NCAA Wrestling Championship Summary 2018

Cael Sanderson has led the Penn State Wrestling Program to 7 NCAA Championships in 8 seasons

Finals Summary

125 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

133 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

 Stevan Micic of Michigan got in a good, deep shot, but couldn't finish as the referee stalemated action; then, Gross shot low and finished, and tilted Micic for a four point near fall for a 6-0 lead to end the first period. Micic chased Gross the rest of the bout as he lost a 13-8 decision as every takedown only netted Stevan one point. Gross transferred to South Dakota State from Iowa, and became the Jackrabbits first NCAA Wrestling Champion. Several upsets ended my first round picks at 13-4, 5-3 in the second round, 3-1 in the quarterfinals, 2-0 in the semifinals and 1-0 in the finals for a record of 24-8. Certainly, Redshirt Freshman Tariq Wilson was the surprise of the tournament at this weight class; Gross, Micic, Wilson, Pletcher, Brock, and Bridges return in 2019. Other contenders returning include Austin DeSanto of Drexel, John Erneste of Missouri, Josh Terao of American, Jack Mueller of Virginia, Mitch McKee of Minnesota, Korbin Myers of Edinboro, Dylan Duncan of Illinois, Sean Nickell of Cal.State-Bakersfield, Rico Montoya of Northern Colorado, Redshirt Freshman Matt Schmidt of West Virginia, Freshman Colin Valdiviez of Northwestern, Bryan Lantry of Buffalo, etc.

Is Yianni the most flexible wrestler ever?

141 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

Yianni Diakomihalis was sure exciting to watch! His flexibility in uncanny! He looks like he'll be even better than Kyle Dake and be a 4-Timer. Bryce Meredith did everything right, and was lifting a clinching takedown when Yianni put him in a cradle from a standing position to reverse the situation into a four point move for a 7-4 win. I was 12-5 after the first round in predictions, 5-3 in the second round, 4-0 in the quarters, 1-1 in the semis for a record of 22-10 overall record. Sa'Derian Perry was the surprise of the tournament at this weight class; he became the first Eastern Michigan quarterfinalist since 1989, and the first All-American since 1999 for the Eagles. Two-Time NCAA Champion Dean Heil was ousted with losses to Freshman Diakomihalis and Redshirt Freshman Chad Red of Nebraska. Spencer Lee and Yianni Diakomihalis became the first pair of "true" freshman to win NCAA Wrestling Championships in the same year since 1947. In 2019, one can expect Diakomihalis to return for the finals, but who will be his opponent. The top candidate is Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers who redshirted this season. Others who will return include McKenna, Redshirt Freshman Nick Lee, Red, Perry, Brock Zacherl, Redshirt Freshman Kaden Gfeller of Oklahoma State, 2017 All-American Mason Smith, Mike Carr of Illinois, Josh Alber of Northern Iowa, Evan Cheek of Cleveland State, Redshirt Freshman Brent Moore of Virginia Tech, 2016 All-American Tommy Thorn of Minnesota, Kanen Storr of Virginia, Cole Weaver of Indiana, Vince Turk of Iowa, Nate Limmex of Purdue, Nicholas Gil of Navy, Redshirt Freshman Luke Karam of Lehigh, etc. Michigan will have Joey Silva at this weight as well.

Zain Retherford completed a 3rd NCAA Championship with a 6-2 win over #15 Ronnie Perry of Lock Haven

149 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

Zain Retherford got an early takedown, but couldn't dominated #15 Ronnie Perry as he has done to many others in a 6-2 win; Perry was the first #15 seed to earn a trip to the finals. I was 16-1 in the first round, 5-3 in the second round, 2-2 in the quarters, 1-1 in the semis, and 1-0 in the finals for a record of predictions of 25-7 record overall. Returnees for 2019 include, Kolodzik, Leeth and Lewallen along with Ke-Shawn Hayes of Ohio State, Ryan Deakin of Northwestern, Jordan Oliver of Central Michigan, Colton McCrystal of Nebraska, Max Thomsen of Northern Iowa, Jared Prince of Navy, Redshirt Freshman Jarrett Degen of Iowa State, Sam Krivus of Virginia, Cole Martin of Wisconsin, Malik Amine of Michigan, Courtland Schuyler of Lehigh, Ryan Blees of Virginia Tech, Eleazar DeLuca of Rutgers, etc. In 2019, Redshirts that may factor in the title race include Pat Lugo of Iowa, Tanner Smith of Eastern Michigan, Austin O'Connor of North Carolina, and Jarod Verkleeren of Penn State.

