Kent State wrestling heads to Ashland for Wendy’s Duals tournament

Alex Atkinson

The Kent State wrestlers will head to Ashland University to compete in the Wendy’s Duals this weekend.

The No. 28 Flashes are scheduled to wrestle Purdue at 12 p.m. and Campbell at 2 p.m. The team was originally scheduled to face Newbury at 10 a.m., but the Wolves were forced to pull out of the tournament because of the amount of snowfall they received.

Kent State coach Jim Andrassy said he hopes the team overcomes the matchup struggles they encountered last year against the Boilermakers, taking a 26-17 loss. Three of Purdue’s ranked wrestlers are ranked higher than their Kent State opponent, according to Wrestlingreport.com.

At the 157-pound division, the Boilermakers’ No. 19 Colton Salazar will wrestle Kent State’s No. 22 Matt Cathell. In the 174-pound division, Purdue’s No. 15 Luke Manuel matches up against the Flashes’ No. 28 Brandonn Johnson. Purdue’s No. 10 A.J. Kissel will be against Kent State’s No. 32 Casey Newburg in the 184-pound weight class.

“I think coming out of this, we’ll definitely get three wins out of our highly ranked guys: (Nic) Bedelyon, (Dustin) Kilgore and (Brendan) Barlow,” Andrassy said. “The question is, can we get bonus points somewhere and can we even get two or three more wins somewhere else?”

The Flashes round out the tournament against a young Campbell team. Andrassy said his original plan was to wrestle almost all of his backups against Newbury. Now that Newbury backed out, Andrassy said his decision to start some of his backups against Campbell depends how well his starters wrestle against Purdue.