Thursday, March 17
New York, N.Y.
7:00 PM
Lehigh University
at
NCAA Championships
Wessell reaches quarterfinals, Lehigh advances eight to day two of NCAA Championships
3/17/2016 11:06:00 PM | Men's Wrestling
Brackets | Team Scores | Thursday afternoon recap | Lehigh audio
NEW YORK – Senior Max Wessell won twice to reach the quarterfinals at heavyweight, while eight of Lehigh's nine qualifiers advanced to Friday's second day as the Mountain Hawks opened up action at the NCAA Championships Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Thursday's evening session was not kind to the Mountain Hawks at first, as Lehigh dropped its first four championship bracket bouts, but Wessell's 15-7 major decision over Michael Kroells of Minnesota sparked a run of three more Lehigh wins in the first round of consolations.
Â
The Mountain Hawks finished day one with 10.5 points, good for fourth place.
Â
"It was a tough night tonight," Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said. "We only got one through in the championships, which was really tough. We have to regroup. We did it two weeks ago but we need to regroup. The important thing is we have eight alive tomorrow. We have to really battle hard tomorrow morning to get guys through to the All-American round tomorrow night."
Â(3/17/2016) Wrestling at NCAA Championships, 3/17/16
Â
"He's doing great," Santoro said of Wessell. "He's wrestling really well right now and putting up a lot of points. That's what you want to see. He has a big one tomorrow, but Max is in a good place right now."
Â
Lehigh's three other seeded wrestlers suffered tough losses in Thursday night's championship round of 16. At 125 sophomore Darian Cruz dropped a 3-1 decision to Stanford's Connor Schram, with the difference being a quick two point near fall at the start of the third period. Cruz will begin his quest through the wrestlebacks against Wyoming's Drew Templeman.
Â
Junior Randy Cruz had the tough task of facing No. 1 seed Dean Heil of Oklahoma State at 141. Heil won a scramble for a takedown in the first period and reversed Cruz in the second and despite Cruz riding out the third, Heil prevailed 4-1. Â Cruz will next face Bucknell's Tyler Smith.
Â
Senior Nathaniel Brown's hopes of a return to the NCAA finals at 184 ended with a 7-3 loss to Nebraska's TJ Dudley. Brown scored the first takedown in the first period and led 3-2 early in the third when he was taken down to his back for two-and-two. Dudley added a penalty point for stalling for the final margin. His first consolation bout will be against North Carolina's Alex Utley.
Â
The highlight of Thursday's morning session was freshman Gordon Wolf's 10-9 upset win over Iowa's Alex Meyer at 174. Wolf's luck ran out however against Navy's Jadaen Bernstein who handed the Lehigh freshman a 15-4 major decision setback.
Â
"He let (Bernstein) get to his legs a little too easily in tonight's session so he has to make those adjustments tomorrow," Santoro said. "We just need to come out with more fight and we need to be more physical in that first period. Things got a little touchy-feely in that championship round and we got walled into not doing a whole lot. We can't have that in this tournament."
Â
Senior Mason Beckman, junior Laike Gardner and freshman Ryan Preisch all picked up wins in the consolation round to stay alive.
Â
Beckman rebounded from his loss to top seed Nahshon Garrett of Cornell with an impressive 13-3 major decision over No. 16 seed Anthony Giraldo of Rutgers at 133. Beckman scored takedowns in the first and second period and added three more in the third to secure the major.
Â
Gardner made an early first period takedown stand up in his win over Minnesota's Jake Short at 149. Leading 3-1 after two periods, Gardner rode out Short in the third to win 4-1.
Â
While Gardner set the tone early, Preisch needed a late score to avoid overtime, and got a takedown in the final 20 seconds of his match with Cal State Bakersfield's Adam Fierro to win 3-1 at 165.
Â
The only Mountain Hawk who was eliminated on Thursday was senior John Bolich, who dropped his pigtail consolation match 4-2 to Phil Wellington of Ohio. Bolich finishes his career as a two-time NCAA qualifier with a 63-43 record.
Â
Penn State finished day one with a 3.5 point lead over both Ohio State and Penn State.
Â
"We have to work together as a team," Santoro said about the need to bounce back on Friday. "We have to feed off each other and put up points and be exciting. It doesn't matter who we're wrestling."
Â
Session III of the NCAA Championships, featuring the championship quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations, will get underway Friday at 11 a.m. from Madison Square Garden. Television and streaming video coverage will once again be available on ESPNU and ESPN3 while streaming audio of every Lehigh match will be available for free on Lehighsports.com.
