After rolling to nine individual titles in its opening weekend in Fargo, N.D., the competition stiffened for Minnesota’s wrestling team this weekend at the Kaufman-Brand Open in Omaha, Neb.
The fifth-ranked Gophers claimed one title in Saturday’s Open Division to go along with a second place, two fourths and two fifths. Minnesota had a title and a second place in the 20-and-under bracket.
“I think it was another good weekend for us,” assistant coach Joe Russell said. “It’s good to see the guys go down with real good intensity, and go out there and fight real hard.”
Wrestlers from No. 1 Oklahoma State, No. 4 Iowa and No. 7 Iowa State competed at the tournament.
Sophomore Roger Kish, ranked sixth at 184 pounds, took first in his weight class’ Open Division bracket, going 4-0. Kish defeated Jason Lulloff from Wisconsin-La Crosse to claim the title.
“He’s been concentrating on a few things in practice,” Russell said. “And you could see in competition how he was taking what he was doing in practice and actually implementing it when he was out there competing.”
Junior 141-pounder Manuel Rivera had his second impressive weekend in a row. He went 6-2 with two pins to claim fifth in the Open Division and scored a win over returning All-American and fifth-ranked Daniel Frishkorn of Oklahoma State.
“Manny getting the win over Frishkorn was a very positive sign,” Russell said. “To finish the day out the way he did ” he still had more left in him than Frishkorn did ” and was able to show it on the mat.”
Dustin Schlatter, Minnesota’s expected starter at 149, wrestled in the 20-and-under bracket. Russell said Schlatter wrestled there because the Gophers always wrestle their true freshmen in that bracket.
“We thought about making an exception for this,” he said. “But Dustin is going to have plenty of time to wrestle all those guys in the country. So it wasn’t bad to get him five more matches and just stick to what we’ve done forever.”
Two win at Augsburg
Senior 165-pounder Matt Nagel, ranked fourth at his weight class, and junior Cole Konrad, the No. 2 heavyweight in the country, both won titles in the Auggie-Brute Adidas Open at Augsburg on Saturday.
Sophomore Mack Reiter, third in the nation at 133, was held out of the competition in preparation for the National Wrestling Coaches’ Association All-Star Classic tonight in Stillwater, Okla.
“He does have to cut more weight than those guys,” Russell said. “That making weight on Saturday then again on Monday wouldn’t be as positive for him as it was for those other two. So just having the one weigh-in for him we thought would be better this week.”
All three wrestlers will compete at the All-Star Classic, which attempts to pit the top two wrestlers in the country at each weight class against each other in a dual meet format.
Reiter will wrestle against No. 5 Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly, Nagel will go against top-ranked Johnny Hendricks of Oklahoma State and Konrad will take on Oklahoma State’s top-ranked Steve Mocco.
