Penn State sends five to NCAA Championships: Day 2 Recap
Penn State Wrestling sent five wrestlers to the NCAA Finals after winning Thursday evening's semi-final bouts.
After picking up a win in the quarter-finals on Thursday morning, 133's Roman Bravo-Young knocked off Arizona State's Michael McGee in a thriller, where RBY capped off the victory with a win through a takedown in overtime. He will face Vito Arujao of Cornell, who knocked off Daton Fix of Oklahoma State, who RBY faced in the finals the past two years.
At 141, Beau Bartlett won a thriller against Cole Matthews of Pitt with a last-second takedown to receive his first All-American nod and first semi-final appearance. He faced the University of Northern Colorado's Andrew Alirez in the semis, and dropped a tough 6-2 decision with riding time. Beau will have one bout in the morning, and if he wins, he will wrestle for third place.
Shayne Van Ness advanced to his first semi-final and first All-American honor after grinding out a win over Graham Rooks. SVN had a tall task ahead of him, and needed to knock of three-time NCAA Champion Yianni Diakomahalis of Cornell, who had a tough bout against Max Murin of Iowa earlier in the day. Van Ness took a late lead by taking down Yianni, but the three-timer was able to get SVN down with a huge takedown late with a turn that resulted in four back points. Diakomahalis will wrestle Sammy Sasso of Ohio State in an attempt to lock up his fourth national title.
157 True Freshman Levi Haines took on his B1G Championship Final foe Peyton Robb of Nebraska, in his semi-final bout after pinning Bryce Andonian of Virginia Tech in a barnburner on Thursday morning. Haines won 5-3 over Robb, with his performances each and every time looking better and better. Haines will take on Austin O'Connor of UNC, an NCAA Champion who beat Sammy Sasso a few years ago.
174's Carter Starocci locked up his third-straight NCAA finals appearance with a win over Cornell's Chris Foca. Carter locked up a solid 6-0 win with over two minutes of riding time, never relinquishing a point during the bout to the #4 seed. Starocci heads to the finals looking to defend his two-straight NCAA crowns, which came by defeating Michael Kemerer of Iowa and Mekhi Lewis of Virginia Tech. Starocci will face Labriola in tomorrow's finals, as he defeated VT's Lewis.
Aaron Brooks also capped off an impressive performance in the semi-finals by defeating #2 seed Trent Hidlay of NC State 6-3 with riding time. AB will wrestle Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa, the #1 seed at 184, tomorrow night.
At heavyweight, Greg Kerkvliet took on Wyatt Hendrickson of Air Force, who was the Academy's first All-American in twenty years. Kerk knocked off Trent Hillger of Wisconsin in the quarters and reached the finals with an impressive win over Hendrickson 4-2. He will take on Michigan's Mason Parris in the finals. Parris rolled through #4 Tony Cassioppi of Iowa by technical fall int he semi-finals. Kerk has wrestled Parris twice this year and has yet to beat the Michigan heavyweight. However, Kerk has looked especially impressive in this tournament and will have a solid shot to avenge those two losses with the ultimate prize: an NCAA title.
Max Dean will wrestle for 7th at 197 after dropping a heartbreaker to Cal Poly's Bernie Truax in SV 8-6
Team Scores after Day 2:
1. Penn State -- 116.5
2. Iowa -- 77
3. Cornell -- 64
4. Ohio State -- 62
5. Missouri -- 55
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