North Carolina
Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational
Carolina Wrestlers Finish 13th at Las Vegas Invitational
December 3, 2000 | Wrestling
Dec. 3, 2000
The University of North Carolina wrestling team earned a 13th place finish at the Las Vegas Invitational on Dec. 1-2. The Tar Heels finished competition with 63.5 points, only .5 points behind Pittsburgh and Virginia Tech who were tied for eleventh place with 64 points. Illinois won the tournament with 140 points, with Lehigh and Nebraska finishing in a second-place tie with 101.5 points.
JohnMark Bentley was the highest placing Tar Heel with a third-place finish in the 149 lbs. weight class. Bentley, seeded fifth, defeated Cedric Hayman of Cal-Poly 2-0 to take third-place honors. In his opening match, Bentley defeated Brown's Clint Frease by fall in 6:01 and scored a 20-7 major decision over Brandon Stockert of Western State Colorado in his second match. Bentley then won a 9-1 major decision over Bakersfield's Thomas Juarez before suffering a narrow 5-4 defeat to Edinboro's Ryan Shapert in the quarterfinals. Bentley proved unstoppable in the consolation bracket, however, defeating Cornell's Gabe Webster 10-0, Michigan's Mike Kulozycki by fall in 1:13 and Air Force's Scott Frohart 10-3 before defeating Hayman for third-place honors.
Chuckie Connor also had a great tournament for the Tar Heels, finishing fourth in the 125 lbs. weight division. Connor was seeded third in the division and started things out by defeating ACC rival Phil Niklowicz of Virginia 13-1 in his first match. Connor then scored a 14-3 major decision over Harvard's Kevin El-Hayek to make it to the quarterfinals. Connor came up short against Michigan's A.J. Grant in the quarterfinals, losing by a 9-1 margin, but rebounded in the consolation bracket by beating the second seed, Bakersfield's Ruben Deleon, by fall in 0:37. Connor then defeated fourth-seeded Ryan Escobar of Illinois 9-1 and Nebraska's Jason Powell 10-4 to make it to the third-place match where Connor fell to Georgia's Shawn Williams 7-3.
Corey Bell was another Tar Heel placing at the tournament. Bell won seventh-place honors in the 174 lbs. weight class, defeating Cornell's Jim Stanec 9-3 in the seventh-place match. Bell took an 8-6 decision over Buffalo's Garrett Bontempo and a 6-2 decision over Pittsburgh's Brendan O'Connell in his first two matches before falling to Ben King of Illinois 4-2 in the quarterfinals. In the consolation bracket, Bell earned a 9-0 decision over Terry Parham of Air Force before losing to Wyoming's Steven Schenk 5-3. Bell then defeated Stanec to win seventh-place honors.
Heavyweight Matt Kenny won his first two matches by fall, pinning Central Washington's Jess Workman in 2:11 and Northern Colorado's Tony Schunke in 2:16 before falling to Josh Pearce of Edinboro 3-2 and Air Force's Kevin Hoy by injury defeat.
Also competing for Carolina were Jake Reynolds (165 lbs.), Nick Richmond (184 lbs.), Clint Osborn (197 lbs.), Mike Booth (141 lbs.), Chris DiGuiseppe (157 lbs.) and Brad Byers (133 lbs.). Byer was seeded fourth in the 133 lbs. class but an injury caused him to lose matches by injury defeat and medical forfeit.
The Tar Heels next see action on December 29-30, when they travel to Chicago for Midlands and to Orlando for the Sunshine Open. Carolina then returns to Chapel Hill to host Lehigh in the first dual meet of the season.
