Michigan State University
Michigan State Open
Javier Gasca Wins 133-Pound Title at MSU Open
11/15/2015 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
EAST LANSING, Mich. â€" Ten Spartans placed, including a first-place showing at 133 pounds by Javier Gasca, as the Michigan State wrestling team hosted the annual MSU Open at Jenison Field House on Sunday. In addition, redshirt freshman Shane Shadaia won the 174-pound title in the freshman/sophomore division.
Complete brackets of the tournament, which featured 31 teams and eight Big Ten schools, are available at TrackWrestling.com. No team scores were kept.
"Well, this is No. 21 for me (MSU Opens)," said head coach Tom Minkel, who is in his 25th and final season at Michigan State. "I thought this was one of the largest fields that we've had and maybe the toughest in terms of the overall competition. It was a good tournament and ran really smoothly, and a lot of that has to do with (head coach designate) Roger Chandler, who handles a big part of the load in getting this done."
Gasca went a perfect 5-0 and started the tournament with three consecutive pins (Tom Szmula, Notre Dame-Ohio, 6:28; Zak Hassan, Ohio, 4:28; Jens Lantz, Wisconsin, 6:52). Gasca beat Jaydin Clayton of Missouri in the semifinals, 11-4, and rallied to top Central Michigan's Corey Keener in the championship match, 9-6. Keener was an NCAA qualifier last season.
Gasca got caught trying to make a move in the first period and quickly fell behind Keener, 6-0, after giving up four near-fall points. The redshirt sophomore from Kingsburg, California, clawed back with an escape and a takedown of his own with 30 seconds left in the period to trim his deficit to 6-3. In the second, Gasca escaped, then tied the match at 6 with a double-leg takedown on the edge of the circle just before Keener went out of bounds with 27 seconds remaining. Gasca completed the comeback with a single-leg takedown at the 1:32 mark in the final period and tacked on a point for riding time (2:02) to make the final 9-6.
"It was a good test today, the process went well," Gasca remarked on his performance. "This is a tough tournament. (In the final) I got thrown on my back out of nowhere, but I just had to stay calm and not worry about it, and wrestle like the score was 0-0 and work it from there. I'm excited; I think it's going to be a fun season."
"Javier is the real deal," said Minkel. "He got down 6-0 in the first minute and a half, but he kept his composure and came back to win, and that's not easy to do. For him to be down and find a way to finish is really an indication of his level of talent. Sometimes things just don't go well from the beginning and you have to find a way to get it done, and he did that. He had a heck of a tournament, I'm really proud of him."
At 165 pounds, redshirt sophomore Dean Vettese took sixth. After falling in his first match, Vettese rattled off four straight wins, including two falls and a major, before dropping a close 5-4 decision to Indiana's Devin Skatzka in the sixth-place match.
In the freshman/sophomore division, Logan Griffin went 5-1 to take fifth place at 125 pounds. Griffin won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals, and after his lone loss, he bounced back to record two pins in the consolation round before defeating Northwestern's Anthony Rubinetti, 12-6, in the fifth-place match.
Two Spartans placed in the 149-pound bracket in the freshman/sophomore division: Mark Bozzo (fourth) and Austin Thompson (seventh). Bozzo notched victories in his first three matches to reach the semifinals, but dropped his final two bouts to finish in fourth. Thompson went 4-2 and placed seventh following a medical forfeit in the seventh-place match.
Logan Ritchie took sixth at 165 pounds with a 4-2 record.
Shane Shadaia won the 174-pound title, beating Bucknell's Nick Stephani in the final, 7-2. Shadaia also beat Devan Richter of Muskegon Community College (9-7), Ryan Patchin of Notre Dame-Ohio (3-2 TB1) and Matthew Striegel of Missouri (7-1) en route to the championship.
Shane's brother, Shwan, took runner-up at 184 after going 3-1 but falling in the championship bout, 6-4, to Wisconsin's Hunter Ritter.
At 197, Matthew Okaiye also placed runner-up with a 3-1 showing and Jimmy Russell took fourth with a 2-1 record.
"We've got a really young team," commented Minkel. "A lot of the kids are new to this level of wrestling, so they kind of have to hurry up and learn, and that's not easy. But this team is really coachable and they made significant progress from last week to this week. We're going to have to keep making those significant improvements each and every week. That's our plan, and the kids are up for it. They have a great attitude and they're great athletes. They're just a little young, but they will gain some experience here as we move along."
Michigan State returns to action on Dec. 2 for its first home dual of the season against Eastern Michigan at 6 p.m.
Players Mentioned
