NCAA Wrestling Round 2 Recap
The NCAA wrestling tournament is here and I got you covered for the round 2 recaps. I recapped the first round in two parts, lightweights, and heavyweights. Round 2 is the round of 16, winners advance to the quarterfinals Friday morning.
125 Pound Weight Class
The 125 pound weight class is really just a race to see who will finish in second place. Spencer Lee is one of the best wrestlers in the world and continued his dominance, winning by major decision in the round of 16.
The rest of the bracket went to seed except for the eight-nine matchup. RayVon Foley from Michigan State lost to Devin Schroeder from Purdue. The nine seed advance to face of against Lee in the quarterfinals.
133 Pound Weight Class
Again most of this bracket wrestled to their pre tournament seeds except for one match. This time it was the seven seed losing to the tenth seed, Louie Hayes from Virginia defeated Lucas Byrd from Illinois. Hayes got a take down in overtime to advance to the next round.
141 Pound Weight Class
Real Woods from Stanford earned a wildcard birth to the tournament after not wrestling enough regular-season matches, but the 21 seed is going to the quarterfinals after upsetting the 5 seed Dom Demas from Oklahoma. Woods got a takedown in overtime and got some back points to make the final score 5-1.
Zachary Sherman from North Carolina advance as the 10 seed, he beat Colin Valdiviez from Northwestern who upset Ian Parker, the 7 seed, in round 1. Sherman will face off against Nick Lee in the quarterfinals on Friday morning.
149 Pound Weight Class
We have another wrestler seeded in the twenties to make the quarterfinals. Yahya Thomas from Northwestern upset the eight-seed Jaden Abas in round one, and then beat the nine-seed Legend Lamer in the round of 16. He will face off against Sammy Sasso from Ohio State.
Sasso was down late in the third period and needed a last second score to defeat the 17 seed to advance to the quarterfinals.
Iowa’s Max Murin upset Ridge Lovett from Nebraska. The 12th seeded Murin needed a wildcard birth to make the tournament and now earned his way to wrestle in the quarterfinals Friday morning as a double-digit seed.
Josh Heil of Campbell and Boo Lewallen from Oklahoma State went to overtime. The 20 seed Heil and 4 seed Lewallen went through the first overtime period without a score and went to the second set of overtime where wrestlers alternate on top and bottom.
This match was one of the most confusing matches I have ever watched in wrestling ever, there were 3 challenge bricks thrown in the final 30 seconds of the match, but the result was Lewallen winning and advancing, but it was not easy for the Cowboy.
**Josh Heil was straight up robbed by the refs**
157 Pound Weight Class
Iowa finally lost a match in this tournament, going a perfect 14 for 14 through the first round and first few weights of the second round, Brady Berge from Penn State beat Kaleb Young to advance to the quarterfinals. Berge was the 12 seed and beat the 5th seeded Hawkeye 3-2.
We did have a match of two wrestlers seeded in the twenties in the second round. Jacob Wright from Wyoming defeated Johnny Lovett from Central Michigan. The 23 seed will face off against Hayden Hidlay in the quarterfinals.
165 Pound Weight Class
Mekhi Lewis from Virginia Tech is a returning national champion, but the four seed has an injured shoulder and was fighting back tears while wrestling in the round of 16. He won 3-2, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he has to injury default out of the tournament tomorrow.
This is the only bracket up until this point that wrestled to their seeds.
174 Pound Weight Class
The two seed from Arizona State Anthony Valencia wins an overtime match, and that was not the only over time match of this weight. Logan Massa from Michigan the five seed goes down in the round of 16 to Bernie Truax from Cal Poly.
The rest of this weight wrestles to seed, setting up some great matches for the quarterfinals.
184 Pound Weight Class
This weight also wrestled to their pre-tournament seeds. Hidlay is bringing the scoring to a whole new level, winning by technical fall in the round of 16.
Aaron Brooks from Penn State has outscored his opponents by 21 points in just two matches.
197 Pound Weight Class
Myles Amine from Michigan had a closer match than he would have liked as the one seed in the tournament. He only beat the 16 seed Jake Jakobsen by two points in the round of 16.
Cameron Caffey from Michigan State, the 10 seed lost to the 26 seed Jake Woodley from Oklahoma. A huge upset for the side of the bracket that saw the two seed lose in round one.
Michael Beard from Penn State is the beneficiary of the two seed losing in round one, as the 15th seeded Beard wrestled Owen Pentz, the 31 seed who won by fall in round one.
285 Pound Weight Class
Trent Hilger from Wisconsin upset the three seed Matt Stencel from Central Michigan. Hilger won the match 2-1, but a huge win for Hilger to advance on the more favorable side of the bracket at 285.
Penn State has another guy into the quarterfinals Friday morning, Greg Kerkvliet, the nine-seed majored Jordan Woods from Lehigh in the round of 16 12-2.
TL//DR: NCAA wrestling round 2 recap, a few upsets and some bad officiating wrap up the first day of wrestling.
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