BRISTOL, Tenn. – Competing in the third fourth open tournament in as many weeks, and their final open before having a couple weeks off, the King University men's wrestling team turned in a stellar performance at their own King University Open. The Tornado had 12 wrestlers place, and were led by Andrew Lutterloh who won his weight class and Frank Yattoni IV who took second.
At 285 pounds, Lutterloh started his day with a win on a fall over Cody Vandeline of Limestone College in 1:08 before topping Daniel Adkins of Newberry College 8-4 in the semifinals. In the finals he faced teammate Cody Davis who was wrestling unattached, and Lutterloh took a narrow 4-2 victory in overtime to take the title. At the same weight class, Josh Mackey won his first two bouts of the day on falls before dropping a 4-0 decision to Davis. Mackey won his consolation semifinal bout on a fall in 4:20 over Patton Gossett (unattached) of Newberry. However, he fell to Matt Colter of Newberry on a tough 4-3 decision in the third place bout.
Yattoni earned a 6-2 decision over Ike Podell of Liberty University to start his day at 141 pounds. He then topped Limestone's Henry Majano 2-1 to advance to the semifinals before defeating Nick Lankford of Newberry 5-4 to reach the finals. In the finals he faced Ryan Skonieczny who took an 8-4 decision to give Yattoni a runner-up finish. Jesse Masters had a solid performance at 184 pounds, taking third place. He fell in his first bout of the day before rolling off four straight wins to take third. He started the roll with a win by fall in 1:48 over David Kieta of Limestone before taking a major decision, 10-0 over Liberty's Patrick Good. He capped the day with back-to-back wins by fall, first defeating Alex Cox of Liberty in 2:33 before Oklahoma City's Jacob King in 2:51.
At 174 pounds, Trevor Wentt faced some adversity, dropping his first bout of the day, but battled back to take fourth place. He earned a 3-2 decision over Joey Cable before defeating Samuel Kysor (unattached) of USC Upstate 12-5, and he advanced to the third place match with a 3-2 decision over Liberty's Josh Sturgill. However, Jared Bass of Oklahoma City University defeated Wentt 3-2, giving the senior a fourth place finish.
Just as Wentt and Masters did, Jon Boatman fell in his first match of the day, but fought his way back through the consolation bracket. The freshman started his run with a win by fall in 1:18 over Coulton Parker of Oklahoma City before topping Kyle Lowe of Limestone 2-0. After falling in the semifinals on a 2-0 decision to Josh Epperson (unattached) of Newberry, he defeated Michael Bedard (unattached) of Belmont Abbey College 6-3 to take fifth place.
Wrestling at 165 pounds, Travis Edwards started his day with wins over Belmont Abbey's Octavia Rivera (7-4) and Cody Richmond of Liberty on a fall in 4:27. However, he then fell to teammate JA Jones, who was wrestling unattached in the semifinals. Edwards then fell to Limestone's Jimmy Sandlin in the consolation semifinals before bouncing back to defeat Ricky McCarty of Oklahoma City on a 16-0 technical fall to take fifth place. Jones finished runner-up as he dropped a 7-2 decision to Newberry's Gilmore in the finals.
Wrestling as unattached, Jeremy Miller and Landon Reed had good days at 149 pounds. Reed won his first two bouts to advance to the semifinals where he fell to Seiji Borja of Newberry. He rebounded to win his two consolation bracket bouts, on a fall in 1:25 over Codi Roghermel of Newberry and a 6-5 decision over Melchiseda LaVerne to take third place. Miller dropped his first bout of the day, and won three straight matches before falling to LaVergne in the consolation semifinals. He then topped Rothermel 3-1 to take fifth place.
Also wrestling unattached, Eldon Valery finished third at 197 pounds. He defeated Brad Hebb-Sankey of Newberry 8-1 in the consolation semifinals before defeating Belmont Abbey's Matthew Perez 8-1 in the third place bout.
King will be in action again on December 13-14 when they travel to the Midwest Classic in Indianapolis, Indiana.
