2016 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invite

Eight Must See CKLV Quarterfinals

Eight Must See CKLV Quarterfinals

Eight must see quarterfinals at the 2016 Cliff Keen Las Vegas

Dec 2, 2016 by Nomad Lobdell
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The quarterfinals are set here at the 2016 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invititational. These are eight you will need to keep your eye on. Wrestling starts at 6 p.m. pacific time and every one can be seen LIVE on FloWrestling. Complete brackets can be found on FloArena.

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125 - No. 2 Joey Dance (Virgina Tech) vs Markus Simmons (Iowa State)

Two of the most fun and explosive wrestlers in this or any bracket. Dance started off his day with a pin and a tech, while Simmons worked his way to the quarters with a pin and a decision.

133 - No. 2 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State) vs Ali Naser (Arizona State)

These two have never met in folkstyle, but split in two very tight matches last year in freestyle. Naser took round one at the Bill Farrell, taking Tomasello down twice. Tomasello controlled the second bout, using a big double leg early to hold off Naser and win 3-1 at the Senior Nationals.



149 - No. 7 Justin Oliver (Central Michigan) vs Cole Mendenhall (Wyoming)

This match is intriguing for a few reasons. First is that Oliver is helping lead CMU to a second place spot in the team standings right now. The other is that Mendenhall has been making a big push to be ranked with his seven bonus point wins on the year.

157 - No. 5 Brian Murphy (Michigan) vs Josh Shields (Arizona State)

Make sure to check out the match below to see Murphy get pushed to the brink by Paul Fox of Stanford. Shields had two closes matches of his own and was in that star studded recruiting class of 2015 for the Sun Devils.



174 - No. 7 Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) vs Myles Amine (Michigan)

Another 2/7 matchup here. Zahid had a squeaker in his first one, a 7-6 win over Ben Harvey of Army. Amine will be yet another test for the younger but larger Valencia in his first major tournament this year.

184 - No. 9 Zack Zavatsky (Virginia Tech) vs Dylan Gabel (Northern Colorado)

Zavatsky is key to Tech's hopes of taking home the title, but standing in his way is the brother of a former teammate. Austin Gabel wrestled for the Hokies during Zavatsky's first two years on the team, so Dylan Gabel may just have the cheat code to give Northern Colorado a statement win for their program.

197 - No. 2 Brett Pfarr (Minnesota) vs Ben Honis (Cornell)

Nobody told Ben Honis he wasn't supposed to make it this far. He had one of the most exciting matches of the morning to upset No. 20 Rocco Caywood of Army (below), and then turned it on to major No. 15 Jeric Kasunic of American.



285 - No. 6 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) vs No. 10 Nathan Butler (Stanford)

The only quarterfinal featuring two ranked guys. Kroells beat Butler 5-1 to make the round of 12 at NCAAs in March. In what is an extremely stacked weight, this one will be one of many heavyweight matches that adjust the rankings coming out of CKLV.