Penn State puts five returning champs into finals, leads Ohio State by 11 after NCAA Championships semifinals

Jason Nolf of Penn State takes down Micah Jordan of Ohio State in the 157-pound semifinals. Nolf’s win put Penn State in first place for the first time on Friday night. Photo by Blake Slater.

NCAA Championships video interviews

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Ohio State entered the semifinal round at the NCAA Championships with a 13.5 point lead and one more semifinalist than defending national champion Penn State. When the Friday night session ended at the Quicken Loans Arena, the tables had been turned, with the Nittany Lions up by 11 points after the last match was completed for the night.

The Nittany Lions had a fantastic round, as all five returning NCAA champions won their semifinal matches, and three other wrestlers pushed through the “blood round” to become All-Americans.

Heading into the finals and looking to defend their crowns for Penn State are two-time NCAA champion Zain Retherford (149), plus Jason Nolf (157), Vincenzo Joseph (165), Mark Hall (174) and Bo Nickal (184).

The Nittany Lions added All-Americans Nick Lee at 141 pounds, who won two consolation matches on Friday night and is eligible to wrestle back for third, plus Shakur Rasheed (197) and and Nick Nevills (285), who both went 1-1 in the consolation rounds and will battle for seventh place on Saturday.

“Those are big matches. Semifinals are big matches, big points. But there's still a lot of points available tomorrow, so we've got to just keep scoring points. I think our guys wrestled well. They were ready to go. Big matches, but they get bigger. Tomorrow all the matches get bigger, and we just need to keep wrestling well,” said Penn State head coach Cael Sanderson.

To call it a tough round for Ohio State would be an understatement. The Buckeyes lost four straight semifinal matches, and also saw another wrestler fall in the consolation All-American round for five losses in succession.

The Buckeyes session losing streak was snapped when Bo Jordan became a four-time All-American with a blood round win at 174 pounds. The final two Buckeyes in the semifinals won their matches, 2015 NCAA champion Myles Martin (184) and two-time NCAA champion and Olympic champion Kyle Snyder (285) coming through with victories. The Buckeyes got eight of their 10 wrestlers into All-American status, and have chances to score more points on Saturday.

“It's a tough way to earn a living. I'll tell you that much. In some aspects, in some challenging. Typical tournament. I look forward to the day when I come to a national tournament and every person in my organization leaves happy. So there were some tough losses, some great wins, teams battling. We've got eight all-Americans, which is the most we've ever had, but we've got a lot of wrestling tomorrow. Mathematically I know it's not over. I think we're down by 10 or 11, who knows the exact score. But we're not out of it, and we've got some big matches in the morning,” said Ohio State coach Tom Ryan.

Retherford made the finals for a third straight year, scoring a takedown in the opening seconds of his bout and powering to a 10-4 win over No. 4 Troy Heilmann of North Carolina, 10-4. In his final college match, Retherford will battle No. 15 Ronnie Perry of Lock Haven, who scored late in the match to beat No. 11 Matthew Kolodzik of Princeton, 5-3.

“I think before that match I think I was kind of pacing out there in the center. I was just thinking, this is my second-to-last freestyle match I'll ever get to wrestle in a Penn State singlet. Just making the most of it. So I think that's the only thing that's been different is kind of being aware of this is my last go-around, but at the same time just kind of going with it for that reason,” said Retherford.

Nolf, who missed the end of the dual meet season with injury and didn’t complete the Big Ten Championships, looked strong in the only semifinal match against Ohio State, running up the score in a 16-0 technical fall over No. 7 Micah Jordan. Penn State took the team lead after 157 pounds with Nolf’s win and never looked back. He will battle unbeaten freshman Hayden Hidlay of NC State, who scored a 10-2 major decision over No. 5 Alec Pantaleo of Michigan in his semifinal bout.

“I wrestled him a couple times when we were younger. Not really familiar. I know he's a good wrestler, and he's strong and holds position well, so just got to work on getting to what I do,” Nolf said of the Hidlay matchup.

Joseph scored the first takedown of the match in the second period and went on to defeat No. 2 seed and previously unbeaten David McFadden of Virginia Tech, 3-1. He gets a rematch of the 2017 NCAA finals against No. 1 seed and two-time NCAA champion Isaiah Martinez, who reached his fourth NCAA final with a 5-2 win over No. 5 seed Alex Marinelli of Iowa. Last year, Joseph pinned Martinez, killing his quest to be a four-time champion.

“I know I say that a lot, but really, I enjoy it out there. Close matches are kind of fun. It would be a little more fun if it wasn't as close, but it's still fun, it's exciting for me being out there, being able to score whenever I can and prevent the other guy from scoring,” said Joseph.

