Cliff Keen Las Vegas 2018 Preview: 125 & 133 Pounds
Cliff Keen Las Vegas 2018 Preview: 125 & 133 Pounds
Previewing 125 and 133 pounds at the 2018 Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational, featuring 26 ranked wrestlers between the two weights.
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It's CKLV week, and with over 100 ranked wrestlers coming to Vegas, our previews need to be broken up into pieces. Today we're going over 125 and 133 pounds.
Between the two weights, there are 26 total ranked wrestlers, and several other intriguing entries who are not currently in the rankings. Among last year's placers, five return at 125 and as many as six could come back at 133, depending on a few roster decisions.
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Nov. 30 - Dec. 1 | 12PM Eastern
Remember, CKLV is a single entry tournament, so for all intents and purposes each team will enter their "starters," though of course nearly every squad is battling some level of injury throughout their lineup. We will be keeping an eye on official releases from programs to confirm who will be in attendance.
Let's take a look at both weights with the contenders and make some guesses at sleepers and landmines who could upset the apple cart. Brackets will eventually be on FloArena but for now are just entries. Pre-seeds can be found here. On to the first preview!
Previews: 141, 149 & 157 | 165, 174 & 184 | 197 & 285
125 Pounds
Contenders
#2 Sebastian Rivera, Northwestern: 1-0
#3 Ronnie Bresser, Oregon State: 4-0
#6 Louie Hayes, Virginia: 3-0
#8 Sean Russsell, Minnesota: 5-1
#9 Zeke Moisey, Nebraska: 2-1
Dark Horses
#10 Travis Piotrowski, Illinois: 0-0
#13 Devin Schroder, Purdue: 8-1
#14 Rico Montoya, Northern Colorado: 4-0
#15 Gabe Townsell, Stanford: 6-1
#16 Drew Mattin, Michigan: 3-2
#19 Jay Schwarm, Northern Iowa: 2-0
#20 Cole Verner, Wyoming: 6-4
It’s very possible the winner of this weight emerges as the early favorite to meet Spencer Lee in the NCAA finals. Six of the Top-10 will be in attendance, including four All-Americans.
Northwestern’s first trip to Vegas in forever means that #2 Sebastian Rivera enters as the top seed. He missed the first couple weeks of the season, but looked great with eight takedowns in a 19-6 win over Joey Prata in the Virginia Tech dual. He should be the top seed, and if the seeds look like our rankings, he's got wins over the guys who would be seeded second through seventh.
The main reason Rivera owns the #2 ranking is his 12-2 win over Ronnie Bresser in Cleveland. That consi quarters match was closer than the score indicated, as it was 2-1 going into the third period. Rivera's ability to fend off a swing single in the first and earn heavy riding in the second proved crucial. His first two takedowns were extremely quick finishes, and Bresser got pancaked trying to shoot with 26 seconds remaining for Rivera's final six points of the match.
Oregon State is also a new wrinkle to CKLV as they last went three years ago. That year, Bresser went 5-1 to finish third, losing in the semis to Joey Dance. The Beaver senior pinned Sean Russell at the national tournament in their only meeting, and is 2-0 against Zeke Moisey, though those matches were from 2014 and 2015.
Hayes is in his third season in Charlottesville and is one of the returning placers at 125. The redshirt sophomore carries the #6 ranking into the tournament and should be the three seed. Last year in Vegas, he fell in the first round before ripping off five wins in a row to guarantee a spot on the podium. He's got limited experience against the field, having only wrestled three matches against other ranked competitors here.
Sean Russell is the highest returning placer, having made the finals last year while still at Edinboro. In the semifinals, he stormed back from 4-0 down entering the third period against Jay Schwarm, scoring three takedowns and getting backpoints to win 8-7 despite being ridden for 3:26 up to that point. The 2017 All-American was very offensive at the Datronics Open to start his season, putting up 11 points per match, but could not score in a 3-0 loss to Nick Piccininni last weekend.
Zeke Moisey is very clearly injured this year, not wrestling the Virginia match, barely scraping by Antonio Minnino 8-7 and losing 5-2 to Cole Verner. Last time he was in Vegas, he went 4-2 as a sophomore at West Virginia and failed to place. It would not surprise me if we saw a less than 100% Moisey on November 30th.
Looking at some sleepers and landmines, Verner certainly represents one. He made the NJCAA finals at Western Wyoming in 2016 and placed third a year later. After going 14-3 on his redshirt year, his win over Moisey vaulted him into the rankings.
Schwarm's quarterfinal win over Ryan Millhof last year was one of the most bizarre and controversial matches I've ever seen. He is an absolute bear on top, with two pins in his two matches already this year, and is one of the few healthy studs on UNI's roster right now.
Rico Montoya started the year ranked at 133, but dropped down a weight. His head coach was an NCAA champ who put Trey Andrews in the semis a couple years ago, so Montoya could really mess some people's lives up this weekend. Gabe Townsell has big move potential, but has several close/overtime losses to guys in this field.
Christian Moody has a number of wins against ranked foes and placed eighth here last year. Drew Hildebrandt did not place last year, but his losses were to Hayes and Mattin, the latter of whom he just beat in the dual. Brent Fleetwood is 6-0 on the year and has wins over Rivera from the Wildcat's freshman year.