Will Jason Nolf win his 3rd NCAA Title in 2019 and be a Four-Time Finalist?

157 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

165 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

174 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

184 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

197 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

Kyle Snyder of Ohio State won the "rubber match" in Cleveland, 3-1, 4-2 in overtime, and 1-3 against Adam Coon of Michigan

285 lbs. Predicted vs. Actual Placewinners

Michigan finished 4th tied with North Carolina State; Joe McFarland announced his retirement the day after the Championships. Who will coach the Wolverines in 2019???

Fifth Round Consolation Final Summary

Fourth and Semi-Final Round Summary

Lee takes down Tomasello, and rides him for 1:42 plus gets back at the end of the period, 4-0. No score with Suriano-Cruz. Lee is up now, 5-2, and Suriano, 2-0. Lee pins Tomasello at 6:05 while leading 8-2, and Suriano makes the finals, 2-0. Lizak, Moisey, Bresser, and Rivera win in "blood round." Micic up next! Stevan with the takedown. Wilson strikes first on Gross. Gross comes back and is now ahead, 7-4. Why Pletcher was not called for stalling in the first period is beyond me. Pletcher escapes, 2-2. Stevan in, but can't finish. Stevan out in the 3rd, 3-2. That was no takedown, but they gave it to Pletcher, 4-4, and Stevan wins it with a takedown at the end, 6-4. Wilson comes back to tie it, 10-10, and they are in overtime. Gross gets a takedown and pin in sudden victory overtime. Brock Bridges,Delvecchio and Parker won in the Round of 12. Yianni with a quick takedown on Eierman. Yianni is out, 3-1; Eierman is very dangerous on top with legs. Overtime for Yianni and Eierman, 4-4. Yianni wins it, 6-4. Chad Red of Nebraska pinned Dean Heil of Oklahoma State; 2 Time NCAA Champ won't even make the podium this year. Nick Lee, Sa'Derian Perry, and Kevin Jack also won in the blood round. Meredith won, 1-0, Retherford up 6-2 after the first period. Retherford wins, 10-4. Ronnie Perry makes the finals, 5-3, over Kolodzik of Princeton. Leeth, Tsirtsis, Sorenson, and Lewallen all won in the Round of 12. Shields, Berger, Kemerer and Zilverberg have already won in the "Blood Round" at 157. Rogers, Wick, Chavez, and Marsteller have won in the Round of 12 at 165. Pantaleo up next for Michigan! Explosive double for a takedown by Alec, 2-0. End of 1st, 2-1, Alec. Hidlay out, 2-2, Alec is thrown for 6, 8-2, Hidlay. Hidlay up in 3rd, 9-2, with 1:17 in riding time, and a 10-2 final. Nolf wins by tech, 16-0. Smith, Kutler, Jordan, and Kocer won in the Round of 12 at 174. Venz, Ness, Dean, and Parker have won in the "blood round" at 184. Miklus, Moore and Holschlag won at 197 in the Round of 12. Hemida, Hughes, Nevills, and Stoll have won at 285 in the "blood round." Martinez up, 4-2, and Joseph up, 3-1. It's be Martinez vs. Joseph at 165. Myles Amine and Dom Abounader up next for Michigan! Penn State has moved in front of Ohio State in the team race after 157, 86 to 84. Mr. Flexibility, Myles Amine, with the takedown, 2-1. Valencia takedown to be reviewed. No takedown, then Myles gets another, 4-1. Myles chooses down, out for 5-2, lead. Stalling on Amine and Valencia takedown ties it up, 5-5. 3rd period, Valencia escaped, 6-5. Stupid stall call makes it, 7-5, for Valencia and that is the final score. Mark Hall pins Daniel Lewis. Nickal with a quick takedown. Nickal now up, 4-1. In the second period, Nickal chose down and escapes, 5-2. 3rd period, Nickal has 1:15 in riding time. Now, 5-3, with 1:41 in riding time. Nickal wins, 6-3. Martin beating Zavatsky, 5-2. Martin wins, 8-4. Penn State now has a 26 point lead over Ohio State. Kyle Conel got the opening takedown, but was just pinned by Macciavello after falling behind, 4-2. Michigan has now fallen 16.5 points behind Iowa for 3rd. Haught pins Darmstadt so it's be an all ACC final at 197. With the Machiavello win, North Carolina State has moved in front of Michigan to 4th place. Coon is up next! Coon in, but Dhesi comes out on top, 2-1. Coon out in 2nd, 2-2. Last period, Dhesi is just going to stall out the bout as the referees haven't called him once. Adam with a finish, 4-2. Coon vs. Snyder in finals! Scott Delvecchio of Rutgers won five bouts in a row including an 8-6 overtime win over #7 Austin DeSanto of Drexel after losing in the first round to #14 Korbin Myers of Edinboro, and he'll face Tariq Wilson of North Carolina State on Saturday. After the consolations were over, the team scores were: Penn State had 120.5 points with 5 finalists, Ohio State had 109.5 points with only two finalists, Iowa was in 3rd with 86.5 points with one finalist, Michigan held 4th place with 73.5 points, and North Carolina State was fifth with 69.5 points; both Michigan and North Carolina State placed two wrestlers each in the finals.

