NCAA Wrestling Championships 2018: Results, Team Standings After Thursday

Thursday marked the opening day of the 2018 NCAA Wrestling Championships with Penn State seeking its third straight team title. 

The Big Ten has dominated this event since 2007 with 11 consecutive national championships. The Nittany Lions have won six of the past seven titles. 

In addition to the team event, Ohio State star Kyle Snyder is looking to capture his third straight individual championship in the 285-pound division. The 2016 Olympic gold medalist is ranked No. 1 in the heavyweight division with a 12-1 record this year. 

Here are the updated results from the start of this year's wrestling championships at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland. 

Team Standings - Top 10

1. Ohio State (36 points)

2. Penn State (28 points)

3. Iowa (27 points)

4. Michigan (22.5 points)

5. North Carolina State (18 points)

T6. Cornell (13 points)

T6. Lehigh (13 points)

T6. Missouri (13 points)

T6. Oklahoma State (13 points)

T6. Rutgers (13 points)

Complete team standings available at NCAA.com

Notable Results

No. 15 Ronald Perry (Lock Haven) def. No. 2 Brandon Sorensen (Iowa)

Iowa's perfect start in the morning sessions quickly turned sour in the evening with Brandon Sorensen, ranked No. 2 in the 149-pound division, was upset by Lock Haven's Ronald Perry. 

A three-time All-American, with a fourth likely coming, Sorensen goes to the wrestlebacks against Wyoming's Sam Turner looking to keep his collegiate career alive. 

Per Cody Goodwin of the Des Moines Register, of Iowa's 19 four-time All-Americans, Mike DeAnna and Mike Mena are the only two to never win an individual championship. 

If Sorensen leaves Cleveland this weekend without a title, he could join that group, assuming he's named to the All-American squad one more time. 

Perry entered the championships with a 29-3 overall record this season. The senior star has been on fire since suffering his third loss of the year to Oklahoma State's Tristan Moran on Jan. 1. His two wins on Friday extended his winning streak to 16 straight matches, sending him to the quarterfinals on Friday. 

Ohio State, Penn State Fighting for Supremacy

Not surprisingly, Ohio State and Penn State are the two teams sitting atop the standings after the first day of action from Cleveland. 

Things are set up for the Buckeyes to further their stranglehold on the championships in Friday's quarterfinals. They have a total of nine wrestlers competing, including Snyder and Nathan Tomasello.

Despite trailing its Big Ten rival by eight points following Thursday's matches, Penn State is in a good position to close the gap. 

The Nittany Lions had a total of seven wrestlers advance to the quarterfinals. Nick Nevills has a difficult path to victory in the 285-pound division with Snyder and Michigan's Adam Coon, who is ranked No. 2, cruising in their early matches. 

Nevills has already lost to Snyder and Coon this season, but he can erase the memory of those defeats if he goes through them in this bracket. 

Kennedy Monday (North Carolina) def. No. 2 Joey Lavallee (Missouri)

The biggest upset in the early sessions occurred in the 157-pound weight class when North Carolina's Kennedy Monday stunned Missouri's Joey Lavallee. 

A fifth-year senior, Lavallee entered the NCAA championships with a 29-1 record this season. He is the No. 2 seed in his weight class and was riding a 15-match winning streak since the Reno Tournament of Champions in December. 

Monday entered the match unranked with an 18-14 record. These two did wrestle earlier this season on Dec. 29, with Lavallee cruising to a technical fall with a 17-2 lead. 

After his stunning victory, Monday told North Carolina Wrestling on Twitter about some of the adjustments he made watching the tape from that previous matchup. 

"Just keeping my composure, you know," he said. "We studied film a little bit. I just got my shots down, so that's really the big adjustments I made. Just staying low, getting to my attacks."

Monday advances to the second round of the winner's bracket. Lavallee's tournament isn't done, but his margin for error is substantially smaller now that he is in the wrestleback portion of the bracket. 

No. 1 Kyle Snyder (Ohio State) def. Ryan Solomon (Pittsburgh)

Snyder's quest for a three-peat got off to an excellent start with a 15-5 win over Pittsburgh's Ryan Solomon. 

It was also a big win for Ohio State, which went a perfect 10-0 in the early session, though it sat 1.5 points behind Iowa (9-1) for the overall lead. The Buckeyes moved into the top spot in the evening session with 19 wins in 20 matches.

Expectations have been set high for Snyder and the Buckeyes through their own doing. He even raised the bar with his comments leading up to the start of the NCAA championships. 

"We have a team capable of breaking the scoring record and becoming the best team that's ever competed," Snyder told Bill Livingston of the Plain Dealer. "If we bust our butts, I don't think any team can even be within 20 points of us."

It's still early in the event, but so far Ohio State has done nothing to make anyone think this won't end up being a landslide in its favor. 

Iowa Shines Out of the Gate

Because of the recent success for Ohio State and Penn State, Iowa finds itself in the unusual position of looking up at the top wrestling schools in the country. 

The Hawkeyes ended the regular season ranked No. 7 in the top 25 poll, good enough for fourth in the Big Ten. It's been eight years since the program won a national title, though there have been individual champions like Cory Clark in 2017. 

Even though Ohio State had the better overall record to start the championships, Iowa earned more total points through 10 matches thanks to six bonus points from three pinfall wins, two majors and one technical fall. 

Sam Stoll, who is competing in the heavyweight division along with Snyder, earned one of Iowa's pinfall victories when he knocked off Franklin & Marshall's Antonio Pelusi. 

Knee injuries have plagued Stoll the previous two years. He was limited to nine matches in 2017 after having surgery to repair a torn ligament. 

Stoll, now a junior, has worked his way back into the national conversation with a 19-4 record in the regular season. The heavyweight division is stacked at the top with Snyder and Michigan's Adam Coon, whose undefeated season came to an end against the Ohio State star at the Big Ten championship. 

Now that Stoll appears to be back at full strength, he has the potential to be a sleeper candidate as the No. 5 seed in the 285-pound division. 

Full results via NCAA.com