The No. 18 ranked Kent State wrestling team had three champions yesterday in the big annual Michigan State Open Tournament at Jenison Field House against 22 teams, seven of which are ranked by Intermat.

Fifth-year seniors Dustin Kilgore (197 lbs.) and Casey Newburg (184 lbs.) placed 1st in the open division of the tournament in their respective weight classes. Redshirt freshman Nick Carr (149 lbs.) placed 1st in the freshman/sophomore division.

Kilgore went 4-0 with two pins and two major decisions, Newburg went 4-0 with one technical fall and three decisions and Carr went an impressive 5-0 with one pin, one technical fall, two major decisions and one decision. Newburg and Carr said they were pleased with their performances and improvement this weekend.

“I was pretty happy with how I wrestled,” Newburg said. “I knew it was gonna be a long day, so I just had to grind through.”

“I feel that I did a little better than last week, and I feel I did pretty well,” Carr said. “We train and grind through long, hard days like this at practice. The coaches have us well-prepared.”

Coach Jim Andrassy said his three champions looked pretty good yesterday, but there is still room for improvement. Even though it is still early in the season, Andrassy said he is concerned about a lack of intensity for seven minutes that some wrestlers are showing.

Andrassy said the team still needs to work on little things and keep its intensity level up. Andrassy also said that the coaches need to create real-life situations in the practice room in order to get the wrestlers accustomed to the high-intensity level of tournament matches.

“We need to work hard at making our practices as real as possible,” Andrassy said.

Another Kent State wrestler who had successful a day was redshirt freshman Clay Wegner (165 lbs.). He went 5-2 to clinch a 3rd place come-from-behind victory.

“I’m very happy,” Wegner said of his performance. “In the first round I lost to a pretty tough guy. I had to battle back and win five in a row to get a place.”

Redshirt freshman Sam Wheeler (174 lbs.) and true freshman Mimmo Lytle (285 lbs.) also had solid performances in the freshman/sophomore division. Wheeler and Lytle both went 3-1 to cap 2nd place finishes in their respective weight classes.

Saturday the Golden Flashes will travel to Annapolis, Md. for the 35th-Annual Navy Classic at Wesley Brown Field House. Preliminary rounds will begin at 10 a.m.

Contact Richie Mulhall at [email protected].