Tournament Bracket
HAYS, Kan. (Dec. 6) -- Dustin Finn had a dominating day in claiming the individual championship to lead a group of five Central Oklahoma placers at the Fort Hays State Open here Saturday.
Finn took the title at heavyweight, with the No. 6-ranked Bronchos also getting runner-up finishes from 133 Tim Elliott and 165 Mikey Morgan and third-place efforts from 141 Colby Robinson and 165 Derrick Adkins in the marathon tournament that lasted nearly 14 hours and saw 655 matches contested.
“It was a long, hard day,” UCO coach David James said. “We had some guys step up and get some good wins, but we made some mistakes that cost us a few others. Overall it was a pretty good day and we got a lot of mat time for some of our young kids.”
Finn scored his fourth pin of the day in the finals en route to earning the Most Falls award for the tournament.
Finn gave up an early takedown to Oklahoma's Joe Bach, but bounced back with a quick escape and then took the lead with a takedown and two-point near-fall in the final two seconds of the period. Finn built his lead to 11-3 in the third period before getting his fourth fall of the day with just 24 seconds remaining.
Morgan suffered a knee injury in the semifinals and defaulted his finals match to FHSU's Blake Malloy.
Elliott lost a wild 12-10 overtime decision to Central Missouri's Grant Baker in the finals. Baker led 2-1 after the first period, then the two combined for 15 points in the second before a Baker escape and Elliott riding time point left the two deadlocked at 10.
Elliott nearly scored a winning takedown twice in the one-minute sudden-victory period, but Baker countered an Elliott attempt in the final 10 seconds to get the win.
The top-seeded Elliott made the finals with four easy wins, opening with a first-round fall and then scoring back-to-back major decisions before needing just 15 seconds to pin Jay Kuhn of Fort Hays State in the semifinals.
Morgan, seeded fourth in the tournament and eighth in the latest Division II individual rankings, started the tournament with a fall and then had a pair of regular decisions before knocking off No. 5-ranked and top-seed Taylor May of Nebraska-Kearney in the semis.
Morgan scored a last-second takedown to tie May 3-3 and force overtime and it was a 5-5 stalemate in the second overtime when Morgan took May to his back and got the fall.
Finn, seeded No. 1 and the top-ranked heavyweight in Division II, breezed into the semis with three consecutive first-period falls before surviving a 3-1 overtime win there. He broke a 1-1 deadlock with Labette's Ben Hohensee on a reverse and then controlled Hohensee in the final 30-second period to clinch the win.
The third-seeded Robinson sandwiched two tough wins around a major decision before falling in the semifinals to No. 2 seed Jon Burns of Nebraska, but he bounced back with a 6-2 win in the consolation semis and followed with a 9-1 major decision in the bronze-medal match.
Adkins, wrestling unattached as a potential redshirt, had a 15-0 technical fall and 5-2 to make the quarterfinals before dropping a 4-3 decision there. He came back with four straight wins to claim third, highlighted by a 3-2 upset of May in the semis.
UCO had two other individuals win three matches each in making the championship semifinals, but both Matt Bryan (149) and Daniel Morrison (184) lost two straight after that.
The Bronchos end their first-semester schedule next Saturday at the Nebraska-Kearney Open.
FORT HAYS STATE OPEN
Championship Finals
133: Grant Baker, Central Missouri, dec. Tim Elliott, UCO, 12-10 (OT).
165: Mikey Morgan, UCO, by medical forfeit over Blake Malloy, Fort Hays State.
Hvy: Dustin Finn, UCO, pinned Joe Bach, OU, 6:34.
Consolation Finals
141: Colby Robinson, UCO, major dec. Cory Bloodgood, Central Missouri, 10-2.
165: Derrick Adkins, UCO (unattached), dec. Steven Towne, Grand Canyon, 3-2.
