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Day one at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational is in the books and what a day it was! We had upsets, excellent freshmen announced their presence on the DI scene; some were much anticipated, while others were more of a surprise. Some of the best college wrestlers in the nation showed why they’re great and we had a great day of wrestling. In a few hours, there will be more. The semifinals are set and the intensity will be turned up a few more notches for that round. Looking over the matchups for the semifinals there are some great ones. I’d imagine once March comes and goes, we’ll notice some of these matches recurring in prominent rounds at the NCAA Tournament. While all of the semifinals are interesting in their own right, we’ve picked out ten that we’re anticipating a little bit more than the others. 125 lbs #11 Jore Volk (Wyoming) vs. #20 Nico Provo (Stanford) Coming into the tournament, we identified 125 lbs as a weight class that could steer away from “going chalk” because of the sheer depth of its entrants. On that top half of the bracket that proved to be the case with a semifinal that features the fifth seed (Jore Volk) versus the ninth seed (Nico Provo). Both are sophomores who are coming off a berth at the 2023 NCAA Championships. Provo knocked off the top seed, NCAA runner-up Matt Ramos. Interestingly enough, the pair clashed in the first round of the NCAA tournament and Ramos prevailed 3-2. Provo proved to be a difficult matchup for Ramos, but was able to get the W this time, to the tune of 8-1. Before the Ramos win, Provo also had an impressive one-sided, 12-5 victory over #18 Kysen Terukina (Iowa State). Vok has wrestled close matches all tournament and most recently pulled the slight upset over fourth-seeded Caleb Smith (Nebraska). The two do not have any prior history with each other at the collegiate level. 133 lbs #8 Evan Frost (Iowa State) vs. Tyler Knox (Stanford) Let’s face it, 133 lbs is aching for some new blood and new contenders. Enter Evan Frost and Tyler Knox. Before this tournament, we suspected that Frost fit the bill after his decisive victory over former Big 12 champion Brody Teske (Iowa). Frost has continued to impress with major decisions in both the Round of 16 and the quarterfinals. His quarterfinal win over Zeth Romney (Cal Poly) may be most impressive as Romney was just coming off of a pair of upset wins. Knox is a true freshman that only had two matches of collegiate experience under his belt, prior to Friday. To open his tournament, Knox had a dominant victory over U20 World bronze medalist, Nic Bouzakis of Ohio State. He’d follow up with a pair of wins over past national qualifiers Richie Koehler (Rider) and Reece Witcraft (Oklahoma State). Both of these freshmen have shown that they control matches from the top position so it’ll be interesting to see how the second and third periods play out. 141 lbs #3 Lachlan McNeil (North Carolina) vs. #7 Ryan Jack (NC State) 141 lbs was one of the few weights where the top-four seeds advanced to the semifinals. Though there were no significant upsets, that doesn’t mean that this weight is boring. Actually, it’s very intriguing. The top half features a pair of ACC rivals squaring off. Last season, Lachlan McNeil and Ryan Jack clashed twice. Once in a conference dual and the other time at the ACC meet. In both instances, Ryan Jack came out on top. But, at nationals, Lachlan McNeil finished fourth in the nation and Jack left empty-handed after going 1-2. Can Jack shake up the rankings and make it three in-a-row? Maybe the NCAA finish and another offseason in the Tar Heel wrestling room have pushed McNeil past Jack. McNeil had to show some resiliency to get by Anthony Echemendia (Iowa State) in the quarterfinals, while Jack had to regroup and earn a pair of third-period takedowns to stop a Cael Happel rally. #4 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) vs. #5 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) Like the top half of the bracket, this side features a pair of conference opponents butting heads. Unlike the ACC squirmish, Brock Hardy and Jesse Mendez have yet to meet in collegiate action. That’s because Mendez competed at 133 lbs as a true freshman in 2022-23. Both he and Hardy ended up finishing sixth in the nation. Mendez comes into this match after three straight dominating performances. Hardy had two then needed to grind out a 4-0 win over Oklahoma State’s Tagen Jamison. This bout will also be very important in the team race as Ohio State holds a 3.5-point lead over Nebraska heading into day two. As we’re likely to go in regular order for the finals, Hardy would have the opportunity to become the first two-time CKLV champion of 2023. But, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, as he’ll have to put away a very tough Mendez before worrying about individual accolades. 