Sooners Set to Compete in Cliff Keen Invitational

¹⁸ Oklahoma

Cliff Keen Invitational

Friday-Saturday, Dec. 3-4 / All Day / Las Vegas, Nev. / Las Vegas Convention Center

FloWrestling / Live Stats (TrackWrestling) / Match Notes

Projected Lineup (Rankings by FloWrestling)
No. 18 Oklahoma
Wt.	Result	Record
125	Jack Creamer	0-2
141	Zack Zeamer	2-3
149	No. 16 Mitch Moore	5-2
157	No. 17 Justin Thomas	2-1
165	Joe Grello	0-1
174	Anthony Mantanona	6-1
184	No. 18 Darrien Roberts	6-1
197	No. 6 Jake Woodley	7-0
285	No. 18 Josh Heindselman	3-3

NORMAN - Oklahoma wrestling travels west this weekend to compete in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Wrestling Invitational in its second tournament of the season.

The Sooners (2-1, 2-0 Big 12) have competed at Cliff Keen in five of the last seven years. OU claimed the team title in the 32nd edition of the tournament in 2013, with three wrestlers claiming the title in their weight classes.

Last Time Out

The last Sooners road trip included stops in Tempe, Ariz., and Greeley, Colo., to face off with No. 7 Arizona State and Big 12 foe Northern Colorado. Oklahoma split the two duals, falling 22-12 to the Sun Devils but knocking off UNCO 30-7 two days later to improve to 2-0 in Big 12 action.

Anthony Mantanona, Darrien Roberts and Jake Woodley anchored the squad, with all three wrestlers going undefeated on the weekend. Mantanona won both of his matches via major decision, Roberts secured his first pin of the season and Woodley earned a top-10 win over Arizona State's Kordell Norfleet along with a major decision in the Northern Colorado match to remain undefeated on the year.

Our Last Appearance at Cliff Keen

The Sooners last competed in Vegas at the 2019 Cliff Keen Invitational where four Sooners place en route to a top-10 team finish. Dom Demas finished third at 141 pounds, while Woodley, Tony Madrigal and Justin Thomas all finished inside the top six.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 edition of the tournament was not held.

Tournament Info

Competition starts at 11:00 a.m. CT Friday and will conclude with the championship finals at 5 p.m. Saturday.

Live results and brackets will be available on TrackWrestling and all matches will be streamed live on FloWrestling.

Scouting the Field

The tournament is slated to host 26 teams in the 2021 event, once again producing one of the most difficult fields in collegiate wrestling.

Of the 26 teams, 10 are currently ranked by the NWCA, including No. 4 Michigan, No. 8 Ohio State, No. 9 Nebraska, No. 11 Cornell, No. 12 Minnesota, No. 15 Purdue, No. 18 Oklahoma, No. 20 Princeton, No. 24 Northwestern and No. 25 Stanford. Three more teams received votes in this week's poll: Cal Poly, Oregon State, and Wyoming.

Tournament Team

Oklahoma's last tournament action came in the Michigan State Open at the start of the season. OU sent 16 wrestlers to East Lansing and came home with three titles, six finalists and a 38-23 record on the weekend.

Joey Prata, Madrigal and Woodley all brought home hardware from the season opener. It was the second career MSU Open title for Woodley.

Mitch Moore, Mantanona and Heindselman all made it to the final match of their respective brackets, taking home second-place. Darrien Roberts battled through the consolation bracket at 184 pounds to take third.

Sooners in the Rankings

Oklahoma comes into this weekend of tournament action as the No. 18-ranked team in the country according to the National Wrestling Coaches Association.

The three primary wrestling rankings (Flo/Intermat/OpenMat) selected a host of Sooners in their rankings once again this week. FloWrestling tabbed eight Oklahoma starters as top-25 wrestlers in their respective weight classes, with one more as an honorable mention, while Open Mat ranked six Sooners inside of its top 33.

For the fourth straight week, Intermat ranks a Sooner in every weight class. Oklahoma is one of six programs nationally who is represented in all 10 weight classes and one of three in the Big 12.

For updates, follow @OU_Wrestling on Twitter or like Oklahoma Wrestling on Facebook.