Gibson, Reader Claim Crowns at Hokie Open

SALEM, Va. - Iowa State senior Jon Reader steamrolled the competition on his way to a first-place finish at the Hokie Open Sunday at the Salem Civic Center, but ISU newcomer Matt Gibson made sure that Reader was not the only Cyclone to capture a title.

Reader picked up where he had left off on Saturday, by absolutely dominating the opposition. The senior picked up two technical falls and two pins en route to the title at 174 pounds.

Iowa State heavyweight Matt Gibson did not allow a single point on his road to the championship match. He earned a rematch with the wrestler that had bested him only 24 hours before. This time Gibson took it to Virginia Tech's 12th rated Dave Marone, and came out on top 11-8.

"After Matt's match Saturday the coaching staff sat down with him and told him what we expect of him," ISU head coach Kevin Jackson said. "He really grasped what we told him and beat a very tough guy in the finals."

"It felt great to get a quick pin in the semi-finals which I believe gave me a boost for the finals," Gibson said. "It was great to beat a good wrestler in the finals, but I think that I can only get better from here on out."

In one of the most anticipated weight classes of the entire tournament, the top two seeds Dustin Kilgore and Jerome Ward met in the finals of the 197-pound weight class. Ward fell into an early hole and despite a comeback late in the match, fell 9-7 to the Kent State All-American.

Nate Carr continued to look strong as he over-powered his opponents on his way to the semi-finals. Carr took an early lead but was thrown to his back and pinned. He received an injury default in the consolation finals to finish third.

After a strong showing yesterday Cyclone senior Chris Drouin made his way to the semi-finals before dropping consecutive matches to All-Americans Chris Diaz and Germane Lindsey. Drouin finished in fourth-place.

The trio of 125-pounders for the Cyclones wrestled hard, but it was Patrick Hunter that performed the best with a fourth-place finish.

Trent Weatherman came out with a new fire burning on Sunday. Weatherman reeled off three straight victories before falling to Virginia Tech national qualifier Jesse Dong and Kent State's Matt Cathell to finish in fourth place.

Losing your first match and then wrestling back to place high is one of the most difficult things in wrestling. But that is exactly what Iowa State junior 285-pounder Kyle Simonson did Sunday. Simonson caught fire on the bottom side of the bracket. The Algona native ripped off six consecutive victories, avenging his earlier loss to earn a very hard fought fifth-place finish.

"I am excited about our heavyweights," Jackson said. "Kyle Simonson came out and lost his first match and then won six matches in a row."

Andrew Sorenson and Chris Spangler both suffered tough losses late in the tournament and were forced to default out of the consolation bracket.

Ben Cash recorded two pins before bowing out of the tournament. Max Mayfield, Trevor Dearden, Brandon Jones and Phil Hawes suffered heartbreaking losses to end their tournaments.

"We have a lot of work to do and there is a lot that we have to correct," Jackson said. "It was a challenge that we put in front of our guys to wrestle both days here, but it will only make us better. We were in position to have four or five champs, but we came up short in a lot of those situations. We need to go back and recover and break down our video from this weekend to identify what needs to be fixed. We need to tighten things up this week and get ready for Boston University."

Iowa State's home-opener will be Thursday against Boston University at 7 p.m.

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Players Mentioned

Ben Cash

Ben Cash

Trevor Dearden

Trevor Dearden

Chris Drouin

Matt Gibson

Patrick Hunter

Brandon Jones

Max Mayfield

Max Mayfield

Kyle Simonson

Kyle Simonson

Andrew Sorenson

Andrew Sorenson

Chris Spangler

Chris Spangler

Jerome Ward

Jerome Ward

Trent Weatherman

Trent Weatherman

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