What You Missed On Day One of the NCAA DII National Championships

photo courtesy of Sam Janicki; SJanickiPhoto.com

I am not sure how you could have missed anything from day one of the NCAA Division II Men’s National Wrestling Tournament, but if you did, I got your back. It was a day full of upsets and heartbreaks. There was history made and history ended. There will be new national champions as reigning champions fell. A son followed in his father’s footsteps and became a Division II All-American, while his teammate became the first semifinalist since him. There is a new team in first place after day one for the first time in what seems like forever. Seven teams are within 15 points of the lead heading into day two. We may know who will be an All-American, but there is still work to be done. Let’s go weight by weight so that I do not miss anything trying to catch you up.

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The biggest news here is that Josh Portillo (Nebraska-Kearney) will not be an All-American after losing his second match of the day in sudden victory one to Christian Wellman (Ashland). He is not the only seeded lightweight not finishing on the podium though, Charlie Lenox (Gannon) and Cole Jones (MSU-Moorhead) both fell a round short. The bottom half of the bracket progressed along normal with Paxton Rose (Central Oklahoma) and Cole Laya (West Liberty) advancing to the semifinals. On the top half, you have unseeded Christian Mejia (McKendree), taking on the fifth-seed Nick Daggett (UNC-Pembroke). Three of the four semifinalists are still in the hunt for a team title, which means there will be some weird fan alliances. If Mejia can continue his run and make the finals at a weight where Nebraska-Kearney, St Cloud State, and Lindenwood have no points left, it would be huge. The same thing goes for Paxton Rosen, the Broncs need to get every point they can find. Also, you can tell Cole Laya wrestles with Tyler Warner, he is a 125lb version of the 133 reigning national champion. 

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Speaking of Tyler Warner (West Liberty), the senior is right on track to return to the finals and defend his national title. Of course, he has to go through the man he beat two years ago in the finals, Wesley Dawkins (Nebraska-Kearney). They both have won a match by fall and then decision to face off. On the top of the bracket, top-seed Garrett Vos (St Cloud State) defeated the dangerous Patrick Allis (Western Colorado) and will take on the fifth seed Tanner Cole (Central Oklahoma). Cole was able to avenge his finals loss to Tanner Hitchcock (Lindenwood) two weeks ago and advance. We have three teams fighting for that team trophy in the semifinals and West Liberty is right there too in that battle. The seeding committee has to be feeling great, all eight are still alive. Tanner Hitchcock still has a chance to wrestle to seed for the Lions and with Central Oklahoma, McKendree, and Nebraska-Kearney all looking to put a wrestler in the finals, he needs to battle back and finish well. He will have the son of the nicest wrestling mom in Division II; Patrick Allis has been a giant slayer and last season, he beat returning Lion national champion Carlos Jacquez. Can he tame another Lion or will Hitchcock earn a measure of revenge? 

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Seeds one through four are into the semifinals. That is the good. The sixth and eighth seeds are out. That is the bad. King University Christian Small picked up another upset two weeks after knocking Isiah Royal (Newberry) into the at-large bid. He is an All-American and will take on Nick James (Nebraska-Kearney). Tate Murty (Upper Iowa) used a bye after a first-round loss to advance to the bloodround and then sent Austin Hertel (Gannon) to the spectator section for the rest of the tournament. Branson Proudlock (Findlay) beat Small to start the tournament before a loss to Royal sent him back. His win over Pete Kuster (Drury) put him on the podium and gives Findlay two All-Americans. Lindenwood and St. Cloud State still have finalist points available for Colby Smith and Joey Bianchini. Notre Dame College has one wrestler here in returning All-American Kelan McKenna and he is a semifinalist. Nebraska-Kearney still has Nick James alive, but McKendree lost Devin Schwartzkopf and they are done scoring points at this weight. 

