Four Lions Pick Up Wins at Las Vegas Invitational

The Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational is widely regarded as one of the few quality national tournaments that allows Division I schools to compare their top wrestlers. Five Light Blue grapplers registered two wins each—a marked improvement over last season’s trip to the desert, when only one Lion earned multiple victories.

Though the Lions competed well, it was not the breakout performance that head coach Brendan Buckley prepared his team for last week.

“It’s probably the first or second most competitive tournament nationally,” Buckley said. “It went okay. It wasn’t great. I wanted us to do a little bit better than we finished, but we definitely showed we can compete on the national level.”

The surprise story of the weekend was first-year Jerome Greco, who was a late substitution for junior tri-captain Jeff Sato in the 125-pound weight class. Sato had fallen ill just prior to the tournament and Greco took over the top spot on Buckley’s depth chart.

Greco lost his first bout 3-2 against Ohio State’s Eric Wanner, but rebounded in the consolation bracket. Greco forced his second match into overtime against Marques Bravo of Western State, and eventually fought past the Buckeye with a 3-1 victory.

He then faced Brown’s Jeff Schell—a heavy favorite in the match considering his recent victory in the Empire State Open, not to mention Greco‘s inexperience. In yet another close, low-scoring match, the Light Blue first-year beat the odds makers and defeated his Ivy League competition, 3-2.

“He wrestled hard, he was definitely a wonderful surprise,” Buckley said. “We know he’s tough and works hard and he was improving as the tournament went along. We were coaching him in a certain scenario, [assistant coach] Yero [Washington] was talking him through a scenario, and he listened to his advice word for word and got a take-down. He did a great job.”

Greco finished the weekend with a 2-2 overall record after falling 4-2 to Aaron Graumann of Augustana.

Greco’s performance in the invitational is yet another indication that Columbia should be dominant in the lightweight classes throughout the season. Sato has been the starter in the 125-pound weight class, but Greco’s emergence this weekend may result in healthy competition for the top spot.

“I think it’s nothing but positive,” Buckley said. “Jerome [Greco] certainly is going to try and compete for a spot and it makes both of them better. Jerome realizes he’s ready to compete at this level in the EIWA conference, but I wouldn’t say it’s controversial at this point.”

While Greco may have to wait to be the starter, fellow first-year Derek Francavilla is getting mat time now. Francavilla, a 133-pound grappler, won his first bout of the weekend in decisive fashion. The New Jersey native recorded a pin at 2:19 against Western State’s Eddie Garza, but then ran into Cal State-Bakersfield’s stud lightweight wrestler, Matt Sanchez.

Sanchez—a returning All-American who would finish fourth overall in Vegas—overwhelmed Francavilla with a 14-2 victory. Francavilla later rebounded to finish 2-2 on the weekend.

With Sato out of commission, Columbia looked to junior tri-captain Devin Mesanko for leadership. Mesanko lost his first match to Nebraska’s B.J. Wright in a tight 6-5 decision.

“Wright was the number-three seed in the tournament and ranked ninth in the country,” Buckley said. “It was a great match, and Devin definitely out wrestled him. Wright just scored one when it counted.”

Mesanko missed an opportunity late in the match to maintain riding time against Wright. If Mesanko had ridden Wright for over a minute as the match ended, he would have been awarded a point and would have forced an overtime.

“[Wright] was really aggressive, and he’s one of the top guys in the country. But that’s a match that Devin should have won,” Buckley said.

“Wright wrestled a great match and he scored when he needed to. Those are the kind of things that make people All-American.”

The tri-captain bounced back to win his next two matches, 8-3 and 6-3, over opponents from Hofstra and Augustana, respectively. In his final match, Mesanko fell to Brown’s David Saadeh, 5-3. The two Ivy grapplers could rematch in mid-February when Columbia travels to Brown for a team meet.

“I think Devin is realizing that he is at this level,” Buckley said. “He’s wrestling the top guys in the nation and he has the ability to beat all of them.”

A reassuring sign for Light Blue fans was the return of sophomore Matt Palmer, a 165-pound wrestler who missed all of last season and the beginning of this season with a variety of injuries. Palmer had a tremendous first year, and brought a national spotlight to Columbia. This weekend, he advanced to the quarterfinals after defeating Oregon State’s Anthony Weber and Arizona State’s Pat Pitsch, 8-4 and 3-2, respectively. However, Palmer finished a modest 2-2 on the weekend.

“We brought him out there even though he’s been injured,” Buckley said. “The last time he wrestled competitively was about a year ago, and he’s only been practicing for about four weeks. We wanted him to gauge where he was at the East Stroudsburg Open [two weeks ago], but he got that concussion. We brought him out to Vegas—it’s a tough tournament to make a comeback.”

Palmer ran out of steam in the quarterfinals when he was pitted against Nebraska’s Jacob Klein, the first overall seed in the tournament. Klein pinned the Lion grappler 4:24 into the match. Palmer’s performance, though not dominant, indicates that he is well on his way to recovery and should be primed for the bulk of the regular season as well as the EIWA and national tournaments in the spring.

Buckley has always stressed the idea of “peaking at the right time,” and Palmer’s recovery could put him on schedule to do just that.

“We need to get him to a better state in terms of conditioning,” Buckley said. “Once his conditioning comes, ever ything else is going to come—his technique, his timing, and his strength. Competing was good for him because he got to figure out where he stands. I know he didn’t feel great, but I’m not worried—it’s simply a matter of time.”