Michigan has two finalists: Stevan Micic and Adam Coon; the last time the Wolverines had two finalists was in 2008 with Eric Tannenbaum and Steve Luke. Other times, Michigan had two finalists include: 1994 (Sean Bormet and Brian Harper), 1988 (Mike Amine and Joe Pantaleo), 1985 (Joe McFarland and Kirk Trost), 1977 (Mark Churella and Mark Johnson), 1974 (Gary Ernst and Jarrett Hubbard), 1967 (Bob Fehrs and Jim Kamman), 1966 (Bob Fehrs and Dave Porter), 1957 (Mike Rodriquez and Max Pearson), 1955 (Mike Rodriquez and Andy Kaul), and 1939 (Bill Combs and Don Nichols). The Wolverine record is 3 Finalist set in 1929 (Carl Dougavito, Otto Kelly and Robert Warren) and 1940 (Bill Combs, Harland Danner and Don Nichols).

Mark Hall had something to shout about after pinning Daniel Lewis of Missouri at 6:22 in the Semifinals

Third and Quarterfinal Round Summary

Session III has begun! Spencer Lee gets a quick takedown on Piccininni, and a near fall, 6-0. Lee pins Picinnini after going ahead, 11-1. Suriano with a takedown on Hayes, and is now up, 5-0! Tomasello with a takedown on Lamont, and is now up 6-3, and 11-4. It'll be Tomasello vs. Lee and Suriano vs. ? Cruz is up 1-0 with riding time with 30 seconds to go on Bresser. Yes, Cruz wins, 2-0. Drew Mattin gets a takedown on Gabe Townsell of Stanford, 2-0; he is riding tough buildinig a 1:00 riding time advantage. Mattin now up in the 2nd period, 3-0, with 1:51 in riding time. Mattin wins, 4-1, he'll face the winner of Lizak of Minnesota vs. Brock Hudkins of Northern Illinois. Lizak gets an early takedown and builds 2:08 in riding time as the first period ends. Lizak won 7-2. Michigan has their "White" uniforms today! Micic vs. DeSanto underway! Micic with a takedown, and he has the inside leg. He has DeSanto on his back,and adds a 4 point near fall, 6-0. DeSanto cautioned on the restart. DeSanto is out, 6-1, but Micic built 1:57 in riding time. Micic is out in 2 seconds, 7-1, in the 2nd. Stevan with another takedown, 9-1. Injury time for DeSanto. Micic escape, 10-1. DeSanto chose neutral for the 3rd. Micic has a 10-1 lead with 1:58 in riding time with 29 seconds to go. Stevan gets a final takedown and with riding time wins 13-1; it was sweet revenge for the 22-10 shellacking he took from DeSanto earlier this season. DeSanto tried a crazy, dirty move at the end of the bout; he needs to watch less Ultimate Fighting. It was a clear example of flagrant misconduct, and DeSanto should have been expelled from the tournament. Tariq Wilson, Seth Gross, and Luke Pletcher leading in the other quarters. Pletcher won, 3-1, over Parker. Gross beat Bridges, 5-3. Wilson blased Brock, 13-5. Micic and Pletcher will go at it in the Semis tonight! Michigan has no qualifier at 141 lbs.; I wonder if Joey Silva will qualify in 2019 for the Wolverines here? Michigan has temporarily moved to 3rd place behind Ohio State, 51, and Iowa, 36, with 31.5 points over Penn State, 28.5. Meredith out early on Sa'Derian Perry of Eastern Michigan, 2-0. McKenna also gets a takedown on Smith; he is now ahead, 6-0, but a review reversed the back points to 4-0. McKenna is now up, 6-0, with 3:18 in riding time. McKenna wins, 8-3. Meredith wins by Fall at 1:39, Eierman by Fall at 2:04. Heil gets a takedown on Yianni, but Yianni comes back in the second period; it is now, 3-2, for Heil. Yianni chooses down behind, 4-2. A reversal ties it up, 4-4. Heil escapes, 5-4. Yianni Diakomihalis gets a late takedown and rides out Heil for a BIG 6-5 win. Penn State's hopes dashed again by Keener getting pinned by Rico Montoya of Northern Colorado. Malik Amine up next, then Pantaleo, Massa, and Myles Amine! Missouri has now moved into 4th place in front of Penn State and only a point behind the Wolverines with the Eierman win. Grant Leeth of Missouri is wearing a neck brace in his quarterfinal bout, first time I've seen that. Retherford is manhandling Llewallen with a wicked back bow, 6-0, and another for a 10-2 lead with 2:24 in riding time. Retherford by tech, 20-2. Leeth is up, 2-1, on Kolodzik with 1:27 in riding time. Perry and Tsirtis are tied, 2-2, and Heilmann has a 1-0 lead on Hayes. Perry beat Tsirtis, 7-4. Heilmann beats Hayes in overtime, 2-1, with a late reversal upheld in review. Kolodzik comes back to beat Leeth, 4-3. Malik is now wrestling Justin Oliver of Central Michigan. Oliver up, 2-0. Jordan built 2:31 in riding time as the first period end. Oliver gets