Darian Cruz reaches quarterfinals, all seven Lehigh wrestlers advance to day two of NCAAs

Thursday, March 16

St. Louis, Mo.

7:00 PM

Lehigh University

NCAA Championships

Darian Cruz reaches quarterfinals, all seven Lehigh wrestlers advance to day two of NCAAs

3/16/2017 11:10:00 PM | Men's Wrestling

Brackets/Team Scores | Thursday afternoon recap

ST. LOUIS – Junior Darian Cruz reached the championship quarterfinals at 125 to salvage a tough round of 16 for the Lehigh wrestling team, but the Mountain Hawks were able to bounce back late in Thursday's evening session to send all seven entrants to day two as day one of the NCAA Championships wrapped up at Scottrade Center.

Cruz punched his first career ticket to the quarterfinals by edging Ohio's Shakur Laney 1-0 in a tight, defensive battle. He was the only one of Lehigh's five wrestlers in the championship bracket to win as the Mountain Hawks dropped three matches by two points or fewer in the final 10 seconds or overtime.

After opening the day with 12 points in session one, Lehigh mustered just two at night and ends day one in a tie for 10th place with 14 points.

"The NCAA Tournament has lots of ups and downs," Lehigh head coach Pat Santoro said. "We have a lot of work to do tomorrow. The good thing is we've got seven guys still alive but we've got some work in front of us."

(3/16/2017) Wrestling at NCAAs, session one, 3/16/17

Darian Cruz and Laney were scoreless through two periods in their match at 125. The fourth-seeded Cruz escaped early in the third and used solid defense to hold off the 13th-seeded Bobcat. Cruz will next face No. 12 seed Sean Fausz of North Carolina State in the quarterfinals, needed one win on Friday to claim his second career All-America medal.

"He did a nice job," Santoro said of Cruz. "Tonight (Laney) frustrated him a lot. He stayed out in the open. (Darian) needs to make some better adjustments. Tomorrow he'll need to make some adjustments and changes facing a tough kid from N.C. State. It's going to be a great match. That kid's really long and shoots a lot, so that will be a big battle there. Everybody else needs to win two in the morning."

The remaining six Mountain Hawks will need three wins on Friday to reach the podium.

Sophomore Scott Parker battled hard against returning Illinois All-American Zane Richards but a critical error in overtime cost him the victory. Parker had Richards penalized twice for stalling in regulation, including a late point that sent the match to overtime tied 6-6. In the sudden victory, Parker got in on a good shot but couldn't finish in a lengthy scramble. Upon getting to his feet, Parker was hit for stalling for backing up out of bounds, with the penalty point giving Richards the 7-6 win. Parker will now face Cornell's Mark Grey in the second round of consolations. It will be a rematch of the EIWA semifinals won by Parker via major decision.

At 141 senior Randy Cruz trailed Virginia's George DiCamillo 2-1 in the second period but the sixth seeded Cavalier used a strong ride and then a figure four to trap Cruz's head and shoulders before securing a surprising fall over the Lehigh All-American in 4:36. Cruz falls to the consolations where he will face Mason Smith of Central Michigan.

Both senior Laike Gardner (149) and sophomore Ryan Preisch (174) had leads entering the third period and had opportunities to go to overtime at best but ultimately fell victim to late takedowns. Gardner led Northern Iowa's Max Thomsen 4-3 entering the third and after using a strong ride to eliminate riding time, gave up the tying escape. Thomsen then scored a takedown in the final five seconds to stun Gardner 6-4. Gardner will face No. 8 seed Patricio Lugo of Edinboro in the second round of consolations, looking for his first career win against the Fighting Scot.

Preisch looked strong through a period and a half of his match with Iowa's Alex Meyer. The No. 11 seed Hawkeye won a scramble for a takedown in the second period as Preisch led 4-2 after two, but Meyer scored an escape and two third-period takedowns, the decider coming in the final seconds, to upset the sixth-seeded Mountain Hawk 7-5. Like Parker, Preisch will have a rematch of an EIWA semifinal in his first consolation match as he will take on Penn's Casey Kent.

"The fight was there," Santoro said of the overall effort. "We went to funk way too soon in some of these matches and it cost us a lot of key matches tonight. Instead of dropping our hips and squaring up and wrestling the way we're supposed to wrestle we tried to take the easy way out and we got burned.

Freshman Cole Walter (165) and senior Doug Vollaro (285) battled back from round of 32 losses Thursday afternoon to win their first round consolations. Walter scored takedowns in the first and third periods and used a second period reversal to eliminate Northwestern's Johnny Sebastian, while Vollaro broke open a 1-1 match with a takedown in the final 15 seconds of the third period to defeat Cory Daniel of North Carolina 3-1.

"Those wins were really important," Santoro noted. "Everyone's scoring points, which is good. Everybody's still alive. Everyone can still be an All-American. We've got one guy who can still be a national champ so we've got to move forward. As tough as tonight was, that's what this tournament does every year. We have to battle back hard tomorrow."

With its 14 points, Lehigh is tied with Nebraska, 0.5 points behind ninth place Central Michigan. Penn State has raced to the team lead with 30.5 points, followed by Ohio State with 26 and Oklahoma State with 25.5.

The NCAA Championships continue Friday morning with session three, featuring the championship quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations, beginning at 11 a.m. ET/10 a.m. CT. Session three will be televised on ESPNU with streaming on WatchESPN. Once again audio for all Lehigh bouts will be available on Lehighsports.com/watch.

125 – No. 4 Darian Cruz
Round of 32: Fall Dylan Peters (UNI) 0:52
Round of 16: dec. No. 13 Shakur Laney (Ohio) 1-0
Quarterfinals: No. 12 Sean Fausz (NC State)

133 – No. 9 Scott Parker
Round of 32: major dec. Colby Smith (App. St.) 11-3
Round of 16: L by dec. No. 8 Zane Richards (Illinois) 7-6, sv
Second round consolation: Mark Grey (Cornell)

141 – No. 11 Randy Cruz
Round of 32: dec. Cole Martin (Wisconsin) 6-0
Round of 16: L by fall No. 6 George DiCamillo (Virginia) 4:36
Second round consolation: Mason Smith (Central Michigan)

149 – No. 10 Laike Gardner
Round of 32: W by forfeit Zac Hall (Michigan)
Round of 16: L by dec. No. 7 Max Thomsen (UNI) 6-4
Second round consolation: No. 8 Patricio Lugo (Edinboro)

165 – Cole Walter
Round of 32: L by dec. No. 12 Austin Matthews (Edinboro) 5-2
First round consolation: dec. Johnny Sebastian (Northwestern) 8-4
Second round consolation: No. 11 Bryce Steiert (UNI)

174 – No. 6 Ryan Preisch
Round of 32: major dec. Jordan Pagano (Rutgers) 9-0
Round of 16: L by dec. No. 11 Alex Meyer (Iowa) 7-5
Second round consolation: No. 10 Casey Kent (Penn)

285 – Doug Vollaro
Pigtail: dec. Zack Parker (Ohio) 3-1, sv
Round of 32: L by dec. No. 5 Nick Nevills (Penn St.) 4-2
First round consolation: dec. Cory Gilliland-Daniel (N. Carolina) 3-1
Second round consolation: No. 6 Austin Schafer (Okla. St.)