By Jordan Hansen
NEW YORK — Out of the nine wrestlers Iowa sent to the national championships, just six remain on the winners’ side of the bracket.
Iowa got wins from Thomas Gilman (125), Cory Clark (133), Brandon Sorensen (149), Edwin Cooper Jr. (157), Sammy Brooks (184), and Nathan Burak (197). The Hawkeyes lost matches at 165, 174, and 285, which harms their chances at a team national title quite a bit.
Getting bonus points in four matches certainly helped Iowa, which ended the first session in fourth. Ohio State (16.5), Penn State (16.0), and Nebraska (13.0) are ahead of the Hawkeyes.
Consolation matches and the second-round winners bracket will take place at 7 p.m. (EDT) March 17. There’s a good chance Iowa sends at least four through to the March 18 quarterfinals, and it could be more than that.
Below are match-by-match results and the current top-10 teams.
Team standings:
1) Ohio State (16.5)
2) Penn State (16.0)
3) Nebraska (13.0)
4) Iowa (11.0.)
T-5) Michigan (10.0)
T-5) Missouri (10.0)
T-5) Oklahoma State (10.0)
T-8) North Carolina State (9.0)
T-8) Virginia Tech (9.0)
T-10) Illinois (6.5)
T-10) Rutgers (6.5)
(All rankings reflect seeds in the tournament)
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125 pounds
First round: No. 4 Thomas Gilman by technical fall Brent Fleetwood (Central Michigan), 24-8 in 5:37.
— Gilman scored 5 takedowns in the first period and everything after that was simply academic. Iowa will need every bonus point it can get in this tournament, and with Gilman being its best offensive threat, he’ll need to keep up the pace.
Gilman will face No. 13 Tim Lambert (Nebraska) in the March 17 second round.
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133 pounds
First round: No. 2 Cory Clark major decision Jade Rause (Utah Valley), 8-0.
— Two late first-period near-fall points made it 4-0, and Clark never looked back. After a quiet second period, he added a late takedown to give him the major.
Clark will face No. 15 Josh Alber (Northern Iowa) in the March 17 second round.
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149 pounds
No. 2 Brandon Sorensen major decision Nick Barber (Eastern Michigan), 9-1.
— Sorensen danced with Barber for a bit before picking up his first takedown then got in on the Eastern Michigan wrestler’s leg towards the end of the opening period. Sorensen then opened things up quite a bit in the final period, scoring 3 takedowns to secure the major.
Sorensen will face No. 15 Dan Neff (Lock Haven) in the second round.
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157 pounds
No. 13 Edwin Cooper decision Tyler Berger (Nebraska), 8-3.
— Two early takedowns allowed Cooper to run out to a 4-2 lead. Berger got an escape in the early goings of the second period to close the score to 4-3, but that was a close as he would get during the match. Cooper pushed the pace, and while he did not get bonus points, it was a solid early round match.
Cooper will face No. 4 Ian Miller (Kent State) in the second round.
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165 pounds
No. 13 Jim Wilson (Stanford) decision Patrick Rhoads, 12-7.
— Rhoads was taken down early and often and dinged up a little in the first period. He then, however, flipped the script in the second period and put Wilson in a cradle, getting near-fall points which made the score 8-6. Wilson then got a takedown, eventually pushing the score to its final.
Rhoads will face Casey Fuller (Edinboro) in the consolation matches.
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174 pounds
Gordon Wolf (Lehigh) decision No. 13 Alex Meyer, 10-9.
— In the running for “weirdest match of the day,” Meyer got taken down early, but a series of points from both wrestlers to tie the score at 4. After being taken down early, Meyer then picked it up in the second, taking a 7-6 lead after two periods. Wolf then scored again, and though Meyer eventually tied the match with a reversal, the Lehigh wrestler won on an escape. The Hawkeyes needed to push wrestlers through, and this did not help.
Meyer will face No. 4 Ethan Ramos (North Carolina) in the consolation matches.
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184 pounds
No. 2 Sammy Brooks technical fall John Lampe (Chattanooga), 23-8 in 6:30.
— Takedown takedown takedown takedown (you get the picture). Brooks put on a takedown clinic in this match, and Lampe could do absolutely nothing about it. Good, solid win for Brooks, whose newfound fame has made him one of the more talked-about wrestlers in the tournament.
“You don’t anticipate guys having problems,” Hawk head coach Tom Brands said. “He showed you don’t have anything to worry about if you go out and wrestle hard.”
Brooks will face Jordan Ellingwood (Central Michigan) in the second-round.
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197 pounds
No. 4 Nathan Burak decision Trent Noon (Northern Colorado) in sudden victory-2, 4-2.
— After a slow match, things were tied 1-1 heading into overtime. Noon nearly got takedowns on several occasions but couldn’t do anything with them. Burak eventually won in the second sudden victory on a takedown. Fun fact: Burak and Noon apparently know each other, according to Brands.
Burak will face No. 13 Jacob Smith (West Virginia) in tonight’s second round.
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Heavyweight
Boyce Cornwell (Gardner-Webb) wins via medical forfeit over No. 11 Sam Stoll
— Injured in the early goings of the match, Stoll tried to push through and continue wrestling, but eventually, it obvious that it just wasn’t going to happen. It’s a toss-up on whether he’ll wrestle in the consolations, but from the look on his face and how much pain he was in, it seems unlikely. The injury itself seems to be the another aggravation of his earlier knee injury
Stoll — if he goes — will face No. 6 Denzel Dejournette (Appalachian State) in the consolation matches.
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