Kjar Places at Reno Tournament of Champions
Dec. 18, 2007
RENO, Nev. - Ben Kjar headlined Utah Valley wrestlers at the Reno Tournament of Champions as he finished fourth in the 125-pound weight division at the prestigious open tournament. A total of 10 UV wrestlers participated, one unattached at the tournament. Nine Wolverine grapplers won at least one match while six won multiple matches. The tournament comes at the heel of an impressive performance at a dual at UC Davis where UV battled the Anteaters down to the last match. Kjar, who was seeded fourth at in the 125 bracket, started strong by recording an 18-4 major decision victory over Sean Katz from Liberty. Kjar followed it with a 12-4 win over Cody Grant from Western Wrestling Conference foe Wyoming. After a win over Forrest Bouge from Great Falls, Kjar fell to top-seeded Tanner Gardner of Stanford. In the wrestle-back bracket, Kjar beat Mike Rodriguez of Conrnell before losing to Boris Novachkov of Cal Poly in the third-place match. Sam Allen also picked up four wins at the tournament. Impressively, Allen's strong performance came after a tough draw that included an open-round match against No. 1 seed Scott Ervin of Appalchian State. Allen fell to Ervin before winning his next four matches that included one pin. Nathan Gardner, Ramsey Nijem (unattached), Marc Fenwick and Billy Green all recorded pins for the Wolverines. The Reno Tournament marks the final tournament of 2007 for the Wolverines. Next up for Utah Valley will be its Western Wrestling Conference-opening dual--and home opener--against South Dakota State on Jan. 3. The dual starts at 7 p.m. at the Shurian Activity Center. |
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