Bedelyon, Small & Miller Earn Titles as Flashes Finish Second at Body Bar
11/19/2011 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Ithaca, N.Y. - Senior Nic Bedelyon (Lewistown, Pa.), sophomore Tyler Small (Littlestown, Pa.) and freshman Ian Miller (Graytown, Ohio) all won individual titles Saturday as Kent State finished second of 12 teams at the Body Invitational Saturday inside Newman Arena. The Golden Flashes finished behind No. 5 Cornell, but had several surprise performances.
'I was impressed with how hard we wrestled," Head Coach Jim Andrassy said. "And when you wrestle hard, good things happen. As a whole, this was the best we've wrestled."
Bedelyon (125) went 4-0 on the day with a pair of first period pins, including one in the semifinals. He then claimed a comfortable 9-4 victory over No. 7 Frank Perrelli (Cornell) in the finals.
"Nic's made some adjustments this year working with Coach Moore and he's done a real good job," Andrassy said.
Small (141) finished 4-0 with a pin and 4-0 shutout in his first two bouts. He then topped No. 11 Matthew Bonson 14-9 in the semifinals and No. 17 Michael Nevinger (Cornell) 8-4 in the finals.
"Tyler's really coming along," Andrassy said. "He scores a lot of points and he's just real hard to handle. He puts a lot of pressure on his opponents and makes them make mistakes."
Miller (149) has now won seven straight matches after going 4-0 on Saturday with a pin and a 17-4 major decision. He did not get to face either of the Top 20 wrestlers in his bracket, but gave the Flashes their third title of the day.
"Some of Ian's scores were close but he really didn't have any close matches," Andrassy said.
Sophomore Brandonn Johnson (Middletown, Md.) was the runner-up at 174 pounds after going 3-1 with a pin and a technical fall.
"B.J. wrestled a lot better than he has all year," Andrassy said.
Junior Keith Witt (Oak Harbor, Ohio) captured a third place, which included a 6-0 shutout of Lukasz Stela (Cornell).
Senior Ross Tice (Brookfield, Ohio) was also one of six Flashes that made his way into the semifinals by pinning No. 18 Marshall Peppelman (Cornell) in the third period. Tice was injured in his semifinal loss to top seeded Joe Booth (Drexel) and settled for a fourth place.
Junior Casey Newburg (Union, Ohio) also had an impressive day, going 4-1 with technical fall and a major decision. In a fifth place finish, Newburg's only setback came against No. 15 Jon Fausey (Virginia).
Junior Troy Opfer (Sandusky, Ohio) gave the Flashes two placewinners in the 125-pound bracket. Opfer claimed a sixth, by going 3-2 as he fell to No. 6 Matt Snyder (Virginia) in his final bout.
Senior heavyweight Brendan Barlow (Westerville,Ohio) did not compete Saturday, but is expected to be back in action Tuesday.
"We wrestled hard and wrestled through positions," Andrassy said of his teams many pins on the day. "And if Barlow wrestles, we have chance at winning the tournament."
Junior Stevie Mitcheff (Lorain,Ohio) and senior Marcel Clopton (Shaker Hts., Ohio) each went 3-2 with a pin. Junior Mallie Shuster (Newville, Pa.) was 2-2.
Kent State will host Edinboro in its first home dual meet of the season Tuesday, Nov. 22 at 3:05 p.m. in the M.A.C. Center.
