Rodriguez Knocks Off No. 10 Owen, Advances to Cliff Keen Quarterfinals

LAS VEGAS - North Dakota State freshman Josh Rodriguez made his first impact on the national scene Friday afternoon, defeating No. 10-ranked Brian Owen of Boise State at 133 pounds in the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.

Rodriguez and junior Steven Monk (165) both advanced to the quarterfinals of the prestigious tournament with a pair of wins on Friday afternoon. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin at 8 p.m. (CT) tonight.

Rodriguez opened the day with a 5-2 decision over Bricker Dixon of No. 8 Cornell before posting a 3-2 decision over Owen in the second round. Rodriguez will face No. 17 George DiCamillo of Virginia in the quarterfinals.

The No. 2-seeded and No. 7-ranked Monk rolled to two easy victories to lock up his quarterfinal spot. He opened the day with a 12-0 major decision of Jake Mason of North Idaho College and pinned Harvard's Ian Roy in 3:39 in the second round.

Of the 26 Division I schools competing in Las Vegas this weekend, nine are ranked in this week's USA Today/NWCA/AWN Division I Coaches Poll. Ohio State (5), Missouri (7), Cornell (8), Nebraska (9), Michigan (14), Oregon State (15), Virginia (17), Wyoming (19) and Kent State (23) are all ranked among the top 25 teams in the nation.

As many as 30 wrestlers currently ranked in the Top 10 in the nation are competing at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, including top-ranked wrestlers in the 133-, 165- and 197-pound weight classes. Each of the 10 weight classes contains a wrestler ranked in the Top 5 in the country.