NCAA Wrestling Finals and Medal Rounds Preview and Open Thread

Are you psyched? I’m so psyched. I’m so psyched, I’m currently watching Psych. Okay, that’s a lie. It’s unrelated. Let’s talk wrestling!

NCAA.com

125:

Spencer Lee is unreal. There are rumors of injuries, maybe everyone is figuring him out, maybe we overhyped him... oh, he’s bonused his way through the field. He will wrestle Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney, the three-seed, to formalize that whole national championship thing. Courtney is the undefeated Pac-12 champion, and will try to last seven minutes.

Pat McKee will wrestle Taylor LaMont of Utah Valley in the consolation semifinals, and Eric Barnett wrestles Killian Cardinale of West Virginia for seventh place.

133:

Spencer Lee... wait sorry. Roman Bravo-Young will wrestle Daton Fix after dispatching Korbin Myers in the semifinals while Fix walked backwards around a mat for seven minutes on steriods. This is Fix’s second finals appearance, having lost to Nick Suriano in 2019 before taking an Olympic Redshirt/doping suspension last season.

Okay, I wanna clear something up really quickly. I do not believe Daton Fix has intentionally taken banned performance enhancing substances. He tested positive for Ostarine, which is a muscle growth drug. That wouldn’t be particularly smart for a wrestler who is bound by, you know, weight classes. You can read more about his suspension here. This does not mean I will stop making jokes.

DeSanto will wrestle Michael McGee of Arizona State and Byrd will face Myers in the consolation semifinals, and I really hope they both win so we can see them wrestle again. Chris Cannon will battle Louie Hayes for seventh place.

141:

Jaydin Eierman is a magic man who picked up consecutive falls to propel him into the finals, where he will face Nick Lee in a rematch of the Big Ten final. Lee defeated Sebastian Rivera to set up his eventual doom. Rivera will wrestle Dylan Duncan in the consolation semifinals, and Chad Red picked up four consecutive victories to face NC State’s Tariq Wilson, Eierman’s latest victim.

149:

Sammy Sasso pinned Boo Lewallen to set up the long awaited matchup with North Carolina’s Austin O’Connor, the undefeated ACC champion. O’Connor’s last NCAAs run was cut short by another Ohio State wrestler, Micah Jordan. Yahya Thomas will see Mizzou’s Brock Mauller in the consolation semifinals for a chance at third place.

157:

Well, Ryan Deakin got pinned, so this is the first final with no Big Ten wrestlers. Iowa State’s David Carr will see Rider’s Jesse Dellevecchia. Deakin will wrestle Brayton Lee in the consolation semifinals, and Kaleb Young will wrestle Wyatt Sheets of Oklahoma state for seventh.

165:

Marinelli lost in the quarterinals, and Ethan Smith lost in the semifinals, so this is the second weight with no Big Ten wrestlers in the final. Smith will face Travis Wittlake of Okie State in the consolation semifinals, and Cameron Amine will wrestle Anthony Valencia for seventh.

174:

There we go, here’s some Big Ten wrestlers. Michael Kemerer controlled Bernie Truax throughout for an 8-1 decision to advance to the finals, and Carter Starocci defeated the other Romero using [gasp] no takedowns! This is the second Big Ten finals rematch. That Romero will face Mikey Labriola in the consolation semifinals, while Truax will get Logan Massa. Jackson Turley won four consolation matches in a row before being injured and losing to Massa, and will wrestle NC State’s Daniel Bullard for seventh if he is able.

184:

Aaron Brooks edged out UNI freshman Parker Keckheisen 6-4, and Poznanski lost in tiebreaks to Trent Hidlay, depriving me of the opportunity to say Poz-nasty. The two top seeds will do battle for the top of the podium. Hidlay is the ACC champion, finally knocking off Hunter Bolen for the first time in four tries this year. He and Brooks haven’t met. Poznanski is the only other Big Ten wrestler to All-American at 184, and will wrestle Dakota Geer of, you guessed it, Oklahoma State in the consolation semifinals.

197:

Nope, no Big Ten wrestlers here either. Myles Amine lost to Oklahoma State freshman AJ Ferrari in the semifinals, and so he and Jacob Warner are in the consolation semifinals while Michael Beard is wrestling for seventh. Warner will see Oklahoma’s 26-seed Jake Woodley, whose cinderella run struck midnight against Pittsburgh’s Nico Bonaccorsi. Amine gets Mizzou’s Rocky Elam, and Beard will wrestle Wyoming’s Stephen Buchanan.

285:

Hey guys, I found all the Big Ten wrestlers! Six Big Ten wrestlers make up the top eight, including the top two (and seven-eight). The Steveson-Parris not-rivalry gets another match, this time on wrestling’s biggest stage: The WWE Global Championships! Just kidding, Steveson isn’t there yet if it’s a thing. Never got into WWE, actually. The other not-rivalry is Cassioppi and Hillger, with the winner going to the third-place match and the loser going home after wrestling for fifth place and then traveling back with the rest of the team. Meanwhile, the totally real deal Kerkvliet faces Orndorff for seventh place.

Iowa leads team scores with 109 points, with Penn State in second at 94.5. Michigan is fifth with 58.5 points, Minnesota is eighth with 55.5, and Ohio State is ninth with 45.5. Nebraska, Northwestern, Rutgers, and Illinois are all in the top 20, and Wisconsin, Purdue, and Michigan State also earned points. Iowa could earn I believe 28.5 points without bonus points, and Penn State could add another 18.