#4 Men's Wrestling 1/18/2014 10:53:00 PM

Skates of OCU wins Missouri Valley Invitational title

Five Stars place in open tournament

Zach Skates took his fourth career tournament title at OCU.

MARSHALL, Mo. – Zach Skates of Oklahoma City University copped the 157-pound title in the Missouri Valley Invitational on Saturday at the Burns Athletic Complex.
Five Stars placed in the event. Ricky McCarty at 149 pounds and Derek Sivertsen at 174 took runner-up.
Cody Sivertsen finished third place at 184, while Adrian Gaines also took fourth at 125 for OCU.
Skates, a sophomore from Broken Arrow, Okla., captured his fourth tournament crown and placed in a tournament for the 11th time in 13 tournaments with OCU. In clash of ranked 157-pounders, Skates took the title with a 5-3 triumph over Dallas Houchins of Grand View (Iowa). Skates is ranked fifth in the NAIA, while Houchins is seventh.
En route to winning the tournament, Skates notched all bonus-point victories. Skates advanced to the title bout with a 14-4 win over Christian Loges of Maryville (Mo.). Skates also beat Jared Sterling of Missouri Valley 19-8 after rolling past Leland Slawson of Briar Cliff (Iowa) 26-11.
McCarty, a freshman from Lawton, Okla., was pinned by Jake Ekster of Missouri Valley in the championship match. Ekster is ranked No. 1 among NAIA 149-pounders, while McCarty holds the No. 11 spot in the ratings. McCarty made the title match with an 8-3 win over David Kellogg of Grand View.
Sivertsen, a freshman from Moore, Okla., dropped a 14-4 major decision to Maryville's Zeb Wahle for the 174-pound title. Sivertsen upended Riley Boomer of Missouri Valley 9-2 to get to the championship match. Boomer is ranked eighth in the NAIA. Sivertsen also pinned Aaron Hovey of Midland (Neb.).
OCU faces Central Oklahoma at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Abe Lemons Arena.
Results

Print Friendly Version