Tar Heels Wrap Up Competition In Las Vegas

Saturday, December 1

Las Vegas, Nev.

All Day

North Carolina

Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational

December 1, 2018 | Wrestling

LAS VEGAS --- Austin O'Connor's third place finish at 149 pounds helped lead North Carolina to an 11th-place finish at the 2018 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational Saturday at the Las Vegas Convention Center. O'Connor dropped his quarterfinal match to the eventual runner-up, Ohio State's Micah Jordan, but went on to win four straight matches on Saturday to earn his place on the podium.

Two other Tar Heels placed in the event: Cory Daniel (fifth place at heavyweight) and Kennedy Monday (sixth place at 157).

O'Connor started Saturday with a dominant win over Fresno State's Khristian Olivas. After he went up 2-1 after the first period, the redshirt freshman pinned Olivas at 4:02. In the consolation round of 8 match that followed, O'Connor used a pair of takedowns and a strong third period to grind out a 5-3 win, sending him to the consolation semifinals against fifth-seeded Mitch Finesilver of Duke.

There, O'Connor picked up one of the grittiest wins of his young season. Down 1-0 late the second, he scored on a late takedown to carry a 1-point lead into the third period. A tough final two minutes gave him a 3-1 win over Finesilver, sending him to the third-place match against Clarion's sixth-ranked Brock Zacherl. O'Connor ultimately won due to a medical forfeit early in the second period and wrapped up his first trip to the CKLV finishing third.

Monday faced second-seeded Ryan Deakin of Northwestern in the semifinals and dropped the match, 9-1, setting him up for consolation semifinal bout with top-seeded Tyler Berger of Nebraska. Berger scored a takedown with under 30 seconds to go in the third period to pick up a 4-3 win over the Tar Heel sophomore. That sent Monday to the fifth-place match, where he dropped a 9-2 decision to Pittsburgh's Taleb Rahmani to finish the weekend with a sixth-place finish.

Daniel dropped his semifinal match to top-ranked Gable Steveson of Minnesota, a 9-3 decision that matched him up against fellow ACC heavyweight Demetrius Thomas of Pittsburgh. A close 3-1 match went Thomas' way in overtime, sending Daniel to the fifth-place match. There, Ohio State's Chase Singletary was forced to medically forfeit and defer the fifth-place finish to Daniel.

A.C. Headlee (141), Devin Kane (174) and Chip Ness (184) all dropped their matches in the consolation round of 8.

The Tar Heels will now have a break for final exams before returning to the mat in Chapel Hill later this month. UNC will host Nebraska on December 15 at 6:30 p.m. for the first home dual of the year in Carmichael Arena.