Las Vegas, NV – Hofstra Wrestling freshman Dylan Ryder recorded a 3-1 record Friday to advance to Saturday's second and final day of the 2018 Cliff Keen-Las Vegas Invitational at the Las Vegas Convention Center.

Ryder, a native of Dix Hills, New York, is the lone Pride grappler to advance to Saturday morning's session III. He will face Michigan's eighth-seed Drew Mattin in the 125-pound, second consolation round of eight at 9 a.m. (PT), noon on the east coast.

Ryder (8-7) avenged a home opening loss to Rutgers' Shane Metzler on November 16 in the opening round Friday with a 9-4 decision over the Scarlet Knight wrestler. Ryder was sent to the consolation bracket after being pinned by Oregon State's Ronnie Bresser. Ryder closed out Friday's session I with a 12-5 decision over Utah Valley's Josh Jensen before recording a 12-1 major decision over Harvard's Nolan Hellickson in Friday evening's session II to advance to Saturday.

Pride junior Sage Heller had a busy and productive first session at 174 pounds, posting a 3-2 record with all decisions coming by pins. Heller is now 7-6 on the season.

Four Pride wrestlers, red-shirt sophomore Ricky Stamm (5-6) at 165, freshman Trey Rogers (7-9) at 184, senior Nezar Haddad (4-4) at 197 and red-shirt junior Omar Haddad (2-5) at 285, each recorded 1-2 slates while four other Hofstra grapplers, red-shirt freshman Trent Olson (3-7) at 133, red-shirt sophomore Garrett Lambert (2-7) at 141, senior Ryan Burkert (0-3) at 149, and red-shirt sophomore Chris Mauriello (0-3), posted 0-2 marks in the first session Friday.

After the first two sessions on Friday, Hofstra is in 29th place in the 42-team field with 19 points. Ohio State leads the tournament field with 88 points with Missouri second with 77 points and Nebraska third with 64.5 points. The Buckeyes have a tournament-leading six wrestlers remaining in the championship bracket.

Notes
- Hofstra is making its 11th appearance at the Cliff Keen-Las Vegas Invitational, one of the top in-season tournaments in the country
- The Pride has seen five wrestlers advance to the finals in their 11 appearances with 197-pounder Chris Skretkowicz as the only champion in 2004
- After Ryder continues his mission to the victory podium on Saturday, the Pride will return home on Sunday, December 9 to host Northern Colorado at 1 p.m. and VMI at 3 p.m. at the David S. Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex