Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational 184 lbs Preview (12/3-4/21)

 

There are two wrestlers going for their fourth CKLV medal this season and ironically enough they are both at 184 lbs.  In all there are four returning place-winners & 11 ranked wrestlers, including two in the top 10. 

My heart sinks a little as I just found out, as in right now, that Michigan's Myles Amine will not be participating in this year's CKLV.  He would have been one of only two three time place-winners going for his fourth medal.  Nevertheless he'll still finish out his career with CKLV finishes of 3rd-3rd-Champion, as he will go for this fifth NCAA medal in March. 

The other three time CKLV place-winner going for his fourth is Nebraska's Taylor Venz who as noted in the picture above is thus far 3rd-2nd-5th in his career. He not only looks for this fourth medal, but his first CKLV championship. 

Other contenders for the CKLV title include Cal Poly's Bernie Truax, Cornell's Jonathan Loew and Wyoming's Tate Samuelson.   With that said, the Darkhorses to look at here are Ohio State's Rocky Jordan who owns a 3-2 victory over Venz, Princeton's Travis Stefanik who owns a 10-4 victory over Loew and Darrien Roberts who owns a 5-3 s.v. over Samuelson. 

With that noted, upsets could the story of 184 lbs CKLV.  Utah Valley's Hunter Cruz already owns a 6-4 victory over Stefanik and we all know the capabilities of David Key of Navy, Kaleb Romero of Ohio State and  Max Lyon of Purdue. 

It's not lost on me that Oregon State's Trey Munoz probably won't be participating, but I included on my list because if he is, he is a serious threat towards a top 8 placing. 

Lastly I will say that the guy to watch in this bracket could very well be Michigan's Jelani Embree. Already a CKLV place-winner, Embree is behind Amine in the Wolverine lineup. This would be a grand opportunity for him to prove himself as one of the best backups in the country and show the wrestling world the force he'll be in the 2022-2023 season. 

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