a reversal to go up, 4-0 with 2:40 in riding time as 2nd period ends. Oliver eliminates Amine, 7-1. Hawkeye fans are happy as both Turk and Sorenson won in consolations! Penn State is back in 3rd place as Nick Lee eliminated Mason Smith of Central Michigan. Micah Jordan out quick on John Van Brill of Rutgers, 2-0. Pantaleo and Zilverberg has started! Alec with a nice shot, but no finish. Alec finally gets a takedown with a nice duckunder, and builds 20 seconds of riding time until Zilverberg escaped as period ends, 2-1. Zilverberg chose down and escaped for 2-2 with 45 seconds of riding time for Alec. Alec gets another takedown, but Zilverber reverses as the 2nd period ends, 4-4, with Alec having 1:19 in riding time. Alec will choose down for the 3rd period after blood time. Alec is out, 5-4, with 1:06 to go, and 1:06 in riding time. Alec with another takedown, 7-5. Alec wins, 8-5. Nolf beating Kemerer, 3-1, and Hidlay and Berger are even, 2-2 while Jordan is now ahead, 6-4. Nolf wins, 5-2. Hidlay wins, 3-2. Micah Jordan won, 17-5. It's be Pantaleo vs. Jordan in the Semis tonight! Michigan has now moved into 3rd place, one half point in front of Iowa, and Penn State is in 2nd. #7 Massa will wrestle #8 Chandler Rogers of Oklahoma State. Isaiah Martinez is up 7-1 over Marsteller, and Chad Walsh is up, 5-4, on Marinelli. McFadden is up 2-0, and Joseph is up, 1-0. With a minute to go, Marinelli goes up, 7-5. Marinelli wins, 7-6. White and Joseph are in overtime, 1-1. Vincenzo wins, 4-2. McFadden advances to the Semis, 3-1, over Wick. Good scramble by both Massa and Rogers with an almost takedown by Massa. Rogers gets a late takedown, 2-0. Rogers chooses down in the second, and is out in 10 seconds, 3-0. 3rd period now, Logan is out, 3-1. Massa gets a takedown, but Rogers is out, 4-3, with 54 seconds to go. Massa with a takedown, 5-4, with 12 seconds to go, but Rogers is out, 5-5, with 4 seconds to go. Overtime with Rogers winning, 7-5! Myles out fast, 2-0, over Kutler; now, 2-1. In the second period, Amine is out, 3-1. 3rd period, Amine is up, 3-2. Myles wins it, 3-2! Myles will wrestle Valencia of Arizona State in the Semis tonight. Valencia pinned Bernstein in 38 seconds. Hall wins, 6-2. Daniel Lewis beat Bo Jordan, 3-1. Team Score is tightening up with Ohio State at 66, Penn State has 58.5, and Michigan is now in 3rd with 45.5 a half point in front of Iowa! Abounader vs. Renda is next! Dom in on the leg, but Renda must be double-jointed as he twisted his knee in a crazy stalemate. Scoreless first, and Dom goes up 4-1 in the 2nd with a headlock reversal. A takedown makes it, 6-1. We go to the 3rd period, Dom up 6-2. Review on end of period gives Renda a takedown, 6-4. Renda out in the 3rd, 6-5. A takedown puts him up, 7-6, over Dom. Dom goes back up, 8-7, with 32 seconds to go. Renda ties it on the start with 4 seconds to go, 8-8 with a locked hands call. Overtime. Dom is up in tiebreaker., 9-8 on a stall call. Renda ties it up, 9-9. Dom wins, 11-9, in tiebreaker on a stall call and escape. Dom faces Bo Nickal!!! Bo Nickal won, 13-7, and Myles Martin won 10-6. Team scores are Ohio State 73.5, Penn State 65.5, Michigan with 4 semifinalists, 52.5, and Iowa, 45. Wow!!! The upset of the tournament, Kyle Conel of Kent State pins #1 Kollin Moore of Ohio State at 1:30!!! Macchiavello has tied Rasheed of Penn State, 3-3 in the 3rd period, and Ben Darmstadt is up, 3-2, over Chris Weiler of Lehigh, 3-2, in the 3rd period. Macciavello beats Rasheed, 5-4. Jared Haught of Virginia Tech beats Willie Miklus of Missouri, 3-1; that win will boost North Carolina State to 5th place over Missouri. Adam Coon is up next! Adam gets a takedown, 2-0! Butler warned for stalling on the bottom. Adam builds 2:28 in riding time as the period ends. Adam is out in the 2nd, 3-0. 2nd period ends, 3-0. Adam is now up, 4-0. Adam wins, 7-0. Snyder is up, 5-3, after two periods, and wins, 6-3. Kasper is up, 4-2, on Hemida, and wins, 7-2. Coon will take on Amarveer Dhesi of Oregon State, a 4-2, winner over Nick Nevills. Lizak defeated Mattin, 17-6, in consolations so now Mattin, Malik Amine and Logan Massa are eliminated. Michigan has 5 in the Semi-Finals, 5 All-Americans on the podium for 2018! The session of consolations ended with Ohio State with 80.5 points, Penn State has 67, Michigan with 59.5, and Iowa has 53.5. The Buckeyes have 6 semifinalists, and both Michigan and Penn State have 5 each.