Hall made it four straight for the Nittany Lions with a big move to pin No. 3 Daniel Lewis of Missouri in 6:22. Hall was up 6-2 in the third when he stepped over Lewis during a counter and secured the pin. He will face Junior World teammate Zahid Valencia of Arizona State, the top seed who beat No. 5 Myles Amine of Michigan, 7-5. Both are unbeaten, although Valencia won their unofficial match at the NWCA All-Star Classic in November.

“I ain't going to speak for my teammates, I'll speak for myself. I'm just doing my job, go out there and give my best effort, and that's what we'll all do every time. There's consistency. There's just -- the majority of us just really want to compete our best and wrestle our hardest, and whatever that entails, whatever happens out of that is what happens. We just control what we can control,” said Hall.

Nickal closed out the run with a 6-3 win over No. 5 Domenic Abounader of Michigan, scoring the first two takedowns to establish his control. In the finals, he will face No. 2 Myles Martin of Ohio State in the only matchup between the top two teams. Martin, a 2016 NCAA champion, earned his finals spot with an 8-4 win over No. 6 Zach Zavatsky of Virginia Tech, 8-4. Nickal has the most recent win in the 2018 Big Ten finals.

“I think that that just has to do with treating every match the same and being able to not let the moment get the best of you. Just we've been training to be national champions, a lot of us, since we started wrestling since we were five years old. And we treat every match the same, so it doesn't matter whether you're on the big stage or in a regular dual, although what I call a regular dual is a pretty big stage. I mean, I think that just helps a lot with being ready for this and just that consistency that we have as a team and treating every match the same,” said Nickal.

The Buckeyes are hoping Martin and Snyder can come through with big wins on Saturday night. For the second straight year in the NCAA semifinals, Snyder stopped Duke’s Jacob Kasper, 10-5. The match was tied at 4-4 after a Kasper takedown, but Snyder dominated the second half of the match on his feet.

He will get his rubber match against No. 2 Adam Coon of Michigan, who beat No. 6 Amar Dhesi of Oregon State, 4-2 on a late takedown. It was a bit of revenge for Coon, who lost a Junior World semifinal match to Dhesi in freestyle, with Coon representing the USA and Dhesi competing for Canada.

Coon beat Snyder in the dual meet, but Snyder took their battle in the Big Ten finals. Snyder looks forward to the challenge Saturday night.

“I'm excited about it. I'm not going to lie. I was hoping somebody might be able to take him out on that other side so I didn't have to wrestle him. But now that it's here, I always embrace the challenge. It's going to be an epic match, round 3. First one went to Coon, second one went to Snyder, and then we'll see what happens tomorrow night. But I feel -- I know I'll be excited. I'm ready. Body feels good. My mind is strong. I feel more confident about this match than I did the second match, and than I did the first match, and I felt confident in all three of them,” said Snyder.

Iowa, which pushed freshman star and No. 3 seed Spencer Lee into the finals at 125 pounds, is in third place with 86.5 points. Michigan, which had five semifinalists and has Coon and No. 2 Stevan Micic in the finals, stands fourth with 73.5 points. NC State, which has two finalists with No. 1 Hayden Hidlay (157) and No. 2 Michael Macchiavello (197), is in fifth with 69.5 points.

Lee scored a stunning third-period pin over 2015 NCAA champion and No. 2 seed Nathan Tomasello of Ohio State in 6:05. After splitting their first two bouts this season, Lee won the rubber match. Lee will battle Rutgers’ first NCAA finalist, No. 3 seed Nick Suriano, defeating 2017 NCAA champion and No. 1 seed Darian Cruz of Lehigh, 2-0. Suriano scored on an escape and a stalling penalty against Cruz.

Micic, a past Junior World bronze medalist and a transfer from Northwestern, broke a 4-4 third period tie with No. 3 Luke Pletcher of Ohio State with a counter to a shot, scoring a takedown and two points turn for a last second 8-4 victory at 133 pounds. He will face No. 1 seed Seth Gross of South Dakota State, who needed a takedown in sudden death to edge unseeded Tariq Wilson of NC State, 12-10. An NCAA runner-up last year, Gross has reached his second straight finals.

The 141 finals will pit No. 1 Bryce Meredith of Wyoming, a senior, against No. 3 true freshman Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell. Meredith, reaching his second NCAA finals, edged No. 4 Joey McKenna of Ohio State, 1-0. Meredith got the escape in the second, McKenna chose neutral in the third and could not score. Diakomihalis needed a sudden death double leg takedown to defeat No. 2 Jaydin Eierman of Missouri. Diakomihalis was a two-time Cadet World champion for the USA.

The 197 pound finals will be an all-ACC matchup, as No. 3 Jared Haught of Virginia Tech and No. 4 Michael Macchiavello of NC State both won their semifinals by pin. Haught pinned No. 2 seeded freshman Ben Darmstadt of Cornell in 5:41, while Macciavello put away unseeded Kyle Conel of Kent State in 4:19. Haught recently won his ACC finals against Macchiavello.

