ASU wrestling earned a 17th place overall finish in the Las Vegas Invite on Friday Dec. 4, and Saturday, Dec. 5.
The Sun Devils competed in a double elimination tournament which spilt the wrestlers apart due to the weight class. There were colleges from all across the country competing, from Boise State to West Virginia.
ASU sent nine of their best wrestlers to this tournament; redshirt senior Blake Stauffer (0-2), seniors Ares Carpio (2-2), Cord Coronado (0-2) and Matt Kraus (5-2), redshirt sophomore Oliver Pierce (2-2), sophomore Robbie Mathers (4-2), Jacen Petersen (0-2), freshmen Zach Smith (0-2) and Tanner Hall (5-2) all competed.
Hall started off 4-0 in his first four matches, winning all of them by decision, including a 6-2 victory over Cal Poly freshman Spencer Empey. He went up against Boise State red shirt sophomore Gaylen Edmo once again and the same result happen once again with a Hall win, sending him to the Round of 16.
Hall ended the invite with a 5-2 record but he wasn’t the only one with a solid performance. Both Kraus and Mathers ended their invite in the top 10 with Mathers in 7th place in the 141-pound weight class with a 4-2 record and Kraus finished in 4th place in the 149 pound weight class with a 5-2 record.
Mathers started the day 2-0 beating freshman Jordan Hall of North Idaho via pinfall in the first minute and 15 seconds of the match and junior Emilio Martinez of Virginia 12-8 but then was defeated badly to red shirt sophomore Micah Jordan in the Quarterfinals by majority 15-7.
He finished Saturday with a 2-1 record that day, beating sophomore Logan Everett 11-6 in a rebound match for Mathers but got beat by sophomore Tyler Smith of Bucknell via pinfall with only 15 seconds in the Consolation round of four. Mathers ended up beating red shirt senior Ian Nickell of Cal State in a tough 4-2 win.
Kraus, like Mathers, started his invite 2-0 before losing in the quarterfinals. He beat sophomore Clayton Ream of North Dakota state and pinned Bucknell junior Victor Lopez toward the end of the first period but being beat by sophomore Mike DePalma in a one sided 9-2 defeat.
On his second day, Kraus won his first match due to an injury suffered by Purdue red shirt junior Alex Griffin but then squashed his next two opponents via majority who were once again Ream 14-3 and Oklahoma freshman Davion Jeffries 13-2. Kraus had his winning streak against Michigan’s sophomore Alec Pantaleo, who beat him 7-2.
TheSun Devil wrestling will be back in action on Dec. 29-30, at the Midlands Championships in Evanston, Illinois.
Reach the reporter at osoussi@asu.edu or follow @omarksoussi on Twitter.
Like State Press Sports on Facebook and follow @statepresssport on Twitter.
