NCAA Wrestling Championships 2015 Results: Daily Results, Updated Team Standings
One of the greatest traditions in college athletics kicked off when the 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships began in St. Louis Thursday.
Penn State will be looking to make history with a fifth consecutive championship, which would be the longest streak in this event since Iowa captured six straight from 1995-2000. The Nittany Lions are fighting an uphill battle with an 11-4 overall record.
The nation's top program this year has been Missouri, which is the lone undefeated team at 24-0 and ranked atop the USA Today-NWCA coaches poll. The Tigers have never won this event and will have to deal with the usual suspects like Iowa, Cornell and Minnesota to end that drought.
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Fortunately, the Tigers bring the nation's top-ranked wrestler in Alan Waters to carry them on their quest for a title. It's going to be fascinating to see if Missouri can fight off the traditional powers and end its masterful season.
All of the results from the Scottrade Center will be here once matches are finished.
Team Standings
| 1 | Ohio State | 94.0 |
| 2 | Iowa | 84.0 |
| 3 | Edinboro | 75.5 |
| 4 | Missouri | 69.5 |
| 5 | Cornell | 67.5 |
Full team standings and individual match results can be found at NCAA.com.
Saturday Recap
Ohio State clinched the 2015 wrestling national championship during the first session of action on Saturday. All of the placements outside the top two were also decided. The champions in each weight class will be determined during the day's second session.
Big Ten Wrestling confirmed the Buckeyes' overall triumph:
Tim Shoemaker of Eleven Warriors provided a terrific note about Ohio State's recent success on the national stage:
In the 125-pound division, it was Alan Waters of Missouri capturing third place with a victory over Thomas Gilman of Iowa. Nahshon Garrett of Cornell and Eddie Klimara of Oklahoma State won fifth and seven place matches, respectively.
USA Wrestling passed along a post-match interview with Waters. He talked about trying some new things to create opportunities:
A.J. Schopp (Edinboro) earned third place in the 133-pound division thanks to a win over Christopher Dardanes (Minnesota). James Gulibon (Penn State) came in fifth while Bradley Taylor (Wisconsin) scored a convincing win for seventh.
In the 141 pounds, it was Devin Carter (Virginia Tech) edging Dean Heil (Oklahoma State) for third. Kevin Jack (North Carolina State) and Lavion Mayes (Missouri) followed up with wins in the division's other placement matches.
VT Wrestling pointed out the numerous accolades earned by Carter in his career:
Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) was the third-place winner in the 149 division. He beat Brandon Sorensen (Iowa) for that honor. Bryant Clagon (Rider) and Alexander Richardson (Old Dominion) were the division's other victors.
James Green (Nebraska) scored a narrow decision over Nick Brascetta (Virginia Tech) to capture third place in the 157-pound division thanks to a late escape. Ian Miller (Kent State) and Brian Murphy (Michigan) came in fifth and seventh.
Bo Jordan was one of the wrestlers who helped Ohio State earn the national title. He earned a fall over Jackson Morse of Illinois for third place in the 165 division. Nicholas Sulzer (Virginia) and Isaac Jordan (Wisconsin) were the other placement winners.
In the 174-pound division, it was Robert Kokesh (Nebraska) scoring an impressive win over Logan Storley (Minnesota) for third place. Kyle Crutchmer (Oklahoma State) and Zach Epperly (Virginia Tech) joined him as placement match winners.
NCAA Wrestling highlighted Kokesh's celebration:
Victor Avery was another one of Edinboro's top performers as the school climbed the overall standings. He outscored Blake Stauffer of Arizona State for third place among the 184s. Kenny Courts of Ohio State earned fifth and Willie Miklus of Missouri took seventh.
Morgan McIntosh (Penn State) finished off a strong season by claiming third in the 197-pound division. The loss by Scott Schiller (Minnesota) dropped him into fourth. J`Den Cox (Missouri) and Nathan Burak (Iowa) were the winners for fifth and seventh.
Finally, in the 285 division, it was Mike McMullan of Northwestern earning yet another top-three finish in the championships. He beat Connor Medbery of Wisconsin for third. Fifth went to Bobby Telford (Iowa) and seventh was claimed by Ty Walz (Virginia Tech).
NU Wrestling spotlighted McMullan's success:
The division champions will be decided on Saturday night.
Friday Recap
Friday was a good day for Ohio State, which got another strong effort from Logan Stieber in the quarterfinal session. The three-time defending NCAA champion defeated Nebraska's Anthony Abidin by technical fall with 16-1 advantage to inch closer to another individual title.
Per Michael Citro of ElevenWarriors.com, Stieber was up 11-0 after the first period, and the finish gave the senior star his "eighth tech fall of the season."
In the evening session, Stieber did what he's done his entire career. knocking off Kevin Jack from North Carolina State to secure a spot in his fourth straight individual final, per NCAA Wrestling:
Stieber will be joined in the championship round by Nathan Tomasello, who will take on West Virginia's Zeke Moisey for the 125-pound title.