The medal round matches will be held on Saturday morning at 11:00 a.m., with the championship finals set for 8:00 p.m. at Quicken Loans Arena. ESPN is the broadcaster for the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

The NCAA announced that the finals will start at 125 pounds, and end with the Snyder vs. Coon battle at heavyweight. The NCAA chooses a marquee matchup for the last match each year, and this year it will be the big men.

NCAA DIV. I CHAMPIONSHIPS
At Cleveland, Ohio, March 16

Finals pairings

125 pounds - No. 3 Spencer Lee (Iowa) vs. No. 4 Nick Suriano (Rutgers)
133 pounds - No. 1 Seth Gross (South Dakota State) vs. No. 2 Stevan Micic (Michigan)
141 pounds - No. 1 Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) vs. No. 3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell)
149 pounds - No. 1 Zain Retherford (Penn State) vs. No. 15 Ronnie Perry (Lock Haven)
157 pounds - No. 1 Hayden Hidlay (NC State) vs. No. 3 Jason Nolf (Penn State)
165 pounds - No. 1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) vs. No. 3 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State)
174 pounds - No. 1 Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) vs. No. 2 Mark Hall (Penn State)
184 pounds - No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Myles Martin (Ohio State)
197 pounds - No. 3 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) vs. No. 4 Michael Macchiavello (NC State)
285 pounds - No. 1 Kyle Snyder (Ohio State) vs. No. 2 Adam Coon (Michigan)

Team Scores
1 Penn State 120.5
2 Ohio State 109.5
3 Iowa 86.5
4 Michigan 73.5
5 NC State 69.5
6 Missouri 51.5
7 Virginia Tech 44.5
8 Cornell 43.0
9 Rutgers 42.5
10 Arizona State 37.0
10 South Dakota State 37.0
12 Oklahoma State 35.5
13 Lehigh 34.5
14 Nebraska 34.0
15 Illinois 33.0
16 Lock Haven 31.5
17 Wyoming 27.5
18 Minnesota 24.0
19 North Carolina 22.5
20 Northwestern 20.0
20 Wisconsin 20.0

Semifinal results

125 pounds
No. 4 Nick Suriano (Rutgers) dec. No. 1 Darian Cruz (Lehigh), 2-0
No. 3 Spencer Lee (Iowa) pin No. 2 Nathan Tomasello (Ohio State), 6:05

133 pounds
No. 1 Seth Gross (South Dakota State) pin unseeded Tariq Wilson (NC State), 7:18
No. 2 Stevan Micic (Michigan) dec. No. 3 Luke Pletcher (Ohio State), 8-4

141 pounds
No. 1 Bryce Meredith (Wyoming) dec. No. 4 Joey McKenna (Ohio State), 1-0
No. 3 Yianni Diakomihalis (Cornell) dec. No. 2 Jaydin Eierman (Missouri), 6-4 sv

149 pounds
No. 1 Zain Retherford (Penn State) dec. No. 4 Troy Heilmann (North Carolina), 10-4
No. 15 Ronnie Perry (Lock Haven) dec. No. 11 Matthew Kolodzik (Princeton), 5-3

157 pounds
No. 1 Hayden Hidlay (NC State) maj. dec. No. 5 Alec Pantaleo (Michigan), 10-2
No. 3 Jason Nolf (Penn State) tech. fall No. 7 Micah Jordan (Ohio State), 16-0

165 pounds
No. 1 Isaiah Martinez (Illinois) dec. No. 5 Alex Marinelli (Iowa), 5-2
No. 3 Vincenzo Joseph (Penn State) dec. No. 2 David McFadden (Virginia Tech), 3-1

174 pounds
No. 1 Zahid Valencia (Arizona State) dec. No. 5 Myles Amine (Michigan), 7-5
No. 2 Mark Hall (Penn State) pin No. 3 Daniel Lewis (Missouri), 6:22

184 pounds
No. 1 Bo Nickal (Penn State) dec. No. 5 Domenic Abounader (Michigan), 6-3
No. 2 Myles Martin (Ohio State) dec. No. 6 Zach Zavatsky (Virginia Tech), 8-4

197 pounds
No. 4 Michael Macchiavello (NC State) pin unseeded Kyle Conel (Kent State), 4:19
No. 3 Jared Haught (Virginia Tech) pin No. 2 Ben Darmstadt (Cornell), 5:41

285 pounds
No. 1 Kyle Snyder (Ohio State) dec. No. 4 Jacob Kasper (Duke), 10-5
No. 2 Adam Coon (Michigan) dec. No. 6 Amar Dhesi (Oregon State), 4-2