Unseeded Kyle Conel of Kent State rebounded from last Summer when he ballooned to 255 lbs. and was unsure whether he'd wrestle in 2018 to pinning #1 seed Kollin Moore of Ohio State in the Quarterfinals at 1:30, and he beat him again for 3rd place, 5-3

Michigan has 5 Semi-Finalists (Micic, Pantaleo, Amine, Abounader and Coon), and the last time the Wolverines had that many at the NCAA Wrestling Championships was in 1929 when they had 7 Semi-Finalists (Robert Hewitt, Red Elliott, Otto Kelly, Ray Parker, Carl Dougavito, Robert Warren, and Leo Dravling)! In 1942, they had 4 Semi-Finalists at 8 weight classes (Richard Kopel, Manly Johnson, Bill Courtright and James Galles), and 3 Semi-Finalists in 1928 (Robert Hewitt, Blair Thomas, and Theron Donahue), 1966 (Bob Fehrs, Jim Kamman, and Dave Porter), 1967 (Bob Fehrs, Jim Kamman, and Pete Cornell), 1973 (Jim Brown, Jarrett Hubbard, and Gary Ernest), 1974 (Bill Davids, Jarrett Hubbard, and Gary Ernst), 1988 (Larry Gotcher, Joe Pantaleo, and Mike Amine), and 2005 (Eric Tannenbaum, Ryan Bertin and Ryan Churella)!

