Reno Tournament Of Champions Collegiate Recap
Reno Tournament Of Champions Collegiate Recap
Your recap of the college wrestling at the 2018 Reno Tournament of Champions.
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The 24th annual Reno Tournament of Champions is in the books. Here's what went down in the college division.
Brackets, Results and More on FloArena
125 Pounds
Nick Piccininni won one of the toughest weight classes in the tournament. Pich looked great all tournament, as did Michigan State's Rayvon Foley, who gave the OK State redshirt junior his toughest match of the tournament.
Two other national qualifiers, ODU's Michael McGee and American's Gage Curry, finished third and fourth, respectively. Wyoming's Cole Verner and Arizona State's Brandon Courtney, two young wrestlers who have yet to qualify for NCAAs but very well may punch their tickets this year (depending on how Arizona State's lineup shakes out with All-American Ryan Millhof in the mix), finished fifth and sixth.
Watch Piccininni and Foley in the Reno TOC finals:
133 Pounds
Daton Fix looked superb and is scarily adding to his already impressive arsenal. Michigan State's Anthony Tutolo kept working the entire finals, but ultimately Daton would not be denied his second consecutive Reno TOC crown. (Fix won the 125-pound weight class last season while redshirting.)
Notably, Daton drew his former teammate, "Big Game" Gary Wayne Harding in the semifinals. Harding transferred from Oklahoma State to North Carolina over the summer.
141 Pounds
Wyoming's Sam Turner picked up a championship trophy and the Outstanding Wrestler award, thanks to his victory over two-time All-American Kaid Brock in the semifinals. Turner's semifinal win was the upset of the tournament, and he made sure not to squander the opportunity as he dispatched Michigan State's Austin Eicher 6-0 in the finals. Eicher was Sparty's third consecutive runner-up.
Watch unranked (for now) Turner upset #9 Kaid Brock:
149 Pounds
Although the weight class was somewhat lacking in depth, Kaden Gfeller showed once again that Oklahoma State head coach John Smith is going to have a hard time keeping the redshirt freshman out of the starting lineup. Gfeller outworked his teammate Dustin Hone 13-5 in the finals, and Hone was one stall away from getting disqualified.
157 Pounds
This weight class featured quite a few ranked wrestlers. Unfortunately, two of the top-20 wrestlers in Reno, ODU's #4 Larry Early (the highest ranked wrestler in the college division) and OK State's #16 Andrew Shomers, suffered injuries and defaulted out of the tournament.
From the carnage arose Stanford's All-American Paul Fox, who wrestled well all tournament long, particularly from neutral. Fox beat the dangerous Dewey Krueger in the semifinals and then downed OK State's Jonce Blaylock in the finals. No word on Early or Shomers' injuries but if Shomers is out, Blaylock is an able back up for sure.
Watch Fox's semifinal match against Wyoming's Dewey Krueger:
165 Pounds
#10 Chandler Rogers stacked and packed his way to yet another Cowboy title. Oklahoma State would win the team title by a margin of 54 points, thanks to performances like Rogers' with four pins and one tech-fall.
Stanford's true freshman Shane Griffith had a solid tourney as well, placing fifth. He is one to watch as he continues his redshirt season.
174 Pounds
This weight class was regrettably notable for not giving us the match that many had hoped for: Jacobe Smith vs. Joseph Smith. Coach Smith (father of Joseph, merely coach of Jacobe), explained why he put the kibosh on what would have been a public OK State wrestle-off, here.
When they did wrestle, Jacobe and Joseph looked good, with Jacobe providing some upperbody fireworks and Joseph putting on clinics in his first folkstyle action in nearly a year. Jacobe beat ODU's Seldon Wright in the semifinals, while Joseph beat Michigan State's Drew Hughes. Both opponents for the Cowboys previously qualified for the national tournament.
Oklahoma State's blue-chip recruit Travis Wittlake was eliminated in the consolations and would have ended up in the 7th/8th, but that placement match is not wrestled at Reno.
184 Pounds
Cam Caffey finally broke Michigan State's losing streak in the Reno TOC finals when he beat Anthony Orozco of NAIA's Menlo College. Caffey won 13-6, but the finals match was a near-run thing before Caffey capitalized on a desperation attack by Orozco in the closing seconds of regulation.
Oklahoma State's lone attached entry at 184 was Bear Hughes, who finished off the podium. Knocking Hughes out of the championship side of the bracket was OK State true freshman Anthony Montalvo, who finished fourth.
197 Pounds
Dakota Geer put Oklahoma State back on the top of the podium, as he beat Wyoming's Cale Davidson in my sleeper pick for "most entertaining finals match." It appears Preston Weigel is still dinged up and his participation in the rest of the season is in doubt. Geer, who has been at 184 for every other match of his career, may end up taking over Weigel's spot in the Cowboy lineup. The Edinboro transfer weighed in at 194.0 pounds on Thursday morning.
Watch Geer and Davidson in their action-packed finals match:
285 Pounds
The heavyweight final saw a rematch of a November dual meet where Oklahoma State's #5 Derek White beat Wyoming's Brian Andrews 8-2 in historic Gallagher-Iba Arena. It would be a little closer in the Reno rematch, but it was never in doubt for White, who won again, this time by the score of 6-2.
That's the long and the short of the college division. The high school event looks to provide even more western wrestling action, as 14 weight classes conclude on Saturday evening.