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I wish I had been doing audio because you could have heard the two adults nearly get into a fight behind me during the Dalton Flint (Emmanuel) and Luke McDonough (UNC-Pembroke) match. It is great or possibly terrible to see that wrestling parents never really change. In the end both athletes are out of the tournament now and I hope the two guys feel sufficiently idiotic for their antics. The big news here is that Lukas Martin (Fairmont State) is the first All-American in program history and he avenged a loss to Sam Turner (Nebraska-Kearney) from when they were Division I athletes wrestling for Big12 schools. Turner recovered from that setback and stuck Eric Faught (Upper Iowa) in the first period of their bloodround match. Lindenwood kept another top-seed alive as Gavin Londoff advanced. Pitt-Johnstown restarted their season just in time for the super regional tournament and it worked out for Jacob Ealy, he is an All-American. In a big win for St. Cloud State, Garrett Aldrich was able to find a way past Kyle Rathman (MSU-Mankato) after dropping two matches to him this season. His win gives the Huskies semifinal points and matches Lindenwood at the weight so far. Rathman bounced back to get the win; he needed to be an All-American, as did Carson Speelman (Ashland). The teams battling for the trophy owe a big thank you to Sean O’Hearon (Lake Erie), he knocked Gabe Johnson (Central Oklahoma) out of the tournament and the Bronc was held from adding any points to their team total.

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The seventh and fourth seeds are out of this tournament and as we said when the brackets came out, Nick Young (Gannon) is an All-American. Colby Njos (St Cloud State) showed that the Huskies made the right choice when they handed the reins over to him and he is an All-American after beating seventh-seed Caden Moore (Northern State) in the bloodround. Chase Luensman (Upper Iowa) was sent to the backside courtesy of Ty Lucas (Central Oklahoma) and then sent packing courtesy of Will Evans (Newberry). Evans joins Njos as an unseeded athlete making the podium. If you want drama and intrigue, Njos has a match with Jacob Wasser (Nebraska-Kearney), with the loser headed to the seventh-place match. Team race, baby! James Wimer (Findlay) and Dawson Combest (Indianapolis) each have a chance to crush some team title hopes, Wimer faces Ty Lucas and Combest has Ronnie Gentile (Lindenwood). We finally get to see the match we were denied during the dual between Lindenwood and UIndy and I am one happy camper. Ronnie Gentile is only two years younger than assistant coach Jonce Blaylock; that is kind of funny to me.

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There is a one-seed on the backside of this bracket and he will take on Baltazar Gonzalez (American International). JoJo just made history for his program and head coach Rich Hasenfus by becoming the first All-American in program history. Not bad for a young man who did not have a single match before the super regional tournament. He will wrestle St. Cloud State’s Devin Fitzpatrick, who lost to Corey Peterson (McKendree) in a match that shook up the team race. Peterson takes on Alex Farenchak (Gannon), who was able to flip the super regional results and get the better of Gonzalez this time. It sets up an 8th vs. 5th seed just like everyone picked it. Matt Malcom (Nebraska-Kearney) and Fred Green (Colorado Mesa) will meet once again with a berth in the finals on the line. They have each been workmanlike in their wins and Loper fans are crossing their fingers that they can get their reigning national champion back into the finals. Kameron Frame (Newman) has to be feeling like he received the worst possible draw in this tournament, first round second seed Green and then in the bloodround top-seed Fitzpatrick. The Jet will be back next season and I hope he has a clearer flight path. UMary only brought two wrestlers and they will have one of them on the podium, Braydon Huber defeated Shane Gantz (Parkside) and now faces John Dean (Belmont Abbey). Dean is the first All-American in program history for the Abbey and coach Ken Caudell. Belmont Abbey had a scary lineup last season and lost their chance to compete at nationals, Dean made up for lost time today. It is pretty cool that this weight saw two different programs earn their first All-American honors. 

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Noah Curreri (Queens) lost his first match and then battled back against Max Bruss (UMary) in the bloodround to become the first All-American in program history. Big shout out to some of the best hair on any coach, Rob Tate; you have that #Flow. I need to hook you up with AJ Cooper (Fort Hays) and have you compare conditioner notes. We knew no matter what, Brock Biddle (Pitt-Johnstown) would be an All-American and we were right. A quarterfinal loss was helped by a bloodround bye and the Mountain Cat joins Nick Young as a beneficiary of the magic bye. I may not have been high enough on Abner Romero (Lindenwood). He has looked every bit the top-seed, winning 13-0 and 16-2. He will take on Daniel Beemer (Ashland), who has kept the momentum going from the Super Regional III tournament and made it to the semifinals. Along the way, he helped out the Lions by sending Josh Jones (McKendree) to the backside of the bracket. Andrew Sams (Indianapolis) made friends on Nebraska-Kearney, Lindenwood, and St Cloud State when he beat Wyatt Jordan (Central Oklahoma) and now he meets Trevor Turiff (MSU-Mankato) in a toss-up. Jordan then ran into Josh Jones courtesy of Daniel Beemer and that ended his tournament and the Broncs hopes for points at this weight. This is a weight where Nebraska-Kearney, McKendree, and Lindenwood can all make up ground on the other teams in the trophy hunt. There is no St. Cloud State and no more Central Oklahoma here. If Lindenwood can make the finals, they benefit from Josh Jones and Terrell Garraway (Nebraska-Kearney) meeting first thing tomorrow. Garraway has battled back after a first-round loss to Max Bruss (UMary) and he had the last laugh as he won his bloodround match will Bruss fell just short. 

