Four Gophers advanced to tomorrow’s semifinals while two more are alive in wrestlebacks for day two
After 590 total matches on the first day of the 34th annual Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, the Gophers sit in third place with 78.5 team points, 6.5 points behind current leader Oklahoma and three points behind second-place Missouri. Heading into the tournament’s second and final day tomorrow, six Gophers are still alive across all the brackets, including four who will compete in tomorrow morning’s semifinals.
I thought we had a great day. Guys wrestled hard. They wrestled intense. Today, they did a lot of things we have been talking about wanting them to do,” said Head Coach J Robinson. “If anybody would have said we’d be where we are right now, nobody would have believed them. It’s a classic example of the team moving in the right direction and doing what we need to do. Obviously the tournament isn’t over and we still have a long ways to go this year, but it shows us that we’re making progress and we can be in the hunt for some hardware.”
The quartet of Gophers on the championship side of the bracket were led by No. 9 Tommy Thorn (141) and No. 6 Brett Pfarr (197). Both Thorn and Pfarr finished the day 4-0 with a pair of major decision and a pin each. Thorn only allowed his first three opponents a combined five points before earning a hard-fought 6-5 decision over Matt Manley (Missouri) in the quarterfinals. Like Thorn, Pfarr sandwiched a second-round pin between two major decisions before flexing his muscle and controlling much of his 4-1 quarterfinal victory over No. 13 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech). The win was Pfarr’s team-high fourth win over a ranked opponent this season. No. 9 Michael Kroells (285) reached the semifinals with consistent effort, earning three consecutive decisions and, like Thorn, allowing just five points to his opponents over that three-match span.
After a pair of decisions to open his tournament, Jake Short (149) may have had the most exciting victory of the day for the Gophers in the quarterfinals against Joe Galasso (Cornell). Leading 5-3, Short was taken down in the match’s final seconds to force a sudden victory overtime. In the overtime, Galasso had Short’s leg and looked ready to score a match-winning takedown when Short went to his back and kicked Galasso over the top, flipping on top of Galasso and pinning him to take the match and advance to the semifinals.
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“In order to win, we’ve got to push those guys into the final. Then our guys in the wrestlebacks have to come through,” added Robinson. “We’ve got to have a good day tomorrow to stay where we are and that’s one of the things that we talk about and train for, consistency and being able to wrestle as hard on the second day as we do on the first.”
Joining the foursome of semifinalists, No. 20 Brandon Kingsley (157) and Brandon Krone (165) each has a chance to place tomorrow. Kingsley finished 3-1 on the day, with a narrow loss in tiebreakers to No. 18 John Boyle (American) in the second round, a tough defeat between a pair of dominant performances, first a tournament-opening tech fall and then a pin in just 47 seconds in his first consolation match. Krone went 4-1 in his first tournament action with the varsity squad, starting his day with consecutive pins before a 6-4 loss to No. 16 Garrett Sutton (Michigan). Krone rebounded nicely with a pair of two-point victories in his wrestleback matches.
The other four Gophers were eliminated from the tournament on Friday. Skyler Petry (125), Sam Brancale (133) and Jordon Rother (174) each turned in 2-2 performances, efforts headlined by Brancale’s upset of No. 6 Rossi Bruno (Michigan) in their consolation match, a bout in which Brancale pinned Bruno at 2:29 of the first period.
Even those eliminated contributed bonus points to the Gophers on Friday, a major factor in positioning Minnesota in the top-three heading into tomorrow’s matches. In all, the Gophers piled up 15 bonus point victories among their 27 wins – eight pins, five major decisions and two tech falls.
The Cliff Keen Invitational wraps up Saturday, with wrestling beginning at 11 a.m. Central with Round of 12 matches on the consolation side of the bracket, followed by championship semifinals, consolation semifinals and the fifth- and seventh-place matches. Title bouts and third-place matches will begin at 5 p.m. Central.
As always, fans can find period-by-period updates of all Minnesota matches by following Gopher Wrestling on Twitter. A live stream of tomorrow’s matches is available on flowrestling.org. Streaming requires a FloPRO account.
