Ohio State entered the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships on Thursday with their sights set on a second NCAA title in three years, and the Buckeyes stayed within striking distance of first place Penn State after the first session.
Seven of the nine Buckeyes to qualify for the tournament advanced to the round of 16, led by tech falls from No. 3 Micah Jordan at 149 and No. 1 Kyle Snyder at heavyweight. Nathan Tomasello, Luke Pletcher, Bo Jordan, Myles Martin, and Kollin Moore advanced in the championship brackets, while Jose Rodriguez and Cody Burcher will need to win later tonight to stay alive in the tournament.
Jose Rodriguez dropped his opening round match to American University's No. 11 Josh Terao by 13-4 major decision. Terao used some serious scrambling to put Rodriguez in a deep hole and bumped the Buckeye freshman into the consolation bracket. In tonight's first wrestleback, Rodriguez will face Oklahoma's Christian Moody, who fell to Minnesota's Ethan Lizak. Penn State's No. 3 seed at 125, Nick Suriano, defaulted out of the tournament yesterday, but all of the other seeded wrestlers advanced at 125.
Nathan Tomasello advanced to the round of 16 with a one-sided major decision over Korbin Myers of Edinboro by the score of 13-4.
Tomasello looked frustrated at Myers' defense, but the Buckeye junior advanced despite his opponent's best efforts. Tomasello will face North Dakota State's Cam Sykora, who upset No. 16 Kevin Devoy of Drexel in the opening round. The top five seeds at 133 all advanced with convincing opening round victories.
True freshman Luke Pletcher earned a hard-fought 8-5 decision over Michigan's Sal Profaci at 141 lbs in the opening round. Pletcher advances to the round of 16, where he will face Big Ten champion Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers. Ashnault, the No. 5 seed at 141, defeated Mason Smith of Central Michigan 8-3 in the opening round.
No. 4 seeded Micah Jordan scored some important bonus points for the Buckeyes in the opening round, absolutely ragdolling Troy Heilmann of North Carolina 21-6 for a tech fall. Jordan will lock horns with Maryland's No. 13 Alfred Bannister in tonight's Session II action.
Bannister defeated Harvard's Hunter Ladnier (St. Edward HS alum) 14-3 in the opening round. No. 8 seeded Pat Lugo of Edinboro was the highest seed to lose in the opening round, falling to South Dakota State's Alex Kocer. The winner of Bannister and Jordan will likely face Iowa's No. 5 Brandon Sorensen on Friday morning in the quarterfinals.
Ohio State did not have a wrestler qualify for the NCAA tournament at 157, but the top four seeds all advanced with Penn State's No. 1 Jason Nolf leading the way with an opening round tech fall.
Cody Burcher took a lopsided loss to No. 7 Anthony Valencia of Arizona State in the opening round, falling 11-0 to the Sun Devil freshman. Burcher will face Oklahoma's Yoanse Mejias, who lost to Te'Shan Campbell of Pitt in the opening round. The top four seeds at 165 all advanced to the second round, led by Illinois' Isaiah Martinez.
Bo Jordan wasn't quite able to match his brother's tech fall in the opening round, but still earned a major decision with a 10-1 victory over Harvard's Josef Johnson. Jordan started slowly, but picked up speed and dominated Johnson from the top position.
Bo looked frustrated at the end of the match as Johnson refused to open up on the mat while Jordan was looking for opportunities to score backpoints. Jordan will face No. 14 Lelund Weatherspoon of Iowa State this evening. The 174 bracket had few upsets, but notable was Oklahoma State's No. 7 Kyle Crutchmer losing to Jake Residori of SIU-Edwardsville, which will hurt the Cowboys in the team race.
Myles Martin showed no signs of rust in his opening round bout, winning a 23-10 major decision over Garrett Hoffman of Bucknell. Martin was frantic in his efforts, but was unable to secure the tech fall. There were no upsets in the 184 lb bracket as all seeded wrestlers advanced. No. 6 Martin will wrestle No. 11 Emery Parker of Illinois in tonight's Session II. Two-time NCAA champion Gabe Dean of Cornell looked fallible, giving up two takedowns to Navy's Michael Coleman, who is a native of northeast Ohio, but Dean ended up with a 21-12 major decision.
Kollin Moore started his match against Malik McDonald of NC State like he usually does and scored points in bunches, but Moore faltered down the stretch. He still earned a 16-6 major decision, but Moore could have possibly had a tech fall if he didn't tire late in the match. Moore will face No. 14 Corey Griego of Oregon State in tonight's Session II action. Most of the seeded wrestlers advanced at 197, with No. 9 Nate Rotert of South Dakota State being the highest seed to lose in the opening round.
Kyle Snyder put a lid on the first round for the Buckeyes, winning a tech fall in dominant fashion over Buffalo's Jake Gunning 25-10. Snyder took Gunning down at will and cruised to the second round of the tournament, where he will meet Columbia's Garrett Ryan, the No. 16 seed at HWT. The seeds at heavyweight mostly held form and avoided upsets with the only exceptions being No. 11 Jared Johnson of Chattanooga and No. 13 Collin Jensen of Nebraska.
Penn State ended the first session of the NCAA Championships with a slim lead. The Nittany Lions earned 15 points in the opening round, while the Buckeyes came in a close third with 13.
Session II will begin Thursday night at 7 ET, beginning with the wrestleback pigtails and continuing with the championship round of 16.