Â
125 – No. 7 Darian Cruz
Rd. of 32: major dec. Johnny Jimenez (Wisconsin) 11-3
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 10 Connor Schram (Stanford) 3-1
Second round consolation: vs. Drew Templeman (Wyoming)
Â
133 – Mason Beckman
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 1 Nahshon Garrett (Cornell) 10-3
First round consolation: major dec. No. 16 Anthony Giraldo (Rutgers) 13-3
Second round consolation: vs. No. 15 Josh Alber (UNI)
Â
141 – No. 16 Randy Cruz
Rd. of 32: dec. Jordan Laster (Princeton) 3-0
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 1 Dean Heil (Oklahoma St.) 4-1
Second round consolation: vs. Tyler Smith (Bucknell)
Â
149 – Laike Gardner
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 12 Geo Martinez (Boise St.) 8-3
First round consolation: dec. Jake Short (Minnesota) 4-1
Second round consolation: vs. No. 6 Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern)
Â
165 – Ryan Preisch
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 15 Clark Glass (Oklahoma) 2-1
First round consolation: dec. Adam Fierro (CSU Bakersfield) 3-1
Second round consolation: vs. No. 16 Devon Gobbo (Harvard)
Â
174 – Gordon Wolf
Rd. of 32: dec. No. 13 Alex Meyer (Iowa) 10-9
Rd. of 16: L by major dec. Jadaen Bernstein (Navy) 15-4
Second round consolation: vs. No. 3 Blaise Butler (Missouri)
Â
184 – No. 10 Nathaniel Brown
Rd. of 32: dec. Ryan Christensen (Wisconsin) 7-4
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 7 TJ Dudley (Nebraska) 7-3
Second round consolation: Alex Utley (North Carolina)
Â
197 – John Bolich - Eliminated
Pigtail: L by dec. Shawn Scott (Northern Ill.) 2-1
Pigtail consolation: L by dec. No. 11 Phil Wellington (Ohio) 4-2
Â
285 – No. 8 Max Wessell
Rd. of 32: dec. Mike Hughes (Hofstra) 6-3
Rd. of 16: major dec. No. 9 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) 15-7
Quarterfinals: vs. No. 1 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State)Â
Â
NEW YORK – Senior Max Wessell won twice to reach the quarterfinals at heavyweight, while eight of Lehigh's nine qualifiers advanced to Friday's second day as the Mountain Hawks opened up action at the NCAA Championships Thursday at Madison Square Garden. Thursday's evening session was not kind to the Mountain Hawks at first, as Lehigh dropped its first four championship bracket bouts, but Wessell's 15-7 major decision over Michael Kroells of Minnesota sparked a run of three more Lehigh wins in the first round of consolations.
Â
The Mountain Hawks finished day one with 10.5 points, good for fourth place.
Â
"It was a tough night tonight," Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said. "We only got one through in the championships, which was really tough. We have to regroup. We did it two weeks ago but we need to regroup. The important thing is we have eight alive tomorrow. We have to really battle hard tomorrow morning to get guys through to the All-American round tomorrow night."
Â
Â
"He's doing great," Santoro said of Wessell. "He's wrestling really well right now and putting up a lot of points. That's what you want to see. He has a big one tomorrow, but Max is in a good place right now."
Â
Lehigh's three other seeded wrestlers suffered tough losses in Thursday night's championship round of 16. At 125 sophomore Darian Cruz dropped a 3-1 decision to Stanford's Connor Schram, with the difference being a quick two point near fall at the start of the third period. Cruz will begin his quest through the wrestlebacks against Wyoming's Drew Templeman.
Â
Junior Randy Cruz had the tough task of facing No. 1 seed Dean Heil of Oklahoma State at 141. Heil won a scramble for a takedown in the first period and reversed Cruz in the second and despite Cruz riding out the third, Heil prevailed 4-1. Â Cruz will next face Bucknell's Tyler Smith.
Â
Senior Nathaniel Brown's hopes of a return to the NCAA finals at 184 ended with a 7-3 loss to Nebraska's TJ Dudley. Brown scored the first takedown in the first period and led 3-2 early in the third when he was taken down to his back for two-and-two. Dudley added a penalty point for stalling for the final margin. His first consolation bout will be against North Carolina's Alex Utley.
Â
The highlight of Thursday's morning session was freshman Gordon Wolf's 10-9 upset win over Iowa's Alex Meyer at 174. Wolf's luck ran out however against Navy's Jadaen Bernstein who handed the Lehigh freshman a 15-4 major decision setback.
