-- The No. 2 Nebraska wrestling team got off to a blazing start at the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev., on Friday, winning 24 of its 29 bouts, including 19 consecutive match victories to begin the day. All 10 Huskers advanced to Friday night's quarterfinals and five NU grapplers advanced to Saturday's semifinal round, the most of any team at the tournament. After Day 1, Nebraska's 69 team points are the most among the 32 schools in the overall standings.Tournament action began at 125 pounds. Redshirt freshman(125) received a bye, meaning freshman(133) was the first Husker to wrestle on Friday. He set the tone with an upset victory over #9 Taylor LaMont, yielding only one point to the Utah Valley grappler in a 6-1 decision. #6(141) defeated UNI's Michael Blockhus in a rematch of their Nov. 24 bout in Cedar Falls, Iowa. Red blanked Blockhus the first time around (an 18-0 technical fall victory) and won their second matchup by a score of 12-5.#10(149) and(157) continued their winning ways on Friday. Purinton defeated Reece Heller (Hofstra) by major decision, 16-8, and Robb beat Jimmy Fate (Northern Colorado) by a score of 7-1. Purinton, Robb and #4(165), a 7-1 winner over Dazjon Casto of The Citadel, ran their records to 7-0 to begin the season.#5and #6bounced back following defeats at Northern Iowa on Nov. 24. Labriola (174) dominated Max Wohlabaugh (Clarion), winning by technical fall (17-2) while Venz (184) pinned Josh Loomer (Cal State Bakersfield) one minute and 59 seconds into their Round of 32 match.#10(197) was challenged by Dominic Ducharme (Cal State Bakersfield), but emerged victorious with a 6-5 decision. #13(HWT) dispatched Michael McAleavey (The Citadel) 12-3 to cap off an undefeated Round of 32 for the entire NU lineup.Thomsen (125) was well-rested following his first-round bye and earned a 14-5 major decision victory over Northern Colorado's Jace Koelzer to advance to the Quarterfinals. Lovett (133) kept the positive momentum going with a 6-2 decision against Garrett Lambert (Hofstra). Red Jr. (141) made it a trio of Huskers in the Quarterfinals when he bested Cal Poly's Jake Ryan, 7-4.The trio became a quarterfinal quintet when Purinton (149) defeated Russell Rohlfing (Cal State Bakersfield) 11-9 and Robb (157) made quick work of The Citadel's Doug Goldenburr, pinning him less than one minute into the second period of their match.NU scored bonus point victories in its next two matches. White (165) earned his first technical fall victory of the season over Utah Valley's Koy Wilkinson (19-4) while Labriola (174) accumulated his team-leading fourth major decision victory against Alexander Melikian (Binghamton), winning by a score of 19-8.Venz (184), Schultz (197) and Lance (HWT) vaulted into the quarterfinals with hard-fought decisions. Venz defeated Max Lyon (Purdue), 8-4; Schultz topped Trey Rogers (Hofstra), 8-3; and Lance beat Yaraslau Slavikouski (Harvard), 6-5.With their victories, all 10 Husker grapplers who traveled to Las Vegas advanced to Friday night's Quarterfinal round.The Huskers faced ranked competition in seven of their ten quarterfinal bouts.(125) faced off against #6 Alex Mackall of Iowa State in the Huskers' first quarterfinal match. Mackall scored a takedown at the end of the first period before Thomsen scored a takedown of his own and two near-fall points in the second period. Knotted at six after three periods, neither grappler scored in the sudden victory period. Mackall earned an escape in the first tiebreaker period and rode out Thomsen in the second tiebreaker period to earn a hard-fought 7-6 decision.(133) was the first Husker to advance to the semifinals. Lovett scored six of his eight points in the first period and collected nearly three minutes of riding time, which proved to be the difference as he defeated Virginia's Louie Hayes 8-7.(141) then came out with a vengeance, pinning #12 Tariq Wilson of North Carolina State in 33 seconds to secure a spot in Saturday's semifinals.(149) and(157) both fought valiantly but came up just short. Trailing #6 Jarrett Degen of Iowa State 8-5 with 10 seconds left in the third period, Purinton scored a reversal, let Degen escape, and scored a takedown as time expired to knot the score at nine apiece. After a lengthy review, it was determined Degen had exactly one minute of riding time and was thus awarded a 10-9 victory. Robb faced the top-ranked wrestler in the 157-pound weight class in North Carolina State's Hayden Hindlay. Robb yielded only one takedown the entire match, but it proved to be the difference in a 3-2 loss.(165), the #1 seed in his weight class, scored takedowns in every period and only gave up points via escape to defeat Bailee O'Reilly (Minnesota), 9-5.(174) used riding time to earn the decisive point in his clash with Ohio State's Kaleb Romero, winning 2-1 to advance to the semifinals along with White.(184) and(197) suffered narrow defeats in their quarterfinal matches. Venz fell 7-4 to #5 Lou DePrez (Binghamton) and Thomas Lane (Cal Poly) scored a takedown with 11 seconds remaining in the third period to defeat Schultz, 6-4.In the final match of the evening involving a Husker wrestler,(HWT) tallied two takedowns in each period against Fresno State's Randy Gonzalez to win by major decision, 15-5.Action resumes tomorrow morning at 11 a.m. CT with the consolation second round of (8). The championship and consolation semifinals begin at noon, with the fifth and seventh place matches following shortly thereafter. The championship and third place matches are set for 5 p.m.



Cliff Keen Las Vegas Collegiate Wrestling Invitational

Dec. 6-7, 2019

Las Vegas, Nev. (Las Vegas Convention Center)