There was one concern for the Flashes going into the first day of the Kent State Duals: Kyle Conel.

The 197-pounder approached the mat for his matchup against Lindsey Wilson’s Lucas Miozza with a large bandage on his shoulder. The match was stopped for an injury timeout at one point when Conel tried to roll over Miozza, appearing to reaggravate the injury.

“I took an injury timeout to get my composure,” Conel said. “It hurt a little bit, but not that bad.”

Conel went on to win the match, 20-4. It appeared he was favoring his shoulder throughout the entire match.

“It happened a couple months ago,” Conel said about the shoulder injury. “I’m still working through it. It’s feeling better. I have to figure it out. I have to change up my style a bit. I can’t really do my upper body right now.”

Conel was not supposed to wrestle Friday due to the injury.

“Initially, I told my coaches I was just going to make weight today just for myself so I could get used to it,” Conel said. “So I made weight and I thought, ‘Oh OK, just one match to get the feel for it,’ and then I talked to my coaches and they were fine with it.”

The Flashes went on to finish the day 3-1 as a team. Their lone loss came to Ashland, 21-15.

“We tried a number of guys out,” assistant coach Dan Mitcheff said. “We still wanted to come away with a win against Ashland, but getting guys experience was important today, and you can see that a lot of our guys have potential.”

Another highlight was the competition at 125 pounds between sophomores Tony Gutierrez and Jake Ferri.

“They are both going to be wrestling throughout the year,” Mitcheff said. “Right now, they are very close and having them push each other throughout the year is going to make them both better. We were happy with their performance today.”

The Flashes will return to the Kent State Field House next Friday for the Frenzy at the Field House, where they will take on CSU Bakersfield, Wisconsin and Big 10 powerhouse Iowa.

Ian Kreider is the sports editor. Contact him at [email protected].