Oklahoma's Matt Reed upset Missouri's Blaise Butler at 174 (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)Other highly seeded wrestlers to lose in the opening session included No. 3 Vic Avery of Edinboro, No. 5 Matt Manley of Missouri at 141 pounds, No. 6 Eddie Klimara of Oklahoma State at 125 pounds and No. 8 Evan Henderson of North Carolina at 149 pounds.
Ohio State leads the team race by a half point over top-ranked Penn State. Nebraska sits in third place, followed by Iowa in fourth. Michigan, Missouri and Oklahoma State are tied for fifth place.
Session I attendance was 17,761. Tonight's second session is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. ET.
Here's a look at some of the notable results from Session I:
125: Oklahoma State took a hit with No. 6 Eddie Klimara falling to unseeded Conor Youtsey of Michigan 7-6 in a battle of returning All-Americans. It marks the second straight year that Youtsey defeated Klimara at the NCAAs. Other seeded wrestlers to lose in the first round were No. 11 Ronnie Bresser of Oregon State and No. 12 Paul Petrov of Bucknell. Bresser was edged 6-5 by Cornell's Dalton Macri, while Petrov lost 9-8 to EWL champion Sean Russell of Edinboro.
133: This weight class played out according to the seeds, with the exception of the No. 16 seed Anthony Giraldo of Rutgers getting pinned by unseeded Nathan Kraisser of Campbell. (Note: Kraisser is ranked No. 16 by InterMat, while Giraldo is No. 20.)
141: Penn State's Jimmy Gulibon, who entered unseeded, dominated No. 5 Matt Manley of Missouri, earning a 17-2 technical fall. Two other seeded wrestlers dropped first-round matches in this weight class, No. 10 Todd Preston of Harvard and No. 13 Steve Bleise of Northern Illinois. Preston was edged 4-2 by Army West Point's Logan Everett. Bleise dropped a 6-3 match to South Dakota State's Seth Gross. No. 2 Joey McKenna of Stanford survived a scare in the opening round, beating Central Michigan's Zac Horan 2-1 in sudden victory. Horan was originally awarded the go-ahead takedown in the closing seconds of regulation, but it was reviewed and overturned.
149: The highest seed to lose in the opening round at 149 pounds was No. 8 Evan Henderson of North Carolina, a two-time All-American, who was defeated by returning All-American B.J. Clagon of Rider 3-1. Also losing was No. 15 Dan Neff of Lock Haven, a returning All-American and EWL champion, who was pinned by Bucknell's Victor Lopez. It marked Neff's first loss this season at 149 pounds.
157: Two Division I head coaches' sons met in the first round as Oklahoma State's Joe Smith, son of Cowboy coach John Smith, battled unseeded Jake Ryan of Ohio State, son of Buckeye coach Tom Ryan. Ryan led for much of the match before Smith mounted a rally and eventually sent the match to sudden victory. Smith then took the match in sudden victory 11-9 with a takedown. The seeded wrestlers to lose in this weight class were No. 11 Lucas Smith of Central Michigan and No. 14 Austin Matthews of Edinboro. Smith lost to Northern Iowa's Bryce Steiert 4-1, while Matthews fell to Penn's May Bethea 8-7.
165: Geno Morelli became Penn State's second unseeded wrestler to knock off a seeded wrestler by defeating No. 11 John Staudenmayer of North Carolina 5-3. Staudenmayer was the lone seeded wrestler to lose at 165 pounds in the opening round.
174: This weight class was turned upside down early as five seeds fell in the opening round, including three of the top four. Cornell's Brian Realbuto, an NCAA runner-up last season, lost 7-4 to Big 12 champion Lelund Weatherspoon of Iowa State 7-4. Missouri's Blaise Butler, seeded No. 3, was handled 16-9 by Oklahoma's Matt Reed. Fourth-seeded Ethan Ramos of North Carolina was upended 13-8 by Navy's Jadaen Bernstein. Other seeded wrestlers to lose first-round matches in this weight class were returning All-American Zach Epperly, seeded No. 8, and Iowa's Alex Meyer, seeded No. 13.
184: The surprise in this weight class was returning All-American Vic Avery of Edinboro, seeded third, dropping his first match to Buffalo's Joe Ariola, who entered the tournament with a losing record (13-15). The only other seeds to lose in this weight class were Nicholas Gravina (Rutgers) and No. 16 Matt McCutcheon (Penn State). Gravina lost to MAC champion Jordan Ellingwood of Central Michigan 9-3, while McCutcheon was edged 4-3 by Bucknell's Tom Sleigh.
197: None of the top eight seeds fell in the opening round, but the No. 9, No. 11 and No. 15 seeds lost. No. 9 Reuben Franklin of CSU Bakersfield lost 8-5 to Shawn Scott of Northern Illinois. No. 11 Phil Wellington fell to Iowa State's Pat Downey 5-3 in sudden victory. Chattanooga's Scott Boykin topped No. 15 Nate Rotert of South Dakota State 5-3.
285:The highest seeded heavyweight to lose in the first round was No. 6 Denzel Dejournette of Appalachian State, who was defeated 7-2 by Brooks Black of Illinois. Other seeded heavyweights to lose in the first round included No. 10 Joe Stolfi (Bucknell), No. 11 Sam Stoll (Iowa), No. 12 Billy Smith (Rutgers), No. 13 Jared Johnson (Chattanooga) and No. 14 Blaize Cabell (Northern Iowa).
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