Pack Preview: CKLV 2013

The 32^nd Annual Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational is today and tomorrow.  Nine members of the Wolfpack will be competing in this prestigious tournament.  Flowrestling.org will cover the tournament, so if you have a paid subscription to flowrestling.org, you can watch the tournament live.  If you do not have a flowrestling.org subscription, you can follow along with the tournament website at www.cklvwrestle.com.  Brackets should be posted sometime today at http://postedresults.escapesports.com/Results.php.  In addition, intermatwrestle.com will have a live blog throughout the event.  As always, you can follow results for the Wolfpack on Twitter @PackWrestle. 

Here is a look at the thirty-three teams in this year’s field:  #5 Oklahoma, #6 Northern Iowa, #7 Nebraska, #8 Iowa State, #11 Cornell, #12 Ohio State, #14 Oregon State, #18 Boise State, #20 Virginia, #21 Virginia Tech, #22 Michigan, #23 NC State, #25 Wyoming, #33 Air Force, #36 (tied) American, #36 (tied)Hofstra, #41 (tied) Arizona State, #41 (tied) Navy,#44 (tied) Brown, #44 (tied) Cal Bakersfield, #44 (tied) Citadel, #44 (tied) Utah Valley, #52 (tied) Cal Poly, #52 (tied) , #52 (tied) Purdue, #52 (tied) Rutgers, Army, Harvard, Grand Canyon, #1 (NJCAA) North Idaho, #15 (NJCAA) Western Wyoming, Cal Baptist, Colorado State – Pueblo, and San Francisco State (Note:  all rankings are from intermatwrestle.com)

125 pounds – Micah Perez will start for the Wolfpack.  This will be his third tournament of the season.  He is doing a nice job as a freshman and is looking for some breakout wins this weekend.  He currently sits at 11-2.  Expected to compete are six wrestlers ranked in the top ten and another four in the top twenty nationally.  The highest ranked wrestler in the field is Nahshon Garrett, ranked 2^nd nationally, of Cornell.

133 pounds – Chris Wilkes will enter his second tournament of the season for the Wolfpack.  He is coming off a 2-1 showing at the North East Duals.  Chris is 9-2 on the season.  If Chris opens up and is offensive, he will have a great weekend.  In this weight class, there are six top twenty ranked wrestlers with another two wrestlers who were ranked in the top twenty last week.  The highest ranked wrestler in this weight class is #4 Joe Colon of Northern Iowa.

141 pounds – Sam Speno is coming off a great showing at the North East Duals.  Sam is 10-1 so far this season.  He went 3-0 last weekend and is looking to make a name for himself this weekend.  There are ten wrestlers in this weight class who have been ranked in the top twenty nationally over the last two weeks.  Defending NCAA Champion Logan Stieber is the wrestler to beat at 141 pounds.  Speno was pre-seeded eleventh.

149 pounds – Brian Hamann (10-2) notched his first win over a top fifteen ranked wrestler this past weekend.  He is looking to build momentum with that win.  He will have plenty of chances to do that this weekend as he will see eight wrestlers ranked in the top fifteen and nine wrestlers in the top twenty nationally.  Defending NCAA Champion, Kendric Maple anchors the list of title contenders this weekend.

157 pounds – Tommy Gantt is looking to rebound from last weekend’s performance.  Tommy is 8-2 so far this year.  Watch for him to “upset” some ranked wrestlers this weekend.  The 157 pound weight class features seven top twenty wrestlers, highlighted by #4 ranked Jake Sueflohn of Nebraska.

174 pounds – Peter Renda (9-1) is coming off a breakout performance this past weekend where he beat a top ten ranked wrestler.  Watch for more of that this weekend.  There are nine top twenty wrestlers in his weight class, including NCAA Champion Andrew Howe of Oklahoma.  Peter was pre-seeded twelfth.

184 pounds – Shayne Brady (6-2) has been a steady performer as a freshman.  He is looking for his first breakout win of the season.  With nine top twenty wrestlers in this weight class, he will have the opportunity to get some great wins.  Fourth-ranked Ryan Loder is the highest ranked wrestler in the weight class.

197 pounds – Lee Davis will start for the Pack this weekend.  Lee wrestled well in his last competition at the Wolfpack Duals.  He is 8-5 on the season and is improving every week.  There are seven top twenty ranked wrestlers in this weight class, including #2, #3, #5, and #6.

285 pounds – Nick Gwiazdowski has dominated the competition so far this year.  He is 10-0 and has picked up bonus points in every match.  With eight top twenty wrestlers in this weight class, he will see several quality opponents.  TJ Felix of Boise State is the second highest ranked wrestler in the weight class (to Gwiazdowski) as he enters with a #5 ranking.  Nick is seeded first.