The Buckeyes aren't about to get cocky even with a 17-point lead from the second day, but Tom Ryan's team should feel good about its national title chances with just two rounds left.
Per Nick Camino of WTAM 1100 in Cleveland, it's time to start looking at the Buckeyes as a national championship group:
After the first day, it seemed like the Buckeyes' tenuous grasp on the top spot wouldn't last with traditional powers like Penn State and Iowa lurking. Instead, they have only continued to get stronger through the quarterfinal and semifinal.
One team that should be concerned about its standing is Penn State. The four-time defending national champions suffered a significant loss when Morgan McIntosh, the No. 2 seed in the 197-pound division, was upset by Duke's Conner Hartmann.
There was some controversy late in the match when McIntosh came close to scoring a takedown that would have given him an additional point.
Per Greg Pickel of PennLive.com, McIntosh couldn't get a review and was ultimately left to ponder what happened in the consolation bracket:
The Nittany Lions didn't have a good start on Friday, going 2-2 in the quarterfinals, though they did get a nice win from James Gulibon over Wisconsin's Bradley Taylor, who was ranked No. 2 in the 133-pound division. They dropped out of the top five once the semifinals got underway, so another title is almost certainly out of reach.
Speaking to Tim Owen of BlueWhiteIllustrated.com (via Rivals.com), Gulibon said the difference was how he controlled the pace and tempo of the match:
"I wrestled the way I wanted to start. I wanted to go out there and do what I normally do in practice -- go out there and fire my shots off and finish them. And just like last time I wrestled him, I started to get complacent. He got those two takedowns (in the second period), so I just tried to stay focused.
"
Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson had to be happy watching that since his team has only continued to lose ground as the championships have gone on.
Missouri, which entered the championships undefeated, has a steep climb up the hill after falling 19 points behind Ohio State. The silver lining for the Tigers after the quarterfinals was Alan Waters, who had little trouble with David Terao, per Blake Toppmeyer of the Columbia Daily Tribune:
However, those good vibes ended in the semifinal against Ohio State's Tomasello, who pulled off a shocker on Friday night in a thrilling battle with Waters.
Per Track Wrestling, Tomasello secured the victory over Waters, who entered the match with a 33-0 record, with a late takedown:
Assuming there's not some epic collapse on Saturday, Tomasello's win will be viewed as the turning point for Ohio State. The team was clinging to a lead before that match, but got a heavy lift after the redshirt freshman shocked the world.
The Buckeyes entered the championships ranked in the top five but had suffered four losses, which was more than any other team ranked that high. A combination of stellar talent and some luck have this program positioned well heading into the championship round on Saturday.
Thursday Recap
Starting with Penn State, the Nittany Lions were perfect in the first round with seven victories in seven matches. These were impressive performances too, highlighted by Matt McCutcheon scoring a 20-5 win over Cal Poly's Nick Fiegener and getting a bonus point for the team.
All told, the morning session provided the Nittany Lions with 4.5 bonus points off of three majors by Jimmy Gulibon, Zack Beitz and Matt Brown.
According to Penn State athletic communications director Tony Mancuso, Brown also got a victory in the evening session that secured his spot in the quarterfinals on Friday:
McCutcheon will be joining Brown in the quarterfinals thanks to his efforts in the afternoon and this surprise win over Arizona State's Blake Stauffer, per NCAA Wrestling:
Jordan Conaway, who got an early win over Citadel's Joaquin Martinez at 125 pounds, talked to Daniel Spevak of The Daily Collegian about how the team is approaching this year's championships after the long-sustained success it's had over the last four years:
"I’m just focused on this year. I’ve been at this tournament before, so I’m looking to do better than last time. But more importantly, just give it my best in every single match. I think the coaches do a good job of getting us ready for the postseason and this is the time that they want us to peak.
"
Based on the early returns, there's no danger of Penn State getting complacent. The Nittany Lions are hitting their stride at the right time and have gotten some surprises along the way to be in a great position for the quarterfinals on Friday.
However, they were looking up at Ohio State based on the early results. The Buckeyes won seven of their first 10 matches to rack up 13.5 points, two clear of Penn State.
The big theme for the early session was all of the upsets. According to Andy Hamilton of the Des Moines Register, a total of 34 seeded wrestlers were defeated, and the usually powerful Iowa team went a pedestrian 6-4 in its first 10 matches.
Iowa star Bobby Telford was arguably the biggest surprise of all of the early upsets, losing to Maryland's Spencer Myers. Damon Martin of Fox Sports noted the Hawkeyes were in a bad spot right out of the gate:
It's ironic the wrestling championships started on the same day as the NCAA men's basketball tournament, because upsets have been the order of the day. Just as there were two No. 3 seeds on the basketball court that lost Thursday, Telford continued that trend on the mat.
There's still a lot that will be decided as the evening session draws to a close and during Friday's quarterfinals, so don't expect Ohio State to feel very comfortable with its spot thus far. The Buckeyes see the defending champion Nittany Lions on their heels, as well as Missouri and Cornell, so there's still a long way to go.
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