After the first day of the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, only Kanen Storr, Jarrett Degen and Marcus Harrington remained in the competition for Iowa State. All three wrestlers hoped to make a final push to finish on the podium in the stacked tournament.

No. 8 seeded Storr, wrestling at 141 pounds, won 5-3 against Nate Limmex from Purdue in his first match. That win clinched a podium spot for Storr and allowed him with the chance to wrestle back for 3rd place.

The next round, Pitt’s Nick Zanetta narrowly beat Storr 4-2 pushing Storr to the 7th place match.

Wrestling in the 7th place match, Storr faced a stout opponent in No. 3 seed Thomas Thorn from Minnesota. Thorn was able to pin Storr in 2:36 pushing Storr to the 8th place spot on the podium.

The 141 pound weight bracket was loaded since it featured 12 of the top 20 wrestlers in the nation according to Flo.

The other two Cyclones who wrestled, Degen and Harrington, both lost their only matches of the day. The losses eliminated both from the tournament and dashed any hopes of a podium finish.

At 149 pounds, No. 10 seed Degen lost 5-4 versus Michael Sprague from American.

Harrington wrestled at heavyweight facing Purdue’s Shawn Streck. Streck subsequently pinned Harrington in 3:43.

Moving on from the Invitational, Iowa State will host Wyoming for a home dual December 9 at 7 p.m.

Storr will hope to build upon his success from the Cliff Keen all the way to the Big 12 and NCAA championships.

Degen and Harrington also wrestled well over the weekend and could see success past the regular season.

The rest of the roster needs to improve on their consistency after a first day showing in which six Cyclones were eliminated from competition. If not, the postseason could be lonely for Storr, Harrington and Degen.