Second Round Summary

Freshman Sa'Derian Perry of Eastern Michigan became the first quarterfinalist for the Eagles since 1989, and first All-American since 1999

First Round Summary

I'll continue to add live commentary here for Session I at the NCAA Championships at Cleveland. Michigander Steve Bleise of Chelsea who is wrestling for Minnesota has Deluca of Rutgers. Bleise wins it, 5-3! Gordon Wolf of Lehigh manages to win 13-8 over May Bethea of Penn. Drew Mattin is now wrestling for Michigan against Jacob Schwarm, the #16 seed; Schwarm scores a takedown, and is riding tough on top with legs as they take blood time. Brett Dempsey of American, another Michigander, is wrestling Jeramy Sweany of Cornell. Sweany won it, 9-4! Schwarm is awarded a point for stalling as he builds 2:46 in riding time in the first period, 3-0. Wow! What an upset! Schwarm tried to roll out on the bottom after choosing down, and Mattin held him and pinned him at 3:50! Don't choose down on Drew Mattin!!! Rayvon Foley of Ann Arbor wrestling for MSU is giving NCAA Champ Darian Cruz of Lehigh all he wants as Cruz eaks out a 7-4 win. Michael McGee of Old Dominion and #5 seed Sean Fausz of North Carolina State are in overtime, 5-5. Coaches challenge in overtime that McGee earned a takedown, but ruled no. Fausz wins in 8-5 with an escape and go behind takedown after McGee was in on his leg. #15 Ryan Millhof and Christian Moody, former Oklahoma Sooner teammates are about to go at it, 1-1 in the 3rd; Moody get a takedown, but Millhof comes back with a reversal with 11 seconds to go to tie it, and a coach's challenge on a headgear hold gives Millhof a 4-3 win. Micic is up next for Michigan! Tariq Wilson of North Carolina State with an early lead on #5 John Erneste of Missouri, 5-3, in the first period; now, Wilson is up, 7-3, with 4:10 in riding time in the 3rd period. It's over, first Major Upset, Wilson wins, 8-3! Dangerous Rico Montoya unlocked a 3rd period tie with #12 Josh Terao of America to go ahead, 9-5, with riding time of over 2 minutes. Montoya get the second big upset, 10-5. Micic get an early takedown on Sherman of North Carolina; end of the 1st period, 2-1. Micic out, 3-1, and a takedown for 5-1. End of 2nd period, 5-2, with 1:02 in riding time for Micic. Micic makes it 7-2 with another takedown, and a four point near fall makes it, 11-2. Micic lets him up and gets another takedown for 13-3. It is a 16-5 final for Micic. Former Central Michigan wrestler, Corey Keener, now wrestling for Penn State is giving #11 Dom Forys of Pittsburgh all he wants in the 2nd period, 4-4; however, Forys pins Keener. Wow! Ryan Diehl just pinned #8 Nick Lee of Penn State at 2:13 after Lee got a takedown, there goes the Nittany Lions title hopes with both Lee and Keener losing! 3rd Big Upset! I started well with 16-1 record at 125 lbs., but all the upsets at 133 lbs. left me, 13-4. Evan Cheek of Cleveland State gave 2-Time Defending NCAA Champ, Dean Heil, of Oklahoma State a tough bout, 4-2, but Heil advances. Sa'Derian Perry with a huge upset, 12-5, over #9 Josh Alber of Northern Iowa. Big Upset #4! Two Michiganders now wrestling, Nate Limmex of Purdue and Cole Weaver of Indiana. Weaver lost his 3-0 lead, and lost to Vince Turk of Iowa, 4-3 with a takedown and back points in the last 5 seconds. Eli Stickley of Wisconsin upset Limmex, 3-2. Jaydin Eierman just had a tough first round bout, 8-6, over Austin Headlee of North Carolina. Another upset, Colton McCrystal of Nebraska just got beat by Jarrett Deegan of Iowa State, 9-5. My bracket at 141 lbs. was 12-5. Kyle Springer of Eastern Michigan is giving #1 Zain Retherford of Penn State a good first period with Retherford ahead, 2-1, but Springer must have shot on him double digits of times. Wow! Malik Amine comes out quick against Keshawn Hayes of Ohio State with a takedown and 2:06 in riding time for a 2-1 lead at the end of the first period. Malik chose down, and Hayes is