What the Team Says: Lineup Updates, Cliff Keen Invitational Preview – CycloneFanatic.com

No. 12 Iowa State is back in action this week, traveling to Las Vegas for one of college wrestling’s toughest regular-season tournaments, the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational. The Cyclones enter the weekend as the defending champions after winning the 2023 CKLV team title.

The action begins Friday, December 6th at 11 a.m. CT.

During the weekly media availability, head coach Kevin Dresser announced that in addition to guests traveling to Las Vegas, they will be sending wrestlers to compete in the Cleveland State and Buena Vista Open tournaments.

What did Dresser say about the lineup?

125 pounds

Kysen Terukina hit Adrian Meza for the starting spot at 125 pounds and should be the starter against Iowa. However, on the Friday before the dual, Terukina woke up with a stiff neck and was quite sore. Terukina is scheduled to return Dec. 15 against North Dakota State. The plan is to redshirt Meza and have Terukina as the permanent starter.

Here’s what Dresser had to say about Meza: “Adrian did a great job. He is 8-0 and has been eliminated four times. He really stood out and did a good job for us. I love his professionalism. I love the way he approaches his weight and all that stuff. If he gets better at wrestling, like we all needed to as rookies, he has a chance to really help us down the road. He received our Wrestler of the Week award last week. We call it our big award.”

Here’s what Dresser had to say about Terukina: “We saw a guy who is really, really good. I really like the guy we’ve seen in the last 2 months, the way he approaches everything. He’s not that badly injured, but we don’t want his first weekend to be two days in Vegas because then we’ll just have to be prepared to keep him out for another three or four weeks. If the right word is babysit him, then let’s babysit him a little bit to make him feel good so that when we release him on December 15th we can just rock. If he gets it going, and I really like what I’m seeing right now, if this guy gets it going, he’s going to go a long way in March.”

141 pounds

The team had a wrestling match between the two Jacob Frost And Zach Redding. Frost earned the start at the Cliff Keen Invitational.

157 pounds

At 157, Paniro Johnson is the starter. Cody Chittum will travel to the Cleveland State Open with Coach St. John. Dresser mentioned that they need to sort out a few things regarding whether or not Chittum will redshirt.

165 pounds

The gut-punching news of the week was the 165-pounder Connor Euton He tore his cruciate ligament in the matchup against Michael Caliendo in the Cy Hawk duel. He will miss the remainder of the season and will take a medical redshirt. That gives him three more seasons with the Cyclones. Here’s what Dresser had to say: “Connor Euton showed the wrestling world how competitive and tough he is.”

MJ Gaitan will return to the starting lineup.

285 pounds

Where is Younger Bastida? Dresser shared that he is still not at 100 percent.

“Yonger went in there (Cy-Hawk dual) and probably wasn’t quite ready to go. Didn’t hurt anything serious, but didn’t help us there. So we’re probably going to sit until Nashville, December 21st,” Dresser said. “Then the doctors should release him. We didn’t hurt anything, if anything. Yonger was unable to practice at all before the game in Iowa City. He just wanted to go out there and compete and so, obviously, we’re a little banged up at the moment and sometimes it just goes in streaks and we’re in that phase.”

Cliff Keen Invitational: Starting lineup and preselection. Plus those traveling to other tournaments

“You know, what I liked last year was that we had a pretty bad loss to Iowa here at the Hilton on a Sunday and then we had to leave on Wednesday to go to Vegas. And then, Friday and Saturday, we win. You know, last year was no different than this year. Seventeen of the top 20 teams in the country will be in Las Vegas, and it was the same last year. Of course, the only teams that aren’t there are two or three really good ones: Penn State, Minnesota and Iowa,” Dresser said. “It’s good for us. Lots of questions are answered and it really is an opportunity. I mean, you know, if you do well at it as an individual, you’re in a really good place. I think Evan Frost is a perfect example. Evan reached the finals last year and played in the NCAA tournament. He was, what, a top 7 seed, top 6 seed. So he prepared his season really well. That’s why this tournament is important.”

125: Adrian Meza – No. 9
133: Evan Frost – No. 2
141: Jacob Frost – Without seeds
149: Anthony Echemendia – No. 3
157: Paniro Johnson – No. 5
165: MJ Gaitan – No. 5
174: Aiden Riggins – Without seeds
184: Evan Bockman – No. 5
197: Christian Carroll – No. 9
285: Daniel Herrera – Without seeds

Teams participating in the tournament: App State, Arizona State, Binghamton, Cal Baptist, Cal Poly, CSU Bakersfield, Columbia, Cornell, Harvard, Hofstra, Michigan, Nebraska, NC State, Navy, Northwestern, Ohio State, Ohio, Oklahoma State, Oregon State, Purdue, Reiter, Sacred Heart,
South Dakota State, Stanford, UNI, Utah Valley, Virginia Tech, West Virginia, Wyoming.

More detailed tournament information can be found here.

CLEVELAND STATE OPEN
125: Ethan Perryman
157: Cody Chittum
165: Manny Rojas
197: Sawyer Bartelt

BUENA VISTA OPEN
133: *Canon Acklin, *Osmany Diversent, Blake Gioimo, Garrett Grice
157: *Kane Naaktborne, Christian Stanek, Logan Stotts
165: *Gabe Carver
174: Cade Schmidt
184: *Cole Carlucci, Caleb Helgeson, Nando Villaescusa
197: Jacob Cates, McCrae Hagarty, *Nate Schon, Rowan Udell
285: Xavier Bruening, CJ Carter
*Wrestling added