The following is a news release courtesy of ISU Athletics Communications:
NEW YORK CITY — The No. 17 Iowa State wrestling team (10-6, 2-2 Big 12) is sending four wrestlers to the quarterfinals at the 2016 NCAA Wrestling Championship. As a team, the Cyclones are currently tied for 11th, with 12 team points.
Penn State is leading the team race with 27.5 points.
Earl Hall, Tanner Weatherman, Lelund Weatherspoon and Patrick Downey all earned a spot in the quarterfinals by going 2-0 on Thursday. The Cardinal and Gold are one of just ten schools in the field this week that are sending four more wrestlers to the quarterfinals.
Wrestling resumes tomorrow morning with session four at 10 a.m. CT. You can watch every match from every mat on ESPN3 and ESPNU.
Session Two
Unseeded Patrick Downey provided more fireworks in the round of 12. This time, he pinned No. 6 Jared Haught of Virginia Tech in a tiebreaker period. For the second time today, Downey’s match ended 1-1 after regulation.
Sudden victory wasn’t enough to find a winner in this match. After the first 30 seconds of the tiebreaker period, Downey trailed 2-1 following a Haught escape. In the second set 30 seconds of wrestling, Downey was able to escape and then drag Haught to the mat to secure the fall.
Also picking up his second upset-victory of the day was Lelund Weatherspoon. In this match, Weatherspoon defeated Army’s No. 15 Brian Harvey by 3-2 decision. Weatherspoon trailed 2-1 midway through the third, but was able to bring Harvey to the mat for a takedown. From there, Weatherspoon was a hammer on top and rode Harvey until the final whistle to punch his ticket to the quarterfinals.
No. 8 Earl Hall was the first to earn a spot in the quarterfinals. He defeated Kent State’s Mack McGuire by 8-3 decision. The senior from Homestead, Fla., led 2-1 when he blew the match open. He turned McGuire to his back in the second period, picking up a four-point near-fall. Hall tacked on a third period takedown to win the match, 8-3.
No. 9 Tanner Weatherman got revenge on a loss he suffered earlier this year at the Midlands Championships. In the round of 12, Weatherman defeated Purdue’s No. 8 Chad Welch by 7-3 decision.
After one period, Weatherman and Welch were tied at 0-0. The senior from Huxley, Iowa, then turned Welch to his back and picked up four points on a near-fall. Weatherman added a takedown in the third period and rode hard for 1:28 to complete his scoring.
Both Kyle Larson and Dane Pestano were eliminated from the NCAA Championship in the second session. Larson was defeated by Brandon Jeske of Old Dominion by 3-1 decsion, and Andrew Romanchik beat Pestano by 3-2 decision.
Session One
The Cyclones went 4-2 to begin the championship. After one session of action, ISU was tied for 12th place with Oklahom and Leigh. The three squads had six team points.
Iowa State was propelled by two huge upsets in round one from Lelund Weatherspoon and Patrick Downey. Weatherspoon toppled No. 2 Brian Realbuto of Cornell by 7-4 decision. Downey came up huge in sudden victory against Ohio’s No. 11 Phil Wellington. He scored on a takedown in the overtime period to win, 3-1.
No. 8 Earl Hall and No. 9 Tanner Weatherman also picked up wins for the Cyclones in the opening session of this year’s national championship. Hall defeated Josh Martinez of Air Force by 6-3 decision on three takedowns. Weatherman won his match by fall over Eastern Michigan’s Dakota Juarez in 4:26.
Iowa State Match-by-Match
125: Nathan Tomasello (OSU) tech-fall. Kyle Larson (ISU), 18-0. Brandon Jeske (ODU) dec. Kyle Larson (ISU), 3-1.
133: Earl Hall (ISU) dec. Josh Martinez (AF), 6-3. Earl Hall (ISU) dec. Mack McGuire (KSU), 8-3.
165: Tanner Weatherman (ISU) fall Dakota Juarez (EMU), 4:26. Tanner Weatherman (ISU) dec. Chad Welch (PU), 7-3.
174: Lelund Weatherspoon (ISU) dec. Brian Realbuto (Cornell), 7-4. Lelund Weatherspoon (ISU) dec. Brian Harvey (Army), 3-2.
184: Hayden Zillmer (NDSU) dec. Dane Pestano (ISU), 10-5. Andrew Romanchik (Ohio) dec. Dane Pestano (ISU), 3-2.
197: Patrick Downey (ISU) dec. Phil Wellington (Ohio), 3-1 (SV-1.) Patrick Downey (ISU) fall. Jared Haught (VT), 8:45 (TB-1.)
