Wrestling
Ubben Champion; Grater & Malloy Place At UCM Open
Nov. 20, 2006
The Fort Hays State wrestling team competed in the Central Missouri Open on November 12th in Warrensburg, Missouri. FHSU had three individual placers. Senior Andrew Ubben, ranked preseason #3 in the 285-pound division went 5-0 and was champion of his weight class. Freshman Danny Grater at 157 pounds and sophomore Blake Malloy at 174 pounds both finished in sixth place in their respective weight classes.
Ubben began the day winning by fall at 1:22 over Mark Lang of Northwest Missouri State. Ubben next defeated Loyde Braidlow of Truman State by a 7-2 decision. He then defeated Landon Harris of Oklahoma State with a 10-3 decision. Ubben’s next opponent was Cedric Powell of Meramec Community College and Ubben won the match with a 7-2 decision. In the championship match, he defeated Josh Leadingfox of Central Oklahoma with a 3-2 decision.
Grater went 5-3 on the day and finished in sixth place at 157 pounds. He won his first three matches over Kyle O’toole from Eastern Illinois by a 7-2 decision, Nick Hanify from Meramec Community College by technical fall at 3:30, and Tyler Woods from Campbellsville University by technical fall 16-1. Grater then lost his first match to Emmanuel Brooks from Missouri by a 4-9 decision, before winning his next two matches over Luke Elmore of Central Oklahoma by fall at 0:56 and Brandon Benson of Oklahoma Christian by a 4-1 decision. He then lost to Jason Leavitt of Cental Oklahoma by a 5-8 decision and lost the fifth place match to Shane Vernon of Oklahoma by a 4-7 decision to finish sixth.
Malloy finished the tournament with a 4-3 record to finish sixth at 174 pounds. He won his first two matches over Taylor Hosick of Oklahoma State by a 4-3 decision and Neal Kemp of Lindenwood with a 2-1 decision, then lost his first match to Joey Garrity of Missouri by a 2-3 decision. Malloy then won his next two matches over Joey Sheets of Central Missouri by a 4-3 decision and Daniel Morrison of Central Oklahoma by a 8-3 decision. He then lost to Jeff James of Oklahoma by a 0-1 decision and lost the fifth place match to Travis Barbarick of Central Missouri by a 3-4 decision to finish sixth.
The Tigers had a total of 17 wrestlers who competed in the tournament. Up next for the Tigers is the Northern Colorado Open in Greeley, Colorado, on November 19th. The next home action for the Tigers will be the FHSU-Bob Smith Open on Saturday, December 2nd.