riding tough. Hayes gets back points and negated Malik's riding time advantage as he rode him the whole period, 3-2. Malik riding tough in the 3rd!!! Malik rides him out to earn a point riding time, it is now in overtime, 3-3. Malik was in deep with a single, and Hayes worked around with seconds to go to gain a 5-3 win. Wow! I spoke too fast, a coach's challenged negated the takedown so we're now in tiebreaker, 3-3! Malik get a a reversal, and now Ohio State has a coach's challenge! Challenge not upheld, but referee really decided the bout as he called Amine for stalling to give Hayes a point, 5-4, and then Hayes reversed for a 6-5 win. Alec Pantaleo gets an early takedown, 2-1, over Ian Brown of Lehigh. Alec with another takedown, 4-1. Second Period, Brown makes it 4-2, and Alec with another takedown, 6-2. Brown out, 6-3, and Alec almost with another takedown as period ends. Alec has 1:18 in riding time as he escapes and get another takedown in the 3rd period, 9-3. Alec lets him up, 9-4; Alec gets a final takedown to win 12-4. Logan Massa and Myles Amine up next for Michigan! Mason Smith of Central Michigan handled returning All-American Tommy Thorn of Minnesota, 3-0! Jordan Oliver of CMU beat Sam Krivus of Virginia, 3-1! I was 16-1 at 149, and 14-3 at 157! Kennedy Monday, son of Kenny Monday, is really taking it to #2 Joey Lavallee of Missouri, 8-4, in the 2nd. Monday holds on for an 8-6 verdict! Another huge upset, Jonathan Viruet of Brown takes out #8 Chandler Rogers of Oklahoma State, 6-5! Massa get a takedown, 2-0, now Logan is up, 4-2, and 6-2, then 8-3 as the 1st period ends. Logan up, 8-4, with 1:40 in riding time. Logan up 10-4 as 3rd period begins. Now, 11-4, as Logan escapes, then 13-4 with another takedown. Logan finishes out a 16-5 win! Myles is also going now! Myles up 2-0! Myles out in the 2nd with another takedown for a 5-0 lead. Myles wins, 6-0, with 2:27 in riding time! Domenic is ready to go! I was 16-1 at 165 in the first round! C.J. Brucki of CMU won his first bout, and teammate Jordan Ellingwood is up now! Bo Jordan of Ohio State squeeks out a 4-2 overtime decision over returning All-American Brandon Womack of Cornell! Dom gets an opening takedown, 2-0; he rides out the period for 1:20 in riding time. Dom is out, 3-0, and now 4-0; that is the final. Ellingwood wins 13-5 over Kayne MacCallum of EMU! Dylan Lyndy of Purdue upsets Johnny Sebastian of Northwestern in overtime, 6-2! I was 14-3 at 174 lbs. Iowa has been the surprise of the first round with two wins by Vince Turk; they Hawkeyes are in first by a point over Ohio State, 12.5 to 11.5, Michigan and Penn State are tied for 3rd with 11. Mitch Bowman keeps Iowa in first with a win over #15 Canten Marriott of Missouri, 10-2. Chip Ness of North Carolina beats #10 Emory Parker of Illinois, 5-3! It looks like #9 Preston Weigel of Oklahoma State will lose to Kyle Conel of Kent State as he is limping and has already taken significant injury time; he is behind, 4-0. #1 Kollin Moore hangs on for a 12-8 win over Tanner Orndorff of Utah Valley. I was 13-4 at 184 lbs. Dan Chaid of North Carolina upsets Stephen Loiseau of Drexel, 12-4, and Patrick Brucki of Princeton upsets #16 Christian Brunner of Purdue, 8-6. Cash Wilke keeps it going for Iowa with a 4-3 win over Eric Schultz of Nebraska. Sam Stoll gets a pin so the Hawkeyes lead the first session with 18.5 points and an undefeated record. 197 lbs. was my worst backet so far at 11-6. Adam Coon will end the session for Michigan! Adam with an upper body throw for a takedown. After a quick escape, Adam gets another takedown, 4-1. Adam ends the 2nd period ahead 7-2, and now 9-3 in the 3rd after a takedown as he goes for the major, tech or pin. It is a 12-3 final. Iowa closes the first session in first with 18.5 points, Ohio State has 17, Penn State has 16, and Michigan will be in 4th over North Carolina State with 13 to 12. I ended up 15-2 at 285 lbs. with my predictions.