Really curious to see Sidney Flores in action, he won the National Collegiate Open and is built to upset guys at a tournament like this. Tyshawn White is always fun to watch and will be competing for Clarion. Colby Smith came down from 141 last season and is 2-0 so far.
Nomad's Picks
1. Rivera, NW 2. Bresser, OSU 3. Russell, MINN 4. Hayes, UVA
133 Pounds
Contenders
#2 Nick Suriano, Rutgers: 5-0
#3 Stevan Micic, Michigan: 2-0
#5 Luke Pletcher, Ohio State: 7-0
#7 Ethan Lizak, Minnesota: 6-1
Dark Horses
#10 John Erneste, Missouri: 2-0
#11 Dylan Duncan, Illinois: 0-0
#12 Korbin Myers, Virginia Tech: 5-2
#13 Montorie Bridges, Wyoming: 8-3
#14 Josh Terao, American: 0-0
#15 Cam Sykora, ND State: 7-0
#16 Colin Valdiviez, Northwestern: 0-2
#17 Micky Phillippi, Pittsburgh: 2-0
#18 Sean Nickell, CSU Bakersfield: 7-3
#20 Tucker Sjomeling, Nebraska: 6-2
After seeing the completely absurd list of guys who will be at 133, our own Christian Pyles kicked off the CKLV content with his own little missive on the weight.
There's a clear top four in Micic, Suriano, Pletcher, and Lizak, all of whom are in the Big Ten and each will hit at least one of the other three one more time before the conference tournament. So nothing will be set in stone after this weekend, but you'll be in pretty good shape seed wise by picking up the title.
The semi between Pletcher and Micic was one of the more unforgettable matches from 2017. But it appeared to look like a fluke after Micic wound up beating Pletcher the next three times they met: 7-4 in the dual, 11-4 at Big Tens, and 8-4 in the national tournament. Micic had to pull out of the world championships with an injury, so hopefully he's back to 100% after appearing in the Wolverines' first two duals of the year.
The thought of his matchup with Suriano is extremely exciting, though the Rutgers junior will have to get by one of Pletcher or Ethan Lizak in the semis first. An NCAA finalist down at 125 this past March, Suriano has picked up bonus in each of his first five matches but has yet to see anyone ranked, let alone the caliber of these three.
After a close first match with Casey Cobb of Navy, it appeared we were in store for another year like Pletcher had last year, in which he won nearly every match but had just four bonus point wins. Yet he's already exceeded that with six bonus wins so far, five against D1 opponents. Keeping that up will be crucial for Ohio State in both this tournament and in his native Pittsburgh in a few months.
Lizak came in as the top seed at 125 last year, but lost to Taylor LaMont in the quarterfinals before ultimately getting third. He's only lost to Daton Fix this year but is good enough on top to beat any of the three guys ranked above him here.
Josh Terao made the finals a year ago but has yet to wrestle this season. Duncan also hasn't wrestled, so they could bring the total down to a dozen ranked guys. It's hard to judge where Erneste and Phillippi are with only two matches each under their belt, but both do have wins over ranked guys in Korbin Myers and Sean Nickell, respectively.
Myers placed sixth as the five seed here a year ago, and went through an absolute gauntlet to do so. Montorie Bridges didn't place after falling to Pletcher in the round of 16 and Austin DeSanto in the bloodround. Bridges has struggled with three losses already, but wasn't an All-American by mistake this past March.
A two-time qualifier, Cam Sykora is coming into his own this season and looks primed to make a deep run. He's one of Valdiviez's two losses this season, as the Wildcat is still looking for his first win.
Tucker Sjomeling got teched by Lizak at the Daktronics, so he's not likely to land in the top four. But his win over Bridges in the dual showed an ability to knock off highly ranked guys and put points on the board, the kind of landmine you don't want to see on day two in Vegas.
An easy sleeper pick is Brian Courtney, who was #40 on the 2017 Big Board and is down to his right weight after being 141 during his redshirt season. He had a tight 7-5 loss to Bridges in their dual and will frustrate just about anyone with his scrambling ability.
Another is Purdue senior Ben Thornton, who at 10-1 on the year has likely shaken off any potential early season rust that guys who've wrestled fewer than five matches might have. Thornton didn't place last season after getting knocked out by Zach Sherman.
Speaking of Sherman, there are two interesting roster battles at this weight. Sherman beat Gary Wayne Harding at the Hokie Open, yet it's been James Szymanski in all three duals for the Tar Heels. If he's UNC's entry here, that would mean Sherman and Harding are missing a major opportunity to improve their seed for NCAAs and potentially earn themselves a ranking.
The other roster battle is at Cornell, where the Big Red will be entering Charles Tucker. He beat Vito Arujau at the Jonathan Kaloust Bearcat Open and appears to be their starter going forward. He'll be hard pressed to hit double digits in any matches, but good luck finishing takedowns on him.
Nomad's Picks
1. Micic, UM 2. Suriano, RUT 3. Pletcher, OSU 4. Lizak, MINN