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Brackets at flowrestling.org
Gopher Match Results
125
Pigtail: Skyler Petry dec Nolan Hellickson (Harvard), 6-1
Champ Rnd 1: Skyler Petry dec David Gonzalez (Cal Poly), 7-2
Champ Rnd 2: No. 1 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State) maj dec Skyler Petry, 14-4
Cons Rnd 4: No. 18 Josh Rodriguez (North Dakota State) dec Skyler Petry, 3-2
133
Champ Rnd 1: Sam Brancale fall (2:45) Caleb Smith (Citadel)
Champ Rnd 2: No. 13 Mack McGuire (Kent State) dec Sam Brancale, 9-3
Cons Rnd 4: Sam Brancale fall (2:29) No. 6 Rossi Bruno (Michigan)
Cons Rnd 5: No. 20 Joey Palmer (Oregon State) dec Sam Brancale, 6-2
141
Pigtail: No. 9 Tommy Thorn maj dec Trevor Jauch (Northern Iowa), 10-2
Champ Rnd 1: No. 9 Tommy Thorn fall (1:11) Mickey Nunez (Gateway Community College)
Champ Rnd 2: No. 9 Tommy Thorn maj dec David Walker (Air Force), 12-3
Quarters: No. 9 Tommy Thorn dec Matt Manley (Missouri), 6-5
149
Champ Rnd 1: Jake Short dec Chris Yankowich (Virginia), 8-3
Champ Rnd 2: Jake Short dec No. 16 Gabe Moreno (Iowa State), 6-1
Quarters: Jake Short fall (7:35) Joe Galasso (Cornell)
157
Champ Rnd 1: No. 20 Brandon Kingsley tech fall AJ Fierro (CSU-Bakersfield), 17-2
Champ Rnd 2: No. 18 John Boyle (American) dec (TB-1) No. 20 Brandon Kingsley, 2-1
Cons Rnd 4: No. 20 Brandon Kingsley fall (0:47) Brock Wingbermuehle (Oklahoma)
Cons Rnd 5: No. 20 Brandon Kingsley dec Vincent DePrez (Binghamton), 10-
165
Pigtail: Brandon Krone fall (2:36) Adam Fierro (CSU-Bakersfield)
Champ Rnd 1: Brandon Krone fall (6:29) Tyson Kuahine (San Francisco State)
Champ Rnd 2: No. 16 Garrett Sutton (Michigan) dec Brandon Krone, 6-4
Cons Rnd 4: Brandon Krone dec Garrett Peppelman (Virginia), 5-3
Cons Rnd 5: Brandon Krone dec Tyler Buckwalter (Kent State), 6-4
174
Pigtail: Jordon Rothers maj dec Horacio Vialpando (Northern Colorado), 10-0
Champ Rnd 1: Jordon Rothers tech fall Khali Crowl (North Idaho), 18-0
Champ Rnd 2: No. 12 Matt Reed (Oklahoma) fall (1:14) Jordon Rothers
Cons Rnd 4: Jacob Morrissey (Purdue) inj. (5:00) Jordon Rothers
184
Champ Rnd 1: No. 19 Mathew Miller (Navy) fall (4:23) Chris Pfarr
Cons Rnd 2: Dane Pestano (Iowa State) dec (SV-1) Chris Pfarr, 5-3
197
Pigtail: No. 6 Brett Pfarr maj dec L.J. Barlow (Harvard), 15-4
Champ Rnd 1: No. 6 Brett Pfarr fall (4:09) Davin Woolridge (Gateway Community College)
Champ Rnd 2: No. 6 Brett Pfarr maj dec Omar Haddad (Hofstra), 16-2
Quarters: No. 6 Brett Pfarr dec No. 13 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech), 4-1
285
Champ Rnd 1: No. 9 Michael Kroells Joseph Fagiano (California Baptist), 6-3
Champ Rnd 2: No. 9 Michael Kroells dec Dustin Dennison (Utah Valley), 5-2
Quarters: No. 9 Michael Kroells dec Nicholas Gajdzik (Harvard), 6-0
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