Good morning fellow 11wer's! Day 1 of the wrestling national championships are in the books, appreciate everyone contributing to that first thread as I was indisposed with familial duties last night, but I did get to watch the second session yesterday so I'll provide a bit of a recap here before we launch into some day 2 things to watch.
The Buckeyes have 3 wrestlers left in the championship brackets:
#2 Sammy Sass (149) won both matches yesterday and today he will wrestle Yahya Thomas of Northwestern who is the 7 seed. Great matchup here for Sasso as he already has wins over Thomas in the conference, but Thomas is an absolute monster athlete and is basically carrying a NW wrestling program that was supposed to be more of a head turner in the tournament.
#10 Carson Kharchla (165) won both of his matches yesterday and frankly, he wrestled his ass off and had a great showing as I don't think many pundits thought he was going to be a force in the tournament, but here he is, prepping for quarters! He's got as tough an assignment as there is wrestling against 2 seed Keegan O'Toole (who already has a national title under his belt) from Missouri who is an absolute monster. Kharchla will have to have a great match, probably damn near perfect, to get the W.
#6 Kaleb Romero (184) won both of his matches yesterday in consistent if not completely dominant fashion. Romero got a bit of a tough draw here as he wrestles 2x defending national champion (and another Penn State guy) Aaron Brooks whom Romero has wrestled multiple times and never beat. Another uphill climb here, but hey, Romero is tough as nails and looks healthy, anything could happen.
As far as the rest of the crew, #14 Jesse Mendez (133) had a solid showing against a more experienced wrestler in #4 seed Michael McGee from Arizona state but he lost 6-2. Mendez looks to bounce back and try and find a way onto the podium today in wrestle-backs Domenic Zaccone of Campbell University (should be a very winnable match for Mendez).
#17 Dylan D'Emilio (141) had an excellent match with #1 seed Real Woods of Iowa but lost a decision 7-5, it wasn't without controversy but the refs wound up making the right call on that last takedown. D'Emilio looks to get back on track today against Tom Crook of Virginia Tech..
#28 Paddy Gallagher (157) went 1-1 yesterday dropping his first match 3-0 and then bounced back with a win in his first consolation match and he will look to continue moving forward against Derek Holschlag from UNI.
#6 Ethan Smith (174) avenged a previous tournament loss in the first round but lost his second round matchup to 11 seed Nelson Brands of Iowa. Today Smith will wrestle Lennox Wolak of Columbia who has a limited record this season but is a tough draw.
#28 Gavin Hoffman (197) went 1-1 yesterday dropping his first match but wrestling well in the consolation round and getting a W. He has a very tough draw with former national champion Max Dean of Penn State who Hoffman has not yet beaten.
#16 Tate Orndorff (HWT) went 1-1 as well dropping his first round match but getting a W in consolations. He goes up against Grady Griess of Navy today.
Few other things of note, Penn State is atop the leader board, nothing new there, and guess what? Iowa is right behind them. The Big Ten is well represented in the team standings.
Hope you all enjoy today's sessions! Let's go Buckeyes!
