Event: Las Vegas Invitational
Teams: UC Davis at UNLV
Where: Las Vegas Convention Center – Las Vegas, Nev.
When: Friday and Saturday; all day
Who to watch: Sophomore Brandon Low is off to a fast start this year. He’s earned a 3-0 record, including a 5-3 decision in the Aggies‘ upset of No. 10 Northwestern on Nov. 23.
The former Saint Louis High School star from Honolulu, Hawaii has high expectations this year and hopes to join other teammates in becoming an NCAA Division I qualifier. He’ll look to turn some heads and continue his win streak this weekend.
Did you know? Last season, UC Davis finished 20th out of the 48 teams at the Las Vegas Invitational. Two Aggies, Tyler Bernacchi and Marcos Orozco, made it to the second day of competition.
Bernacchi ended up placing eighth in his weight class, and Orozco was just one win away from a place-finish.
Preview: UC Davis is coming off its biggest win in program history against No. 10 Northwestern.
The Aggies will try and use that momentum in Las Vegas this weekend, and they’ll need it as they face six Pacific-10 teams and nine nationally ranked squads at the Invitational.
“This is probably the toughest tournament in college wrestling right now,” head coach Lennie Zalesky said. “We’ll go in there and see how tough we really are. If you can place in the top eight as a team you can earn a top-20 national ranking. It would be nice if we could earn a top 10 team finish.“
Zalesky and the Aggies have their work cut out for them, but given the way the team wrestled against Northwestern, anything is possible.
–Kyle Hyland
