LAS VEGAS, Nev. — Junior 174-pound Spencer Carey (Ringwood, N.J.) and junior 149-pound Jared Prince (Safety Harbor, Fla.) finished fifth and eighth at their respective weight classes to guide the Navy wrestling team to a 17th-place finish at the 2018 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational on Saturday.

Second-ranked Ohio State took the team title (148.0) with seven of its 10 wrestlers placing, including three crowned champions. Missouri (115.5), Nebraska (105.5), Northern Iowa (84.5) and Michigan (82.5) rounded out the top five. Navy, meanwhile, finished 17th with 48 points, just 4.5 points behind Virginia. The Mids placed 22nd a year ago with 40 points and had just one placewinner (four-time NCAA qualifier Jadaen Bernstein, fifth at 174 pounds).

"This weekend was a great test for our team to evaluate its progress since our first competition," said fifth-year Navy head coach Joel Sharratt.  "This group of young men has continued to grow and come closer together and the mortar from this weekend continues to galvanize the belief in one another and the capability of 10 guys performing to the best of their ability.  

"Individually, these guys have a great deal of talent and that showed this weekend in many of our matches with several upsets over nationally-ranked opponents. Spencer Carey at 174 and Casey Cobb at 133 come to mind as surpassing expectations from the national ranking perspective. However, we also continued to make some mistakes that have made our results inconsistent from an individual standpoint and that is holding the team's success back at this time. The challenge I have put forth to the team is to internalize performance and those habits that consistently produce the results we are looking for. Each guy must hold himself accountable to our performance standards for us to be a successful program."

The Highlights
• The tournament featured 43 teams, including 17 programs ranked among the top 25 in the country and five of the top 10.  Additionally, nearly 100 ranked wrestlers were in action.
• Three Navy wrestlers - #9 Nicholas Gil (141), Jared Prince (149) and Spencer Carey (174) - advanced to the second day of action at the CKLV Invitational.
• Four Navy wrestlers made it to the round of 16 and two - Nicholas Gil and Spencer Carey - advanced to the quarters.
• Spencer Carey, unranked, earned perhaps the two biggest victories of the tournament for the Mids. On Friday, Carey pinned 13th-ranked Dylan Lydy of Purdue (6:41) in the round of 16. Then on Saturday, he scored a 13-3 major decision over 18th-ranked Kimball Bastian  of Utah Valley.
• Spencer Carey faced nationally-ranked wrestlers in five of his seven bouts at the tournament, finishing with a 5-2 overall mark and 4-1 in the matches against nationally-ranked foes.
• Jared Prince missed last year's CKLV Invitational due to injury and nearly was a repeat this year. Prince wrestled in the Mids' 2018 opener, but missed the next several weeks with an injury and made his first appearance since that Nov. 3 match against Ohio State.
• Seeded 12th, Prince put together a 4-3 mark over the course of the tournament to place eighth. All three of his losses were foes ranked among the top 10 (12-6 vs. #6 Max Thomsen, Northern Iowa; 7-3 vs. #7 Mitch Finesilver, Duke; 5-3 vs. #9 Austin O'Connor, North Carolina).
• One of four Navy wrestlers to get to the round of 16, 133-pound Casey Cobb lost a 3-2 decision in the round of 16 to drop down to the consolation bracket.
• Nicholas Gil came up just one bout shy of placing. After jumping out to a 2-1 lead on Virginia's Samuel Krivus in Saturday morning's consolation round of 8 (#2), Krivus took advantage of a misstep by Gil an pinned the nation's ninth-ranked 141-pounder.

What's Ahead
• The Mids will wrestle their final match before stepping away for final exams and the holiday break when they make the short trip to College Park, Md. to face Maryland next Friday.  
• The dual between the two in-state rivals is slated to begin at 7:00 pm and will be held at the XFINITY Center.

