Buckeyes flex their muscles in NCAA second round

By Mike Finn

Before Ohio State even arrived in Cleveland for the 2018 NCAA Division I Championships, nine of the Buckeyes’ 10 participants were seeded in the Top 8 of their weight.

NCAA Second-Round Team Scores and Brackets

So it’s not so surprising to see the Big Ten champions send all nine of those highly-ranked wrestlers to Friday morning’s quarterfinal. But what is making the Buckeyes even more impressive — and one reason they hold the team lead with 36 points — is that this group is also scoring bonus points.

RETURN TO WIN’S NCAA HOME PAGE

In winning 19 of 20 matches over the two rounds at Quicken Loans Arena, the Buckeyes have scored 17 bonus points, with 10 coming in the second round. Scoring those extra points for Ohio State in Thursday night’s session were:

• 125-pound Nathan Tomasello, who earned an injury default over Arizona State’s Ryan Millhof … after scoring a pin in Thursday’s first round;
• 149-pound Joey McKenna, who converted his second straight technical with 15-0 blanking of Lehigh’s Luke Karam;
• 157-pound Micah Jordan scoring a 3:10 fall against Columbia’s Markus Scheidel;
• 174-pound Bo Jordan earning a 11-3 major decision against South Dakota;
• 184-pound Myles Martin, whose 17-5 major decision over Iowa’s Mitch Bowman came after first-round technical fall;
• 197-pound Kollin Moore majoring Princeton’s Patrick Brucki, 14-4;
• and heavyweight Kyle Snyder scoring a 23-8 technical fall over Campbell’s Jered Heino.

Meanwhile, Penn State saw all seven wrestlers win matches in the second round and stand in second place with 28.5 points. This includes three Nittany Lions who scored bonus points: Zain Retherford’s pin against Maryland Alfred Bannister at 149 pounds; Mark Hall’s pin over Purdue’s Dylan Lydy at 174 pounds; and Shakur Rasheed’s second straight major decision in beating North Carolina’s Daniel Chaid, 14-3, at 197 pounds.

Penn State’s Mark Hall scored a 21-3 technical fall over Purdue’s Dylan Lydy in the second round at 174 pounds.

Overall, Penn State has scored 13.5 bonus points and also saw its first-round losers — Corey Keener at 133 pounds and Nick Lee at 141 — stay alive with wrestleback wins on Thursday night.

First-round leader Iowa fell to third place with 27 points. And while the Hawkeyes got 5.5 bonus points from 125-pound Spencer Lee (with his second technical fall, an 18-0 blanking of Purdue’s Luke Welch) and two other Hawkeyes — 157-pound Michael Kemerer and 165-pound Alex Marinelli — who each have two pins in the 2018 Nationals, they were the only three of eight Hawkeyes to win second-round bouts.

Lock Haven’s No. 15 seed Ronnie Perry scored a takedown with 30 seconds left to beat Iowa’s No. 2 seed Brandon Sorensen at 149 pounds. (Ginger Robinson image)

Among the top Hawkeyes to lose on Thursday night were 149-pound Brandon Sorensen, the No 2 seed, who lost 3-1 to Lock Haven’s Ronald Perry, and fourth-seeded heavyweight Sam Stoll, who lost to Maryland’s Yousseif Hemida.

All ten No. 1 seeds reached the quarterfinals. But so do have five unseeded wrestlers. That includes NC State’s 141-pound Tariq Wilson, who beat Northern Colorado’s Rico Montoya, 7-1; Eastern Michigan’s 149-pound Sa’Darian Perry, who defeated Maryland’s Ryan Diehl, 12-6; North Carolina’s 184-pound Chip Nell, who defeated Nebraska’s Taylor Venz, 11-6; Kent State’s 197-pound Kyle Conel, who beat South Dakota State’s Nate Rotert, 8-2; and Lehigh’s 197-pound Chris Weiler, who defeated Penn’s Frank Mattiace, 6-4.

All top 10 No. 1 seeds advanced to Friday’s quarterfinals, including Arizona State’s Zahid Valencia (right) at 174 pounds.

The following are the current standings and quarterfinalists for the top 10 teams: