Cedar Falls, Iowa – The No. 9 Minnesota State wrestling team traveled to Cedar Falls, Iowa to compete in the UNI Open Saturday. The Mavericks placed two wrestlers in a tournament littered with Division I teams. Junior David Demo (125 lbs) and freshman Alphonso Vruno (133 lbs) were the two Mavericks to place in the highly-competitive tournament.
After receiving a first-round bye, Demo pinned Mitch Funk (Upper Iowa) at 4:06. After falling to Jesse Delgado (Illinois), Demo rebounded to pin Dominique Price (Purdue) at 4:37 and defeated Jordan Kingsley (Minnesota) 3-1. Demo lost his last two matches to finish sixth.
Vruno opened the tournament 3-0 as he defeated RJ Hallman (Iowa State) in a 14-2 major decision, Randy Hanson (Minnesota) in a 7-1 decision and a 2-0 OT win over Logan Arlis (Illinois). After falling to Joe Colon (Unattached), Vruno defeated Tyler Willers (Northern Iowa) in a 15-3 major decision. Vruno fell in a rematch against Arlis 4-0 in the third-place match.
Other Maverick standouts on the day included Cody Quinn (165 lbs) and CJ Hays (197 lbs); both grapplers lost in the fifth-round of the consolation bracket. Quinn opened the tournament with back-to-back decision wins over Colbey Vance (Upper Iowa) and Max Krieger (Iowa State) 9-6 and 3-0 respectively. After falling to Conrad Polz (Illinois), Quinn rebounded to defeat Jeffrey Weiss (Indianapolis) 4-1, before being defeated by Cooper Moore (Northern Iowa) 15-0 in his final match of the day.
After falling to Jared Bartel (Northern Iowa) in his opening match, Hays won three consecutive matches before falling to Timmy McCall (Wisconsin). Hays’ wins included a pin of Tyler Rios (Ellsworth, an OT decision over Abe Graziano (Unattached) and a forfeit over Phil Hanus (Wartburg).
Other Mavericks in competition today included Nathan Hennes (133 lbs), Jeremy Kelly (141 lbs), Thomas Allen (149 lbs), Jacob Revier (149 lbs), Alex Folk (157 lbs), Brad Maas (157 lbs), Sawyer Hoffman (157 lbs), Brandon Pederson (174 lbs), Brendan Eichmann (174 lbs), Peter Estrada (174 lbs), Nathan Hennes (197 lbs), Dan Lovik (285 lbs), Don Dawson (285 lbs), and Corby Running (285 lbs).
MSU will travel Reno, Nevada next weekend to compete in the Reno Tournament of Champions.