After reaching the semi-finals of the National Duals Championship, Kent State fell hard to Minnesota and found itself out of the tournament.

The Flashes reached the semi-finals after defeating Rutgers 19-13 in the first round. However, they had little success against Minnesota, falling 35-3. Before the loss to the Golden Gophers, the Flashes win streak in dual meets hit 11-straight.

Minnesota, ranked No. 4 in the nation by the National Wrestling Coaches Association poll, controlled most of the dual, winning nine out of 10 matches against the Flashes. The Gophers earned a pin, a technical fall, and three major decisions in the matchup.

“Minnesota is a very good team,” coach Jim Andrassy said. “We just didn’t match up well against them.”

Junior Mallie Shuster scored the only points for the Flashes against Minnesota with an 8-4 victory. He was also the only Kent State wrestler to go 2-0 for the day.

The Flashes (13-5, 5-0 MAC) looked good at the start against Rutgers, as senior Nic Bedelyon earned an 11-0 major decision over the Scarlet Knights’ Vincent Dellafave. The dual went back and forth for a while until Kent State got back-to-back victories from Shuster and senior Ross Tice. Shuster was one point away from scoring a major decision against Dave Seidenberg, and Tice earned a 9-3 victory over Doug Hamann.

With Kent State leading 16-13 going into the final match, senior heavyweight Brendan Barlow’s match against Rutgers’ Carl Buchholz went into overtime tied at two. In the second overtime period, Barlow scored a swift takedown for the 4-2 sudden victory, securing the win for the Flashes.

Bedelyon, who is ranked No. 4 nationally in the 125-pound weight class, according to InterMat, suffered only his third loss of the season against No. 2 Zach Sanders of Minnesota. Bedelyon’s only losses this season have come against higher-ranked opponents, one loss to Sanders and two losses to No. 3 Alan Waters of Missouri.

The Gophers took the first four matches against the Flashes, two of them by major decision. After Shuster’s win, Minnesota won the last five matches.

Barlow wrestled his second overtime match of the day against Minnesota’s Anthony Nelson, who is ranked No. 4 in the nation by InterMatWrestle.com. Barlow had an early lead, but Nelson ultimately won 5-4 after a second tiebreaker.

The Flashes were once again without freshman Ian Miller, who has missed the last four meets after being injured against Central Michigan. Senior Marcel Clopton fought hard in his place but lost to two top 10 opponents.

Minnnesota went on to defeat Missouri in the finals to take first place in the National Dual regionals.

Kent State will compete in their last dual meet of the season next Saturday against Clarion University.

Contact Tim Dorst at [email protected].