coming in. We got a lot of JC's here with some of the No. 1 kids in the nation. We had Iowa State. That's huge. Purdue sent some kids. So the word's getting out that it's a good early-season tournament."
Travis Paulson defeated Pat Pitsch, 3-2 (Photo/John Sachs).At 165 pounds, Travis Paulson won a solid 3-2 bout over Arizona State's Pat Pitsch. The difference being a powerful takedown near the edge in the third period. At 184 pounds, redshirt freshman Jake Varner was impressive with a 5-0 shutout victory over Cal Poly's Yuri Kalika. At 197 pounds, Cyclone Kurt Backes broke a 5-5 tie with a pin over Cal Poly's Matt Montiero at the end of the second period.
The most crowd-pleasing bout of the night was at 174, which featured non-stop scrambling and points between Iowa State's David Bertolino and Nathaniel Augustson, former wrestler and now assistant coach at Embry-Riddle. Augustson led throughout and came out on top 14-12.
It is noteworthy that although their team has been officially discontinued by the administration, several wrestlers from Fresno State traveled to the event and competed. Their points were good enough for a 19th place finish.
It was the first time Iowa State has attended the event and although their presence does much to show support for California college wrestling, first-year coach Cael Sanderson said the decision to add the event to their schedule was strictly about checking out West Coast opponents early in the season.
"We wanted to get out here and look at some different faces," Sanderson said. "California wrestling is outstanding. There's no two ways about it. One of our guys who won the tournament is from California (184-pound Jake Varner). Anything we can do to help is great, but we came out for the great competition, really."
Fullerton Open Brackets
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