NCAA D1 Wrestling Championships Brackets and Team Score after Session 3 – Semi-finals Preview
The NCAA DI Wrestling Championships finished their third session of wrestling at Madison Square Garden. Session three included the quarterfinals, and two rounds of consolation matches. Each session the attendance continues to increase. Through three rounds, attendance has already reached 53,468. Session four begins tonight at 8 p.m. EST. at Madison Square Garden, which will include semi-final matches, and two more rounds of wrestle backs.
As the third round of the championship side of the bracket comes to a conclusion, Penn State, Ohio State and Iowa are among the top of the leaders in the team race. Oklahoma State, Mizzou, and Nebraska are all trailing behind by a few points. The Nittany Lions extended their team lead to 11 points after the front side of the brackets finished. Penn State sent the most wrestlers into the semi-finals, with five guys total. Ohio State and Iowa both had four wrestlers advance for their respective schools. Oklahoma State, and Mizzou each advanced three wrestlers into the semi-finals.
Penn State’s top seeds, Retherford, Nickal and McIntosh all advanced, plus their No. 3 seed’s, Megaludis and Nolf. The Buckeyes marched four wrestlers into the semi-finals as returning national champion, Nathan Tomasello, and Senior Freestyle World Champion, Kyle Snyder at heavyweight, helped keep the Nittany Lions within reach of the team score. Tom Brands’ Hawkeyes advanced No. 4 Thomas Gilman at 125, No. 2 Corey Clark at 133, No. 2 Brandon Sorensen at 149, and 197-pound wrestler, No. 4 Nathan Burak.
The Cowboys of Oklahoma State pushed three into the sem-finals, as No. 1-seed, red-shirt freshman, Dean Heil and No. 11-seed Anthony Collica, found his way into the semi-finals, after beating the 2014 national champion, Jason Tsirtsis, and the No. 3-seed from Missouri, Lavion Mayes. Returning Two-time national champion, Alex Dieringer, will lead the Cowboys into the semi-finals as he takes on No. 4-seed, Daniel Lewis of Mizzou.
Tonight there will be seven wrestlers that have won a national title. two wrestlers has multiple championships, Alex Dieringer of Oklahoma State and Nick Gwiazdowski of N.C. State. J.Den Cox won his title as a freshman in 2014. Two of last years champions were freshman, Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State, and Isaiah Martinez of Illinois.
Semi-final Matches to Watch:
At 125-pounds Tomasello (OSU) is set to face No. 4-seed Gilman (Iowa) in the semi-final match. These in-conference wrestlers have yet to face one-another this season.
133- No. 2 Clark (Iowa) is set to face No. 3 Richards (Illinois) in the bottom half of the bracket. These two wrestlers have met twice, both times they required extra time to decide the outcome. Clark and Richards have split the wins, as Clark lost earlier in the year 5-3 in SV and won later on 2-1 via tie-breaker.
133- Garrett of Cornell is seeded No. 1 for the tournament, Brewer is the No. 4-seed. Brewer is the returning national champion, but Garrett edged him out during the season by a score of 14-9.
141- Heil (OKST) is the No. 1-seed and has only lost one bout during the season. Ashnault is seeded No. 4. Ashnault, the Big Ten Champion (First Ever for Rutgers Since joining the Big Ten), has yet to face the freshman Cowboy.
149- Retherford of Penn State looks to win his third bout against Pantelaeo of Michigan. First two times they have met, Retherford won by fall. The Wolverine hopes to disrupt Penn State’s No. 1-seeds chance of reaching the finals.
157- Isaiah Martinez is the No. 1-seed and returning national champion. He’s the first wrestler to go undefeated throughout the season and win a national title since Cael Sanderson. His only loss came to Nolf of Penn State, whom wrestles Walsh in the other semi-final match of the bracket. Ian Milller enters the match without ever wrestling Martinez.
165- Alex Dieringer, a 3-time all-American and two-time national champion, seeks his third title as a senior. A tough match stands in front of that opportunity as he faces Daniel Lewis again. Dieringer beat Lewis in a tough match earlier in the season by a score of 4-3.
