Duke competed with the nation’s elite wrestling programs over the weekend at the Cliff Keen Wrestling Invitational in Las Vegas, Nev., scoring eight points to finish 30th out of 36 teams. Five of the top-10 ranked teams were in attendance, including unanimous No. 1 Cornell, who won the weekend with 140 points, almost 40 more than its nearest competitor.
Two Blue Devils advanced to the second day of the tournament: Bret Klopp and Diego Bencomo. Klopp, competing at 174 pounds, was knocked out in by the bracket’s No. 3 seed, Oklahoma’s Ben Bennett, in the second round. The redshirt freshman fell in his second match of the consolation bracket to the No. 8 seed Luke Manuel from Purdue. Klopp moved to 17-4 on the season, giving him the most wins on the team.
After a bye in the first round, Bencomo was knocked out of the 184-pound bracket in an 8-5 loss to San Francisco State’s Todd Noel. After three consecutive wins in the consolation bracket, he was finally ousted by No. 4 seed Luke Rebertus in a tightly-contested 5-3 decision.
Duke returns to action at the Southern Scuffle on Dec. 29th in Greensboro, N.C.
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