NCAA Wrestling Championships Day 2 Preview & Open Thread

The Cyclones are back on the mats today for Sessions 3 and 4 of the NCAA Wrestling tournament

Where: St. Louis, MO
When: See schedule below
Video: ESPN/ESPNU (select matches), ESPN3 (all matches)

As with yesterday, you can follow @GrappleCy for mat assignments and results

Tournament Schedule

Day 1 Recap

Session 1 was brutal to the Cyclones, with both Tanner Weatherman and Mike Moreno falling to upsets.  As well as Gabe Moreno barely being able to gut out a finish in his loss to Heffernan before injury defaulting out of the tournament.  But the team came back with a strong session 2 and kept five wrestlers alive into Friday.  Iowa State currently sits in 12th place with two wrestlers left on the championship side of the bracket and three in the consolations

Brackets after Day 1 (pdf)

Team Standings after Day 1

Day 2 Championship Bracket Matchups

Earl Hall

In the Quarterfinals at 133, Hall will get the 3 seed, 3rd ranked Cory Clark from Iowa.  Clark beat Hall 8-3 at the Iowa dual in December so a win here would be a tall order.  But as we've said all season, 133 is wide open and nobody is unbeatable.  With a win, he'll probably get a rematch against Taylor of Wisconsin in the semifinals tonight.  Taylor beat him 4-3 last month.  With a loss, Hall would drop in to the Round of Twelve tonight.  His most likely opponent there would be 10 seeded Beckman of Lehigh.

Kyven Gadson

In the Quarterfinals at 197, Kyven Gadson will get the 6 seed, 6th ranked Nathan Burak of Iowa.  They have not met this season.  There isn't a whole lot to say about this one - Kyven should win but it'll be a close one, and one mistake could cost the match.  If history is any guide, this will be a 3-2 type win for Showtime to push him into a Semifinals matchup with Morgan McIntosh of Penn State, who Kyven also has not met this season.

Day 2 Consolation Bracket Matchups

Dante Rodriguez

At 141 Rodriguez will get the 3 seed, 5th ranked Lavion Mayes of Missouri.  Mayes was upset by Heil of Oklahoma State last night to drop in to the consolations.  Dante is going to have to go big in this one.  He can be expected to try to hook up a big upper body throw and go for the pin, and that's probably the only way he'll come away with a win.  If this goes to points Mayes is likely to come away with the win.

Micheal Moreno

At 165 Moreno bounced back from his early upset with a pin last night in the consolations, which was a very good sign for his mindset after a finals appearance was no longer possible  He'll have unseeded and unranked Rohskopf of NC State this morning.  Hopefully he can not only keep his run through the consolations going there but also score some more bonus points.  A win there would likely set up a match against the 8 seed, 14th ranked  Payton Walsh of Navy, who Moreno beat 14-6 in Vegas last December.  That would set up a Round of 12 matchup with the 6 seed, 6th ranked Taylor Walsh of Indiana, who pinned Moreno at that same tournament.  His road to AA will be tough, but if he keeps his head on straight and wrestles hard Moreno should be in the medal rounds tomorrow morning.

Lelund Weatherspoon

At 184 Weatherspoon will open up against unseeded and unranked Patrick of Davidson.  Patrick did not wrestle many matches this season so it is tough to get a handle on who will be the favorite in this match.  If Weatherspoon does come away with a win there he'll run into a gauntlet between himself and the medal rounds, with the 3 seed, 5th ranked Stauffer of Arizona State, and the 9 seed, Brooks of Iowa, both of whom beat him earlier this season, waiting for him in the next few rounds.

Overall Day 2 Thoughts

Today is where teams really start to separate themselves and if the Cyclones want to end up in the top ten they are going to need to wrestle well, with at least Gadson winning in to the finals and both Hall and Moreno reaching the All American rounds.  Any points that Rodriguez or Weatherspoon can add will be bonus.

What's next?

We'll be posting results all day here and on Twitter.  Then either late tonight or early tomorrow we'll have a Day 3 preview/Open thread up for Saturday's medal round.

Fantasy Pool Standings

After the first day, Championcamps is currently holding a slight lead

Editor's Note: Added grapplecy's Twitter timeline so he doesn't have to post in the comments as often and everyone can follow play by play.

Tweets by @GrappleCy