NCAA Session One notes: 23 seeded wrestlers defeated

VIDEO: 2018 NCAA athlete interviews

Attendance: Session 1 - 18,660

Buckeyes Go Big in First Round
Big Ten champion Ohio State put together a perfect session to kick off the NCAA Championships, winning all 10 of its morning matches. Of those 10 victories, five came with bonus points attached, coming from Nathan Tomasello (125), Joey McKenna (141), Micah Jordan (157), Myles Martin (184) and Kyle Snyder (285). The Buckeyes currently stand in second place.

Ohio State is one of only two teams to qualify 10 wrestlers for the tournament. Lehigh is the other program to bring a full squad.

Upsets All Around
In the first round of action, 23 seeded wrestlers went down, including eight top-10 grapplers. Most notably, returning NCAA finalist and No. 2-seed Joey Lavallee of Mizzou fell in the opening round at 157 pounds, losing a tight 8-6 decision to North Carolina freshman Kennedy Monday. Also, Tariq Wilson of North Carolina State knocked off No. 5 John Erneste of Mizzou at 133.

The 174-pound weight class was the only one to advance all 16 seeded wrestlers to the second round.

Four Brothers
The Finesilver brothers of Duke, which include Josh (133), Mitch (157), Zach (165) and Matt (174), became the first group of four brothers to qualify for the NCAA Championships in the same year in the history of the tournament.

Mitch, seeded 12th, was the only one to move on to the second round after a 12-3 major decision over Kent State’s Casey Sparkman.

The Champs are Here
There are 12 past national champions representing 16 NCAA titles featured in this year’s championships.

Multiple-time winners include Dean Heil of Oklahoma State at 141, Zain Retherford of Penn State at 149, Isaiah Martinez of Illinois at 165 and Kyle Snyder of Ohio State at 285. All but Martinez won titles in 2017.

Other returning 2017 champions include Darian Cruz of Lehigh at 125, Jason Nolf of PSU at 157, Vincenzo Joseph of PSU at 165, Mark Hall of PSU at 174 and Bo Nickal of PSU at 184.

Myles Martin of Ohio State snagged the 174-pound title in 2016, Tomasello won at 125 pounds in 2015 and Tsirtsis took the win at 149 pounds in 2014.

Snyder and Martinez Tally 15th Wins at NCAA Tournament
Ohio State’s Kyle Snyder and Illinois’ Isaiah Martinez are 15-1 so far in their appearances at the NCAA Championships and own the most tournament wins in the field.

Snyder is on an 11-match NCAA Championships win streak after defeating Pitt’s Ryan Solomon with a 15-5 major decision in the first round at 285 pounds. Snyder was an NCAA runner-up his freshman year at 197, before running the table at heavyweight the last two years.

Two-time NCAA champion and 2017 NCAA runner-up Martinez's 20-5 tech fall in the first round at 165 pounds was his 15th win at NCAA Championships, the seventh with bonus points and third by tech fall.

Coming in Perfect
The NCAA field boasts 10 unbeaten wrestlers, five of which are past NCAA champions. The 174-pound bracket features three competitors with perfect records, while 125 and 165 each have two.

Four of the undefeated wrestlers are not the No. 1 seeds at their weight.

125: No. 1 Darian Cruz (Lehigh) 27-0
125: No. 4 Nick Suriano (Rutgers) 22-0
149: No. 1 Zain Retherford (Penn State) 27-0
157: No. 1 Hayden Hidlay (NC State) 23-0
165: No. 1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) 15-0
165: No. 2 David McFadden (Virginia Tech) 32-0
174: No. 1 Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) 28-0
174: No. 2 Mark Hall (Penn State) 29-0
174: No. 3 Daniel Lewis (Missouri) 30-0
184: No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State) 27-0

Close Calls
Surprisingly, a few of the past champions had some close opening-round bouts. Darian Cruz of Lehigh, the undefeated returning champion at 125, found himself in a close match before winning 7-4 over RayVon Foley of Michigan State.

Two-time returning champ Dean Heil of Oklahoma State, the No. 6 at 141, won a tight 4-2 match over Evan Cheek of Cleveland State.

2014 champion Jason Tsirtsis from Arizona State had the closest bout of a past champion, escaping in overtime with a 2-1 victory over Dane Robbins of Air Force. Tsirtsis won the 2014 NCAA title at 149 pounds for Northwestern.

Missed the Mark
Nebraska’s Jason Renteria missed weight to compete at 133 pounds. As a result, he was replaced by Northwestern’s Colin Valdiviez, the first alternate at the weight.

This is the first year the NCAA has allowed alternates to be brought to the tournament. It is limited to the first alternates at each weight.