COLUMBIA, Ky.--Five Cumberland Phoenix finish on the podium for a strong showing for CU at the Blue Raider Open hosted by Lindsey Wilson on Saturday.
Rocco Horvath, Anthony Pyron, Clark Leddon, JT Oldknow, and Kadin Stutzman each earned a spot in the Top 8 of their weight class to lead Cumberland.
Horvath, Pyron, and Leddon each finished third-through-fifth at the 174 open class. Horvath was the highest finishing Phoenix on the day in third place. Horvath lost his first match of the day, but afterward settled in to rattle off four straight to take third place. On the way he defeated Leddon with a fall to get to the third place match and then bested Pyron to claim third.
Pyron took a different route and won his first match, but lost in semis to Tyler Brandt from Life who defeated Horvath. Pyron then picked up to wins before losing to Horvath in the third place match.
Leddon also won his first match to advance to the semis, but lost by a tech fall to head to the consolations. He then lost to Horvath, but regrouped to pin Caleb Cordino in the fifth place match.
Oldknow took fifth place at the 184 weight class. He won with a pin in the first round, but fell to Gavin Bell from Ohio State in the quarters to fall to the consolation bracket. He also regrouped with a fall and a tech fall to advance to the consolation semis, but lost via major decision to Myles Starke from Life. He claimed fifth by pinning David Gilbert from Thomas More.
Stutzman also took fifth place claiming it in the 197-weight class. He won his first round match, but lost via tech fall to Luke Geog from Ohio State in the quarters. He won the next two matches by a fall and a decision before losing in the consolation semis. He posted a pin in the fifth place match to end his day on the podium.
The full results from the open can be found here: https://www.trackwrestling.com/opentournaments/MainFrame.jsp?newSession=false&TIM=1674958084808&pageName=%2Fopentournaments%2FTeamResults.jsp&twSessionId=ruqmwojgjo.
Cumberland has a big week coming up as the Phoenix will take on #20 Cumberlands on Monday before hosting #18 Thomas More and #13 Lindsey Wilson on Friday.
