Seven wrestlers remain after day one of NCAA Championships
After day one of the 2017 NCAA Wrestling National Championships, Central Michigan sits in ninth place out of the 69 team field.
Seven wrestlers are left — all competing in the consolation bracket. Junior Brent Fleetwood and Senior Austin Severn each went 0-2 on the day, resulting in elimination.
Fleetwood dropped his matches at 125 pounds to top seeded Thomas Gilman of Iowa and Jake Gromacki of Clarion. Severn (197) dropped his matches to Steban Cervantes of Navy and to Jeric Kausnic of American, with the loss to Kausnic coming by pin.
Four wrestlers advanced to the round of 16 while five dropped their opening bouts.
Sophomore Justin Oliver (149) won his opener with a pin over Eric Barone of Illinois.
Juniors Colin Heffernan (157), CJ Brucki (174) and Jordan Ellingwood (184) also advanced to the round of 16.
Heffernan won 6-4 in sudden victory over Virginia’s Andrew Atkinson. Brucki pinned Connor Bass of Duke in the second period, and Ellingwood knocked off Christian Lafragola from Brown 6-0.
All four dropped their second round matchups.
Oliver lost 5-4 to Alex Kocer from South Dakota State after a review on loss of control went in favor of Kocer. Heffernan Dropped his match to seventh seeded Dylan Palacio of Cornell 9-5.
CJ Brucki and Elligwood dropped their matches to the top seeded wrestler in their weight class. Brucki lost 12-3 to Zahid Valencia of Arizona State while Ellingwood dropped his to the two-time national champion Gabe Dean of Cornell 11-3.
Senior Corey Keener (133) dropped his first match 10-2 to sixth seeded Dom Forys from Pittsburgh, but bounced back with a win over DJ Fehlman of Lock Haven.
Freshman Mason Smith (141) lost his opening match to fifth seeded Anthony Ashnault of Rutgers 8-3, while winning his consolation match 9-0 over Michigan’s S Profaci.
Junior Newton Smerchek (HWT) dropped his first match 3-1 to Garrett Ryan of Columbia, but stormed back with a first period pin over Jake Gunning of Buffalo.
Day two of the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships resumes at noon on Friday on ESPN and the Watch ESPN app.
