Drury finishes fourth to lead UVU wrestling at U23 Freestyle Nationals
Lawrence Slater, LBS Photo
UVU wrestler Haiden Drury competes at the U23 Freestyle Nationals at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio on Saturday, June 1, 2024.Utah Valley’s Haiden Drury took home fourth place at the 2024 U23 Freestyle Nationals at the Spire Institute in Geneva, Ohio on Sunday. He advanced to the semifinals before suffering a loss to move into the consolation rounds. Drury, the No. 8 seed, finished the weekend 5-2 in the tournament.
“I would have liked to finish the weekend with three medalists, but I’m happy for Haiden Drury and his fourth-place finish. He was our star with a win over an All-American. That is definitely building his confidence going into next year. Our group has a lot of momentum from this weekend,” said UVU head coach Adam Hall.
No. 8 Drury won his quarterfinal match, knocking off No. 1 Kollin Rath of Steller Trained in a 10-0 final score to advance to the semifinals. He then suffered his first loss of the tournament to No. 4 Joshua Saunders (Spartan Combat RTC).
Drury got an 8-4 lead after the first period in the consolation semifinals, where he defeated No. 13 Ryan Jack (Wolfpack WC). In the third-place match, UNI’s No. 10 Cael Happel picked up a 7-0 victory over Drury.
A pair of Wolverines took losses in the consolation rounds Sunday morning. Kase Mauger fell to Spartan Combat’s Tyler Ferrara, and Caleb Uhlenhopp lost to Kasey Ross of Burg Training Center.
On Saturday, Drury used a dominant day to defeat his three foes by a combined score of 25-0, including a pair of seeded wins over Burg TC’s No. 25 Kyler Romero and No. 24 Jace Rhodes of Hawkeye Wrestling Club.
At 86kg, Uhlenhopp reached the round of 16 after picking up two victories. In his match against Virginia Tech’s Sam Fisher, the No. 4 seed held a 2-1 edge to move the UVU participant into the consolation rounds. In his final match of the day, Uhlenhopp scored two points in the final 30 seconds to tie the match and won based on tiebreaker criteria.
In a bounce-back effort, Mauger fell in the round of 64 to 15-seeded Kurtis Phipps (Buffalo RTC) before picking up his three wins during the rest of the day to advance to Sunday’s consolation rounds. He outscored his opponents 42-4 in his four victories on the day, including a 10-0 win over No. 31 Jacob Macatangay from Boilermaker RTC.
Tyler Jones (70kg), Q’veli Quintanilla (70kg), and Mahonri Rushton (86kg) all finished 2-2 on the day, with Trevor Frank (79kg) going 1-2 in the tournament.
Utah Valley’s Jakob Romero (62kg), Kael Bennie (92kg), and Radi Stafford (92kg) saw action on the mat in the loaded field.
