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PRIMM, Nev. - Seven Hokies opened competition at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational Friday with three making it to Saturday’s action. The event is being held at the Starr of the Desert Arena in Primm, Nev. Chris Diaz, Pete Yates and Jesse Dong all started the day with a pair of wins, but all three suffered close losses to tough opponents in the quarterfinals to drop into the consolation bracket.

133: Erik Spjut (0-1; ELIMINATED)
Pigtails : lost to #8 seed Ben Ashmore (Arizona State), 1-0
Consolations: lost to Pat McCaffrey (Navy) by injury default

141: #3 seed Chris Diaz (2-1)
First Round: defeated Shane Fenningham (Drexel), fall, 2:05
Second Round: defeated Adin Duenas (CS Fullerton), 2-1
Quarterfinals: lost to #6 seed Fil Novachkov (Cal Poly), 8-6
Consolations: vs. Mike Koehnlein (Nebraska) - Saturday

149: #9 seed Pete Yates (2-1)
First Round: defeated Levi Jutila (CSU-Pueblo), tech fall, 16-0 (3:11)
Second Round: defeated #8 seed Steve Santos (Columbia), 6-4
Quarterfinals: lost to #1 Kyle Ruschell (Wisconsin), 1-0
Consolations: vs. #7 seed Desi Green (Buffalo) - Saturday

157: #7 seed Jesse Dong (2-1)
First Round: defeated Nick Jordan (CS Fullerton), MD 14-3
Second Round: defeated Andrew Bulch (CS Bakersfield), 7-2
Quarterfinals: lost to #3 seed J.P. O’Connor (Harvard), 5-4
Consolations: vs. Robert Ward (NC State) - Saturday

174: Anthony Trongone (0-2; ELIMINATED)
Pigtails: lost to Justin Zeerip (Michigan), 5-0
Consolations: lost to #13 seed Enock Francois (Cal Baptist), 4-2

184: #7 seed Tommy Spellman (0-2; ELIMINATED)
First Round: lost to Charlie Pipher (Western State), 8-2
Consolations: lost to Erich Schmidtke (Oklahoma), 7-5

197: Tim Miller (0-2; ELIMINATED)
First Round: lost to #9 seed Riley Orozco (CS Bakersfield), 12-4 MD
Consolations: lost Chad Hanke (Oregon State), Fall (4:12)

For the three wrestlers still alive, action resumes Saturday morning, local time. Five Hokies will compete in the Davidson Open Saturday in North Carolina with five participating in Sunday’s Nittany Lion Open on the campus of Penn State.

For updates on Virginia Tech wrestling, follow the Hokies on Twitter (@VT_Wrestling).