Â
"He let (Bernstein) get to his legs a little too easily in tonight's session so he has to make those adjustments tomorrow," Santoro said. "We just need to come out with more fight and we need to be more physical in that first period. Things got a little touchy-feely in that championship round and we got walled into not doing a whole lot. We can't have that in this tournament."
Â
Senior Mason Beckman, junior Laike Gardner and freshman Ryan Preisch all picked up wins in the consolation round to stay alive.
Â
Beckman rebounded from his loss to top seed Nahshon Garrett of Cornell with an impressive 13-3 major decision over No. 16 seed Anthony Giraldo of Rutgers at 133. Beckman scored takedowns in the first and second period and added three more in the third to secure the major.
Â
Gardner made an early first period takedown stand up in his win over Minnesota's Jake Short at 149. Leading 3-1 after two periods, Gardner rode out Short in the third to win 4-1.
Â
While Gardner set the tone early, Preisch needed a late score to avoid overtime, and got a takedown in the final 20 seconds of his match with Cal State Bakersfield's Adam Fierro to win 3-1 at 165.
Â
The only Mountain Hawk who was eliminated on Thursday was senior John Bolich, who dropped his pigtail consolation match 4-2 to Phil Wellington of Ohio. Bolich finishes his career as a two-time NCAA qualifier with a 63-43 record.
Â
Penn State finished day one with a 3.5 point lead over both Ohio State and Penn State.
Â
"We have to work together as a team," Santoro said about the need to bounce back on Friday. "We have to feed off each other and put up points and be exciting. It doesn't matter who we're wrestling."
Â
Session III of the NCAA Championships, featuring the championship quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations, will get underway Friday at 11 a.m. from Madison Square Garden. Television and streaming video coverage will once again be available on ESPNU and ESPN3 while streaming audio of every Lehigh match will be available for free on Lehighsports.com.
Â
125 – No. 7 Darian Cruz
Rd. of 32: major dec. Johnny Jimenez (Wisconsin) 11-3
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 10 Connor Schram (Stanford) 3-1
Second round consolation: vs. Drew Templeman (Wyoming)
Â
133 – Mason Beckman
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 1 Nahshon Garrett (Cornell) 10-3
First round consolation: major dec. No. 16 Anthony Giraldo (Rutgers) 13-3
Second round consolation: vs. No. 15 Josh Alber (UNI)
Â
141 – No. 16 Randy Cruz
Rd. of 32: dec. Jordan Laster (Princeton) 3-0
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 1 Dean Heil (Oklahoma St.) 4-1
Second round consolation: vs. Tyler Smith (Bucknell)
Â
149 – Laike Gardner
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 12 Geo Martinez (Boise St.) 8-3
First round consolation: dec. Jake Short (Minnesota) 4-1
Second round consolation: vs. No. 6 Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern)
Â
165 – Ryan Preisch
Rd. of 32: L by dec. No. 15 Clark Glass (Oklahoma) 2-1
First round consolation: dec. Adam Fierro (CSU Bakersfield) 3-1
Second round consolation: vs. No. 16 Devon Gobbo (Harvard)
Â
174 – Gordon Wolf
Rd. of 32: dec. No. 13 Alex Meyer (Iowa) 10-9
Rd. of 16: L by major dec. Jadaen Bernstein (Navy) 15-4
Second round consolation: vs. No. 3 Blaise Butler (Missouri)
Â
184 – No. 10 Nathaniel Brown
Rd. of 32: dec. Ryan Christensen (Wisconsin) 7-4
Rd. of 16: L by dec. No. 7 TJ Dudley (Nebraska) 7-3
Second round consolation: Alex Utley (North Carolina)
Â
197 – John Bolich - Eliminated
Pigtail: L by dec. Shawn Scott (Northern Ill.) 2-1
Pigtail consolation: L by dec. No. 11 Phil Wellington (Ohio) 4-2
Â
285 – No. 8 Max Wessell
Rd. of 32: dec. Mike Hughes (Hofstra) 6-3
Rd. of 16: major dec. No. 9 Michael Kroells (Minnesota) 15-7
Quarterfinals: vs. No. 1 Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State)Â
Â
Players Mentioned
133
/ Men's Wrestling
197
/ Men's Wrestling
184
/ Men's Wrestling
125
/ Men's Wrestling
141
/ Men's Wrestling
149
/ Men's Wrestling
165
/ Men's Wrestling
285
/ Men's Wrestling
174
/ Men's WrestlingLehigh Sports Central: Wrestling
Wednesday, March 12
Lehigh Sports Central: Wrestling
Thursday, February 20
Lehigh Sports Central: Wrestling
Wednesday, December 04
Season Preview: Wrestling
Wednesday, October 30
