The local wrestling team from Utah Valley University went ot Iowa last week to wrestle their #2 ranked Cyclones on their home mat. Though it takes guts to do that, they where still destroyed as a team losing 39-0. That’s the team score though. That doesn’t reveal how close it came in some matches. Both UVU and Iowa State have nationaly ranked wrestlers and some of them grappeled last night and it came pretty close. UVU star Ben Kjar, ranked 18th in the nation, went up against number 7, Tyler Clark. It came down to the wire, but Kjar couldn’t hold on and lost the match 4-2.
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Other matches were just as close, but of course there were some crushing blows as well. Two time NCAA returning finalist Jake Varner pinned Adam Fagner in 2:34. Nick Fanthorpe, who finished 7th last year at the NCAA tournament, got his first technical fall of the season at 6:24 against Flint Ray.
“Overall, I thought we looked real solid,” Sanderson said. “Utah Valley is making real strides in their program. Chris Pursell wrestled an aggressive match and dictated the tempo of the match.”
To their credit though, UVU showed up and gave the Cyclones a run. I wish I could have seen the match! UVU will have a long way to go, but I’m sure that this has given them a push in the right direction.
“Overall I was pleased with how technically sound we looked tonight,” Utah Valley head wrestling coach Greg Williams said. “What hurt us though was not being able to finish our matches. We will go back, get the tape out, and learn from our mistakes to help prepare us for Saturday.”
“Cody and Cael Sanderson are both tremendous coaches and we were very pleased and grateful for this opportunity to face so many highly-ranked individuals,” Williams added. “Tonight’s matches against such good competition will definitely help lead us down the path to prepare ourselves to meet our goals and reach nationals next year.”
The Wolverines stayed in Iowa for the weekend for the Harold Nichols Open, where six wrestlers placed in the 32 team tournament.
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