Michigan was the defending champion of the Cliff Keen Invitational in Las Vegas and had taken the title in three of the last four years.

But the 12th-ranked Wolverines placed sixth in the 44-team field despite injury trouble during the two-day event.

Nebraska finished head and shoulders above the rest of this year's competition with 124.5 points. The Wolverines’ score of 82.5 was just nine point short of second-place Cornell.

Michigan was short on bodies for most of the tournament due to injuries. Fifth-year senior Tyrel Todd, the top seed in the 197-pound division, was forced out of the tournament after two victories because of an injury. The co-captain is ranked No. 2 in his class nationally. And 125-pound senior Michael Watts also couldn't compete because of an injury.

The Wolverines managed to place sixth in large part because of the efforts of fifth-year senior Steve Luke. Luke, the nation’s top-ranked 174-pounder, won the individual title for his weight class with a sudden-death victory over Nebraska's second-seeded Brandon Browne.

“I hit a single to his left leg and I came up," Luke said. “I lifted up with my leg, and I went down to grab his other leg then he turned into me and was coming up, so I grabbed his hip and got the takedown.

“I just tried to keep pressuring into him and eventually was able to take him down in overtime.”

The co-captain’s win capped off an impressive 6-0 weekend in Las Vegas. But few other Wolverines enjoyed similar degrees of success.

No. 2-seeded sophomore Kellen Russell finished third in the 141-pound class on Saturday morning, slipping past Virginia Tech sophomore Chris Diaz in sudden death, 3-1. Russell won the event as a freshman.

Redshirt sophomore Anthony Biondo finished fourth [with a 5-2 record] in the 184-pound class. Redshirt sophomore Aaron Hynes was eliminated in the 157-pound class with a 5-2 record.

Five Wolverines failed to qualify for the second day of the Invitational.

Although Michigan didn't repeat its past success in this year’s Invitational, Russell said he was happy with the team’s performance as a whole in light of its injury problems.

“I think we did a pretty good job with the guys we had going,” Russell said. “It was the first time for a lot of them going wrestling in a big tournament like that. It was good to get out there and wrestle some guys that we might not see until nationals and get them ready for the type of competition that you have in the Big Ten and nationals.”