Cael Happel, Parker Keckeisen lead UNI wrestling at Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational

The first three competitions on the Northern Iowa wrestling team's 2022-23 schedule were various open tournaments — at the Grand View Open in Des Moines, the Daktronics Open at South Dakota State, and the Cyclone Open in Ames. Each stop offered small glimpses at the Panthers' lineup for the rest of the season.

This past weekend, head coach Doug Schwab and his team competed at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational, one of college wrestling's toughest early-season tournaments. Against some of the top teams in the country — the field included 10 of InterMat's Top-25 Division I teams — the Panthers performed quite well.

Ultimately, Northern Iowa took fifth out of 33 teams, totaling 96 points. The 17th-ranked Panthers finished with six place-winners, led by a pair of finalists in Cael Happel (141) and Parker Keckeisen (184). Only #16 Nebraska (137.5), #19 North Carolina State (127.5), South Dakota State (127) and #4 Michigan (96.5) fared higher.

This two-day tournament gave Schwab's team a chance to compete against many of the nation's top wrestlers. Not all the Panthers' presumed starters competed — redshirt freshman Jared Simma competed at 174 pounds in lieu of returning NCAA qualifier Lance Runyon, for example — but those that did produced encouraging results.

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Here are four takeaways from the Panthers' performance:

Cael Happel continues strong start, reaches CKLV finals

Cael Happel stormed from the 11-seed to the finals at 141 pounds, confirming that his season-opening heater at the Daktronics Open really wasn't a heater at all.

Along the way, Happel picked up some key victories that should help him in the next set of Division I rankings:

• 4-2 in sudden victory over Ohio State's Dylan D'Emilio, a two-time NCAA qualifier;

• 7-1 over Virginia Tech's Tom Crook, who's ranked #13 nationally by InterMat;

• 4-1 over South Dakota State All-American Clay Carlson, who's ranked #11 (Happel beat Carlson 8-6 in the Daktronics Open finals, too).

Pretty good!

Happel dropped his finals bout, 6-1 to Nebraska's Brock Hardy, but he's now 8-1 this season with a handful of marquee wins that'll, one, send him rocketing up the national rankings (he entered the weekend ranked #22), and two, bolster his NCAA résumé — and that's before even navigating Big 12 competition.

NC State's Trent Hidlay tops Parker Keckeisen in CKLV finals

Parker Keckeisen, Northern Iowa's two-time All-American, was the Panthers' second finalist, which wasn't a huge surprise. But he also finished second, which was maybe a small surprise.

Keckeisen, ranked #2 nationally at 184, blew through his first four opponents by a combined 37-8. Then he ran into North Carolina State's Trent Hidlay, a past NCAA finalist who's ranked #3. Hidlay took Keckeisen feet-to-back in the first period for a 6-0 lead and went on to win 8-2. It is just the fourth loss of Keckeisen's college career.

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At last year's NCAA Championships, Keckeisen beat Hidlay, 7-5 in sudden victory, on his way to third place. Hidlay, like Keckeisen, is a two-time All-American, as well as a Junior world bronze medalist and U23 world team member. These are two of the best at this weight. This result doesn't change that.

What it does mean, assuming these two hold serve the rest of the way, is that Hidlay may have gained the 2-seed at the NCAA Championships while Keckeisen is now in line for the 3-seed. There's still a lot of season left, of course, but this may not be the last time these two see each other.

Kyle Biscoglia picks up key wins en route to third at 133

Behind the two finalists, Kyle Biscoglia took third at 133 pounds — and he took the long road to get there.

Biscoglia ran his season record to 10-2 after going 7-1 in Vegas, and his third-place finish came after he won six — yes, six! — consecutive matches in the wrestlebacks after a second-round loss to Cal-State Bakersfield's Chance Rich. In those six wins, he beat three-straight Top-25 opponents:

• 3-0 over Air Force's Cody Phippen, #22;

• 9-2 over Northwestern's Chris Cannon, #7 and a two-time All-American;

• 6-5 over Michigan's Dylan Ragusin, #6, a two-time NCAA qualifier, and a past U.S. Senior national finalist.

Again, pretty good!

Against Cannon, Biscoglia surrendered an early takedown, then scored two of his own in the second and third periods to roll to a 7-point victory. He used the same script against Ragusin, surrendering an early takedown then scoring two himself to eke out a 1-point win.

Biscoglia went 21-10 last season and reached the national tournament last season, but didn't secure his 10th win until his 16th match last year. This season, he hit that mark in just 12 matches. Like Happel, his hot start is an encouraging sign for the Panthers.

Tyrell Gordon continues growth at heavyweight

Tyrell Gordon bolstered his own résumé by taking fifth as the 12-seed at heavyweight — and he beat a pair of of Top-15 foes along the way: 3-2 over Ohio State's Tate Orndorff, ranked #7 and a returning All-American; then 3-1 over South Dakota State's AJ Nevills, ranked #12 and a three-time NCAA qualifier.

Against Orndorff, Gordon scored a second-period takedown, which held up as the match-winner, advancing him to the quarterfinals. Against Nevills — who in the same tournament knocked off Arizona State's Cohlton Schultz, a returning NCAA finalist — Gordon scored a takedown midway through sudden victory to secure fifth.

Gordon struggled initially with the transition to heavyweight last year, going 11-17 but still qualifying for the national tournament. This year, he's clearly jumped levels, pushing his season record to 8-3 after winning five matches over two days in Vegas.

Other quick hits from CKLV

• Northern Iowa's other two place-winners were Austin Yant, finishing sixth at 165, and Colin Realbuto, who took eighth at 149. Realbuto won his first two matches to reach the quarterfinals then finished 3-3. Yant won his first three to reach the semifinals, then medically-forfeited to sixth after he suffered a lower-body injury during the third period of his 11-2 quarterfinal win over Arizona State's Tony Negron.

• Two former Iowa high-schoolers helped South Dakota State to a third-place team finish: Tanner Sloan, from Alburnett, and Cade DeVos, from Southeast Polk. Sloan went 6-2 and finished third at 197 pounds, rallying from a quarterfinal loss to win four in a row in the wrestlebacks. DeVos went 5-2 for fourth at 174, losing in the quarters to Virginia Tech's Mekhi Lewis, a past NCAA champ, then winning three in a row to reach the top four.

• Top-seeded wrestlers had a rough go at the CKLV this past weekend. Of the 10 wrestlers seeded first, only four reached the finals and only two won titles. Both Sloan and Keckeisen were on the losing side of that trend, while three Sloan's Jackrabbit teammates actually beat the 1-seeds at their respective weights.

Cody Goodwin covers wrestling and high school sports for the Des Moines Register. Follow him on Twitter at @codygoodwin.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Four takeaways on UNI wrestling's 5th place finish at CKLV tournament