The No. 11 Wisconsin wrestling team finished up competition in Las Vegas this weekend at the Cliff Keen Invitational, bringing home a tie for 13th place.
Having competed in five dual meets so far, this is Wisconsin's first invitational of the season. Forty-eight teams competed in the invitational, nine of which were nationally ranked before the meet. Individually, 96 wrestlers at the meet were also nationally ranked, including four NCAA national champions. Wisconsin's 13th place finish is a testament to their competitiveness in the face of tough odds.
After the first day of competition, Wisconsin sat in 18th place. Two Badger wrestlers, junior Drew Hammen and freshman Tom Kelliher, did not make it out of the first round of competition. However, many wrestlers were in battles for third place. Junior Kyle Ruschell was the only Badger still in contention for the title at his weight class.
Finishing on top for the Badgers was senior heavyweight Kyle Massey, who took third place. On his way to capturing third, Massey took down Chris Kasten of Purdue, Dustin Rogers of West Virginia, Corey Morrison of Ohio State and finally Tucker Lake of Nebraska. Massey's third place finish marked his second from the Cliff Keen Invitational in two years.
However, Massey was not the only Badger to take top five honors. Ruschell, at 141 lbs., finished in fourth place. He had fewer matches than Massey on his way to the podium, but the competition proved to be just a little bit tougher. Ruschell won his first match against Trevor Chinn of Kehigh, but fell to fourth place after losing to Jake Patacsil of Purdue in a close match, 9-7.
Rounding out the Badgers in the top five was true freshman Andrew Howe at 165 lbs. Howe earned his fifth place finish by defeating Ethan Headlee of Pittsburg and Scott Glasser of Minnesota. Howe was then defeated by Stephen Dwyer of Nebraskra. This placed Howe in the match for fifth place. However, the match never actually happened. His opponent, Andy Rendos of Bucknell, forfeited because of a medically related reason.
Senior Zach Tanelli and true freshman Travis Rutt also competed for the Badgers. Tanelli took seventh last year but failed to place this year when he was defeated by Chris Diaz of Virginia Tech, 8-3. Coming into this match, Tanelli was undefeated thus far this season and was ranked eighth in his weight class. Rutt also lost his match to Shane Onufer of Wyoming.
The Badgers' efforts were enough to rack up 64.5 team points, tying with fellow Big Ten opponent Illinois. The team from Nebraska took home first place honors with 124.5 team points. Cornell University finished in second place with 91 points. Representing the Big Ten, Minnesota took home third place with 89 points.
The Badgers travel from Las Vegas to the Wisconsin Dells this coming Saturday in a dual meet against Northern Iowa.
- uwbadgers.com contributed to this report.
