LA GRANDE, Ore. - Mountaineer Men's Wrestling competed their first tournament of the 2021-22 season on Sunday as they hosted the annual Mountaineer Open inside Quinn Coliseum. Eastern Oregon fared well with 11 placewinners.
Out of the near baker's dozen placewinners for the Mountaineers, two grapplers were crowned champions in
Jay Smith (197 pounds) and
Noel Orozco (285 pounds. The duo combined for 34 points to highlight the day for Eastern Oregon.
Smith posted a 3-0 record on the mat to remain unbeaten at home. He started the day with a 3-0 decision over Macoy Christman of Corban University. In the semifinals, Smith pinned Curtis Strahm of Southern Oregon University in 1:12 to get to the finals. In his last match, Smith took down John White of SOU for the second time in as many days with a 9-0 major decision.
Orozco's path to a first place finish also saw him go 3-0 to keep his record unblemished inside Quinn Coliseum. He started off with a 4-1 decision over SOU's Jacob Bernstein in the quarterfinals. He then pinned another SOU wrestler, Brian Jenkins, late in the third period at exactly five minutes. In the finals, Orozco scored another decision, this time 3-1, over Charkey Hastriter of Beaver Dam RTC to close out the day.
Two grapplers earned runner-up finishes for the Mountaineers in
Adrian Guevara and
Chad Muenzer. Guevara was 2-1 at 125 pounds scoring a fall in 2:55 and a decision, 10-8, before dropping a 14-4 major decision in the first place match. Muenzer also went 2-1 at 149 pounds. He started with a 14-13 decision and picked up a pin in 6:17 to get to the finals before being pinned in 2:56.
Monte Zufelt was third at 141 pounds with a 4-1 record. He had one win come via forfeit, while his other three came via a pair of decisions and a pin. His win via a fall was at 3:44 while both of his decisions were high scoring ones of 18-13 and 18-11, respectively.
At 174 pounds,
Keegan Mulhill also went 4-1 on the day to place third. His lone loss was in the first match before he ripped off four straight wins for the top-three finish. He started and ended his win streak with major decisions, 15-3 and 11-2. In between, Mulhill earned a pinfall in 1:28 and scored a 19-2 tech fall.
Luciano Fasulo was fourth at 133 pounds going 2-2. He started the day with a 9-7 decision victory before dropping a 3-2 decision to move to the consolation bracket. He responded with an 8-0 major decision to make the third place match but was upended in a 1-0 loss.
At 184 pounds,
Kyle Knudtson also finished in the top-five, placing fourth. He went 4-2 with all four wins coming by way of pinfall. His pin times in order were 51 seconds, 55 seconds, 38 seconds, and 1:12.
Raul Ruiz had the lone fifth place finish for EOU with a 2-2 record at 125 pounds. He dropped his opening match in a 5-2 decision but responded with a pin in 1:08. His second loss was a 14-8 decision but in the fifth place match he narrowly got by with a 5-4 decision to finish the day at .500.
Rounding out the placewinners were
Malakai Moyer (165 pounds) and
Justin Wilson (285 pounds) as both grapplers placed sixth. Moyer was 3-3 with all three wins coming via a pinfall. He scored falls by times of 5:57, 1:01, and 1:24. Wilson finished 2-3 and both wins came by way of pinfall in times of 2:23 and 4:28, respectively.
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