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Bailey Kelly (Maryville) is laughing in the face of the seeding committee right now and I, for one, am loving it. I am all about the #OOOOSSSS train. He has beaten the third and sixth seeds along his path to the semifinals and only Connor Craig (West Liberty) is left to tell this Cinderella that it is midnight. In a really cool story out of Southwest Minnesota State, check this out. The last Mustang to make the semifinals of the national tournament just happens to be Cade Steffen’s father all the way back in the late 1990s. Now Cade is an All-American and his teammate Jackson Ryan is in the semifinals. Shut up! That is cool! Dan Fillipek (McKendree) has looked like an offensive machine so far, which could be significant when he takes on Heath Gray (Central Oklahoma) tomorrow. Fillipek has yet to score a takedown in their battles but has constantly wrestled him close. Heath Gray is gonna Heath Gray, though. He is into the semifinals and I am betting he had to run in sweats so he could break a sweat and make weight for tomorrow. Anderson Salisbury (Colorado Mines) made friends when he sent William Pitzner (St Cloud State) to the gallery in a match that had more than one review and reminded me how much I hate that the process slows a match down so drastically. This weight is going to impact the team race quickly; besides the McKendree versus Central Oklahoma semifinal, Nebraska-Kearney still has Austin Eldredge alive on the backside. No Lindenwood and St. Cloud State now out at the weight means this is a chance to lock down points. 

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I do not want to talk about this weight. If I had printed off my brackets after filling them off, I would have thrown them away after pouring holy water on them and burning them with incense. The two, four, and eighth seeds are all out of the tournament. It was a bad day to be an even number. The reigning national champion Nicholas Mason (Tiffin) lost both of his matches today and is out of the tournament. Luke McGonigal (Mercyhurst) had a similar type of day. Logan Kemp (West Liberty) also had himself a bad day going 0-2. The odd seeds were not immune to having a rough tournament here, Joel Leise (Gannon) fell to Jackson Ryan (SMSU) one round after the Mustang sent Mason to the consolations too. Here’s what you need to know, Ryan Vasbinder (McKendree) is still really good. Dalton Abney (Central Oklahoma) had to go to overtime to win, but he advanced as well and can still wrestle to his seed or better. Zac Ryg (Upper Iowa) is still undefeated, but now has to wrestle Vasbinder. A lot people are going to be cheering for Ryan tomorrow, but none of them will be fans of Central Oklahoma. On the backside, Noah Ryan (St. Cloud State) has bounced back from an early loss and has earned an All-American finish for the Huskies. Joseph Reimer (Nebraska-Kearney) has two falls and none bigger than the one that pushed him past Nicholas Mason and earned him All-American honors. Lake Erie unleashed a storm on UNC-Pembroke and now Chris Droege is an All-American for the Erie, Pennsylvania school.

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Kameron Teacher (St Cloud State) is a really good wrestler. He is now a four-time All-American with a chance to make his third national finals and possibly help win his first team title. He will take on AJ Cooper (Fort Hays State), who I have become a huge fan of and not just because I am hoping to set up a sponsorship deal with to score some sweet hats. I really want him to wrestle the Viking with a mohawk Steve Hajas (Augustana) at some point this tournament in a battle of sweet hair. Hajas is into the semifinals after beating Tristen Weirich (Ashland) and Lee Herrington (Nebraska-Kearney). He will take on Weston Hunt (Colorado Mines) after he was able to drive into Jared Rennick (Drury) and end the match early with a fall. This is a battle of two very athletic heavies who can move like their lightweight teammates. Only the fourth-seed Freddie Nixon (Gannon) failed to make the podium after the early upset of Weirich put him square in the path of Nixon. Lee Herrington (Nebraska-Kearney) helped his team out by grabbing a win in the bloodround over Cade Ridley (King) and with no Lindenwood or McKendree left St Cloud State and the Lopers are going to look to score points. It is not unbelievable to think that this tournament could come down to Kameron Teacher in the finals, which would be pretty cool and also really favor the Huskies. 

Now you’re all caught up and you better tune in tomorrow!



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