Team Standings
1 - 148.0 - Ohio State (2)
2 - 115.5 - Missouri (6)
3 - 105.5 - Nebraska (12)
4 - 84.5 - Northern Iowa (18)
5 - 82.5 - Michigan (5)
6 - 79.5 - Minnesota (10)
7 - 77.0 - Pitt (24)
8 - 70.0 - Utah Valley (22)
9 - 66.5 - Rutgers (25)
10 - 65.5 - Purdue (15)
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17 - 48.0 - Navy


Navy Results at 2018 Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational
125:  Jacob Allen (0-2)
Round of 32: lost to #20 Gabriel Townsell, Stanford / Dec / 10-3
Cons. Round of 32 #2: lost to Tyshawn White, Clarion / Tech Fall / 17-2

133:  Casey Cobb (3-2)
Round of 64: def Colin Valdivez, Northwestern / Dec / 2-1
Round of 32: def Joey Revelli, Western Wyoming / Dec / 6-2
Round of 16: lost to Noah Gonser, Campbell / Dec / 3-2
Cons. Round of 16 #2: def Anthony Le, Stanford / Major / 12-4
Cons. Round of 8 #1: lost to Sean Nickell, Cal State Bakersfield / Major / 13-4

141:  #9 Nicholas Gil (3-2)
Round of 64: def Carlos Herrera, Cal State Bakersfield / Dec / 7-3
Round of 32: def Michael Venosa, Cornell / Dec / 10-3
Round of 16: def Jack Mutchnik, American, Dec / 2-1
Quarterfinals: lost to #8 Josh Alber, Northern Iowa / Dec / 2-1 TB
Cons. Round of 8 #2: lost to Samuel Krivus, Virginia / Fall / 3:34

149:  Jared Prince (4-3, 8th Place)
Round of 32: def Jaron Jensen, Wyoming / Tech Fall / 17-2
Round of 16: lost to #7 Mitch Finesilver, Duke / Dec / 7-3
Cons. Round of 16 #2: def Matthew Ontiveros, Utah Valley / Fall / 6:41
Cons. Round of 8 #1: def Malik Amine, Michigan / Major / 13-5
Cons. Round of 8 #2: def #4 Grant Leeth, Missouri / Med Forfeit
Cons. Round of 4: lost to #9 Austin O'Connor, North Carolina / Dec / 5-3
7th Place: lost to #6 Max Thomsen, Northern Iowa / Dec / 12-6

157:  Connor Prince (0-1)
Round of 32: lost to Nick Knutson, North Dakota State / Injury 5:44
Cons. Round of 16 #1: (lost to) Isaiah Hokit, Fresno State / Med Forfeit

165:  Tanner Skidgel (2-2)
Round of 32: lost to #17 Jonathan Viruet, Brown / Major / 14-0
Cons. Round of 16 #1: def Bret Fedewa, Central Michigan / Major / 8-0
Cons. Round of 16 #2: def Kaleb Romero, Ohio State / Med Forfeit
Cons. Round of 8 #1: lost to Jake Wentzel, Pitt / Dec / 9-2

174:  Spencer Carey (5-2, 5th Place)
Round of 32: def Taylor Cahill, Clarion / Dec / 3-1 SV
Round of 16: def #13 Dylan Lydy, Purdue / Fall / 6:41
Quarterfinals: lost to #11 Michael Labriola, Nebraska / Dec / 6-2
Cons. Round of 8 #2: def Devin Kane, North Carolina / Dec / 11-5
Cons. Round of 4: def #18 Kimball Bastian, Utah Valley / Major / 13-3
Cons Semifinals: lost to #9 Taylor Lujan, Northern Iowa / Fall / 1:57
5th Place: def #13 Dylan Lydy, Purdue / Med Forfeit

184:  Alex Benoit (2-2)
Round of 32: lost to Will Sumner, Utah Valley / Fall / 3:42
Cons. Round of 16 #1: def Ben Gore, Highline College / Fall / 1:54
Cons. Round of 16 #2: def Jacob Cooper, Cal Baptist / Dec / 7-3
Cons. Round of 8 #1: lost to Colbey Harlan, Stanford / Dec / 6-4

197:  Joshua Roetman (2-2)
Round of 64: def Nezar Haddad, Hofstra / Fall / 6:16
Round of 32: lost to #13 Christian Brunner, Purdue / Major / 12-2
Cons. Round of 16 #1: def Connor Kirkland, Western Wyoming / Dec / 7-3
Cons. Round of 16 #2: lost to #8 Nathan Traxler, Stanford / Major / 15-6

285:  Thomas Ott (1-2)
Round of 64: def Jamarcus Grant, Oregon State / Dec / 2-1 SV
Round of 32: lost to John Borst, Virginia Tech / Dec / 3-1
Cons. Round of 16 #1: lost to Patrick Grayson, Nebraska / Dec / 3-0

### Go Navy ###