Kent State University
Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational
Miller Wins Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational
12/5/2015 8:08:00 PM | Wrestling
LAS VEGAS - Kent State senior Ian Miller won a Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational 157-pound championship Saturday at the Cashman Center. With 13 Top 25 squads in the 40-team competition, the Golden Flashes finished eighth overall.
Senior Mike DePalma locked up a fifth place at 149 Saturday, while senior Mack McGuire came away with a seventh place in an extremely competitive 133-pound bracket. A host of other Flashes contributed to the team's 65 points on Friday.
Never trailing or in any danger throughout the tournament, Miller won his semifinal bout 8-4, over Northern Iowa's Bryce Steiert. In the finals, he topped American's John Boyle 6-2, which included 4:01 of riding time. The two-time All-American went 5-0 on the weekend, improving to 11-0 on the year.
"I love seeing him get all that riding time," Head Coach Jim Andrassy said. "He knows all the right angles and he's so explosive that he can just control his opponent for long periods of time and wear them down."
After going 3-0 on Friday, DePalma dropped his first two matches Saturday. He fell, 10-6 to Minnesota's Jake Short and was pinned in the first period by Michigan's Alec Panteleo. DePalma bounced back in his fifth place match with a 14-6 major decision over Oklahoma's Davion Jeffries.
"Mike got hit with a six-pointer to start the match," Andrassy said of DePalma's 10-6 loss. "But he wrestled a really good match after that and only gave up escapes. In his other loss, he was winning and got caught rolling around…so he was right there with everybody."
McGuire went 2-1 on the day and 4-2 for the tournament. In his seventh place bout, he jumped out to a 4-0 first period lead against Josh Martinez (Air Force) and hung on for a 6-3 victory. McGuire started his day with a 13-3 major decision over Navy's Zach Davis followed by a 5-4 loss to Daniel Deshazer (Nebraska-Kearney).
"Mack had a lead in overtime and got taken down with five seconds left," Andrassy said of McGuire's loss. "In situations like that, we've got some work to do as a team, but overall we showed our ability to compete and go hard against some the best out there."
Kent State (4-1) opens Mid-American Conference dual meet competition Sunday, Dec. 13, hosting Buffalo inside the M.A.C. Center at 2 p.m.