165- Isaac Jordan of Wisconsin seeks his fourth win against his cousin, Bo Jordan of Ohio State. These two wrestlers wrestled together in high school and are family. Isaac Jordan has two of the three wins this season in a tight 6-4 win, and a 3-1 win in the Big Ten Championship match.
174- Nickal of Penn State is a red-shirt freshman, and will face the man that handed him his only loss on the season. Jackson of Indiana defeated Nickal 7-6 during the Indiana vs. Penn State dual. Nickal is the No. 1-seed. Jackson entered this tournament as the No. 12-seed.
184- Returning National champion at 184-pounds is Gabe Dean of Cornell. The Cornell junior seeks his second title and plans to push through the No. 13-seed, Pete Renda of N.C. State.
197- No. 1 McIntosh of Penn State battles Burak of Iowa in a rematch of earlier this season. McIntosh defeated the No. 4-seed 3-2 in the bout.
197- Cox of Mizzou, a former national champion from 2014, hopes to stand at the top of the podium once again. Before doing so, he’ll have to defeat the No. 3-seed Pfarr of Minnesota.
285- The top match of the heavyweight semi-final matches is a rematch of last year’s NCAA Championships finals. Gwiazdowski of N.C. State beat Adam Coon of Michigan for his second title last season. This season, both wrestlers have yet to encounter one another.
285- Walz of Virginia Tech is the No. 3-seed with a record of 26-2 on the season. Snyder of Ohio State is 9-0 on the season after opting out of his Olympic red-shit. Snyder won a senior level Freestyle World Championship and became the youngest American to ever do so. Snyder is the No. 2-seed entering the tournament.
Team Scores
1. Penn State 68.5
2. Ohio St. 54.0
3. Iowa 48.5
4. Oklahoma St. 46.0
5. Missouri 42.5
6. Nebraska 35.5
7. NC State 32.5
8. Michigan 32.0
9. Virginia Tech 30.5
10. Cornell 28.5
11. Illinois 28.0
12. Oklahoma 24.5
13. Rutgers 22.0
14. Lehigh 19.5
15. Iowa St. 19.0
16. Kent St. 18.5
17. Wyoming 17.5
18. Minnesota 16.0
18. Rider 16.0
18. Stanford 16.0
21. Wisconsin 13.0
22. American 12.5
23. Indiana 12.0
23. Oregon St. 12.0
25. Bucknell 10.0
25. Edinboro 10.0
27. Arizona St. 9.5
27. Bakersfield 9.5
29. Navy 9.0
29. Pennsylvania 9.0
31. Ohio 8.0
32. Old Dominion 7.5
32. Pittsburgh 7.5
32. South Dakota St. 7.5
35. Princeton 7.0
36. Appalachian St. 6.5
36. Northern Iowa 6.5
36. Purdue 6.5
39. Central Michigan 5.5
39. Duke 5.5
39. North Carolina 5.5
39. North Dakota St. 5.5
43. Drexel 5.0
43. Harvard 5.0
45. Utah Valley 4.5
46. West Virginia 4.0
47. Buffalo 3.5
47. Virginia 3.5
49. Campbell 3.0
49. Cleveland St. 3.0
49. Columbia 3.0
49. Frank. & Marsh. 3.0
49. Gardner-Webb 3.0
49. Lock Haven 3.0
49. Northern Ill. 3.0
49. Northwestern 3.0
57. Army 2.5
57. Boise State 2.5
57. Hofstra 2.5
60. Chattanooga 2.0
60. SIU Edwardsville 2.0
62. Air Force 1.5
62. Clarion 1.5
64. Maryland 1.0
65. Binghamton 0.5
65. Brown 0.5
65. Eastern Mich. 0.5
65. George Mason 0.5
69. Citadel 0.0
69. Michigan St. 0.0
69. VMI 0.0
72. Northern Colo. -1.0
