COSTA MESA, Calif.– The Lions split their squad over the weekend, putting their mettle on display at each location. In the Cornhusker state, Vanguard had their stronger showing, with multiple wrestlers making deep runs in Saturday's Younes Hospitality Open that was hosted by the University of Nebraska-Kearney. Joseph Davis, Mason Hernandez, and Isaiah Johnson were the three Lions who made the deepest runs in their respective classes. Meanwhile, Cal State Bakersfield was the setting for the Roadrunner Open on Sunday that saw five other wrestlers compete against Division-I schools.
 
 
What Happened? 
 
Saturday in Nebraska: For Vanguard, they represented nine weight classes with their ten wrestlers. At 133-pounds, Zachary Klarcyk dropped his first match against Garret Rinken of Northern Iowa after his initial bye. However, he rebounded to win his next three matches by decision before bowing out on a rematch with the aforementioned Rinken.
 
Vanguard had another strong showing at 165 from Joseph Davis, who reached the quarterfinals with a pair of dominating performances that did not go the distance. Mason Hernandez followed suit by also reaching the quarterfinals at 174, winning his opening match by fall at 3:44. Despite dropping the quarterfinal match, Hernandez still competed by swiping a victory in his first consolation bout.
 
10 pounds above Hernandez was Marquize Brown. He dropped a low-scoring and scrappy first matchup to Kaden Hart who had the home-crowd behind him. However, Brown did well to advance in the consolation rounds, taking one match by a count of 12-5, and the other by SV-1, 11-8.
 
Asa Goff made it to round two of the 197-championship bracket with a dominant victory over Colorado Mesa's Brody Samuelson. But a fall sent Goff to the consolation rounds where he picked up a pair of victories. In the same division, Isaiah Johnson took his first two tilts, including a tremendous back-and-forth battle with Hudson Oliver of the host school to advance to the quarterfinals by a score of 22-21. However, once there, a tech-fall would be his undoing, sending him to the consolations.
 
Bryant Avila at 149 and Jovanni Evangelista at 125 both had tough draws out of the gate, although the former was able to put up 14 points on Jarret Mader of Fort Hays state in his defeat. Rafa Marquez competed at 157 for the Blue and Gold, although he was also victim to a Fort Hays State wrestler. David Baxter dropped his battle of the heavyweights, as Air Force's Soren Herzog won the second-round matchup of the 285-championship bracket.
 

 
Sunday in Bakersfield: Back in California, the Roadrunner Open saw five VU wrestlers in six litmus-test battles against Division-I programs. Three VU wrestlers had an Oregon State counterpart, while two had a Stanford wrestler. Unfortunately for Cash Port at 141, his draw saw him have to take on both: first was Oregon State's Nash Singleton before Stanford's Lain Yapoujian. Dominic Simon, in the same class, also had a tough bout, as he was forced to tango with Hayden Zinkin of the hosts. Although Vanguard was unable to secure a victory, it was a big learning moment for the program.
 
For the full breakdown, see the results tab on the schedule.
 
What was Said?  " The team wrestled really well this weekend. We were able to compete against a lot of tough competition. These tournaments showed us what we are capable of and areas that we need to improve on going forward.," relayed Head Coach Caleb Flores.
 

What's Next?  The Lions will host a quad-meet on December 6^th with Menlo, Fresno State, and UNLV coming to town. It starts at 10:00am in the Freed.