Last night unranked Utah Valley University took on 8th in the nation Boise St. And won. UVU pulled ahead in the beginning and never looked back. It was a tough match with the end being the roughest I’ve seen. Casen Eldredge, who normally wrestles at 184 pounds, wrestled up two weight classes Boise State’s heavyweight Sam Zylstra. Going into the match, UVU was up by 5 points, 22-17. Eldredge managed to outlast and out work Zylstra for a bit, but then Zylstra caught him and held on for the win, 7-4. Even though Eldredge lost the match, it gave UVU the win 22-20.
If Eldredge delivered the win, then Freshman 174 lb. Josh Wood set it up. He defeated Levi Holt by decision, 13-8, in the second-to-last match of the dual to increase UVU’s advantage to the 22-17 that made the win possible.
Utah Valley’s Benjamin Kjar opened the dual on a good note for the Wolverines with a 13-4 major decision over Boise State’s Alan Bartelli, who beat Kjar 7-5 earlier in the season at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational. Kjar, ranked 11th in the nation at 125, improved his overall record to 25-6 and his dual record to 9-1. The junior from Centerville, Utah, recorded a takedown and three-point near fall in the opening round to lead 5-1. In the final round he tallied two takedowns, a three-point near fall, an escape and earned one point for riding time en route to the major decision.
But the upset of all upsets in the night came from 174-pound Wolverine Brad Darrington, who recorded a takedown with less than 30 seconds left in the match against No. 11 Nate Lee to win 7-6 to increase UVU’s lead to 19-11.
“It was a great win for our program,” UVU head coach Greg Williams. “First and foremost our guys came in with the mentality to go out and wrestle the best they could. Anytime you go out and beat a team ranked as high as Boise is, it is a huge win for your program.”
UVU travels to Vernal in Eastern Utah today to face #1 ranked Iowa tonight, who is undefeated, at 6:00 pm MST. UVU looks forward to the match. “We will come out against Iowa and wrestle the very best we can,” Coach Williams said. “No matter the outcome, we want to feel like we battled and gave it everything we had.”
You can check out photos of the match in our Facebook page.
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