149 lbs #3 Kyle Parco (Arizona State) vs. #4 Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech) While much of the attention was given to the 157 lb weight class, 149 lbs had an argument as the best in this tournament. Six of the top seven and 11 of the top 14 wrestlers in the country toed the line Friday. The two versus three match on the bottom half of the bracket features a pair of returning All-Americans, Kyle Parco and Caleb Henson. Though they were both AA in the same NCAA weight, they did not meet last season. Parco would end up finishing fourth, which was directly above Henson. Because of the depth of this weight class, both wrestlers had to dig deep and get by dangerous opponents in the quarterfinals. Parco held off Casey Swiderski (Iowa State) in a 4-2 victory; Henson won 10-6, though the bout was tied after two periods. 157 lbs #4 Jacori Teemer (Arizona State) vs. #9 Daniel Cardenas (Stanford) One of the key storylines of this tournament was the arrival of U20 world champion Meyer Shapiro on the big stage. Shapiro didn’t disappoint majoring two-time All-American Bryce Andonian during his much-anticipated Round of 16 match. Well, no one told Daniel Cardenas that this was supposed to be the Shapiro coronation. Cardenas got an early takedown on Shapiro and never looked back in an 8-5 win. Before that, Cardenas was also on the right side of a great battle with Cody Chittum (Iowa State) in the Round of 16. With all the attention on the youth of the 157 lb weight class, Jacori Teemer has just kept chugging along. He got by a dangerous Ryder Downey (Northern Iowa) after Downey had beaten Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern) and Paddy Gallagher (Ohio State). This is a match we didn’t get to see last year as Teemer missed the entirety of the season with an injury. Luckily, we may get to see it at least two more times after Saturday. 165 lbs #3 Cam Amine (Michigan) vs. #4 Izzak Olejnik (Oklahoma State) The 165 lb bracket generally did what it was supposed to do and all four top seeds advanced to the semifinals. The bottom half of the bracket seems more intriguing as we’ll have a battle between Cam Amine and Izzak Olejnik. These two have a history with Amine winning a pair of close matches one of which was in 2021-22 at the NCAA Tournament and the other came in 2019-20 at the Michigan State Open. That may not matter, at least on Olejnik’s behalf. He’s already reversed one past result this season when he defeated two-time All-American Dean Hamiti (Wisconsin) at the All-Star Classic. Could the new training situation at Oklahoma State help him get past Amine? In his last match, Olejnik cooled off a hot Giano Petrucelli (Air Force) in an 8-1 win. True to form, Amine has had a pair of workman-like decisions in his most recent matches. 184 lbs #1 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) vs. #7 Lenny Pinto (Nebraska) Another weight class that was circled because of its number of credential entrants was 184 lbs. Top-ranked Parker Keckeisen didn’t seem to be bothered as he posted a pin and a tech in his first two matches before a cool 13-3 major decision over returning All-American Gavin Kane (North Carolina). Lenny Pinto, on the other hand, is coming off of two interesting wins. In the Round of 16, he held off promising freshman Dylan Fishback (NC State). A match later, he survived a 12-10 shootout against Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State). These two met last year in the semifinals at this tournament and Keckeisen got the 11-2 major decision. 197 lbs #3 Tanner Sloan (South Dakota State) vs. #9 Jaxon Smith (Maryland) The 197 lb weight class has a pair of new matches that we haven’t seen before, which I enjoy. Also, all four semifinalists, have some sort of age-group world hardware to their names. The top half of the bracket features the returning national runner-up (Tanner Sloan) with a sophomore who was a match away from the NCAA podium last year. Sloan suffered a loss in the 2022 CKLV quarterfinals and battled back for third. That didn’t happen this year as he had two lopsided wins before gutting out a 2-0 decision over Max Shaw in the quarters. Smith will be well-rested because he was the only wrestler who advanced to the semifinals without a match. His opponent, Luke Surber, medically forfeited out of the tournament. In the Round of 16, Smith was pushed the the brink by redshirt freshman Wyatt Voelker (Northern Iowa), but managed to get by, by a point. #5 Trent Hidlay (NC State) vs. #6 Jacob Cardenas (Cornell) Two of the most dominating performances in the quarterfinals, at any weight, came from Trent Hidlay and Jacob Cardenas. And now they meet in the semis. Both defeated their opponents via tech fall. Hidlay, 21-5 over Utah Valley’s national qualifier Evan Bockman. Cardenas did so over 2023 Big Ten champion Silas Allred. Since Hidlay has spent his entire career, before 2023-24, at 184 lbs, these two returning All-Americans have not met on collegiate mats. This will be an interesting clash of body styles. Hidlay is shorter for the weight and stocky, while Cardenas is tall, long and one of the more muscle-bound 197 lbers.