We're Off and Running Through Session One at the 2025 NCAA Championships

Ladies and Gentlemen, it’s the best day of the year!! 2025 NCAA D1 Nationals are live from the Wells Fargo Center here in Philadelphia, home of your Super Bowl Champion Eagles. 

We are starting out with the pigtail matches and then the round of 32 in session one. Nolan Wertanen from Michigan with the 1st seven points of the tournament. At 149 Teague Travis has seven matches coming into the tournament and his opponent Wynton Denkins has 43, the most. Cal Baptist gets the first team points with a fall. Defending champion Richard Figueroa on mat six. McGowan and McCrone scoreless after one and McGowan chooses neutral. McCrone is a beast on top. 

Caleb Smith, a returning All-American, is headed to OT vs Babin from Pitt. Both guys rode for the full two minutes. Super questionable PD call that would have given Babin the win. Smith shoots wins the scramble for a 4-1 victory. 

Troy Spratley with a tech fall and OSU is 2-0 so far in the morning session. Kurt Phipps the 25 seed with an early 3-2 lead over Davis the 8 seed from Penn State. 

Angelo Rini the 21 seed from Indiana with the first upset of the day, beating 12 seed Oakley of North Carolina. A first-period takedown was the difference in a low-scoring bout. 

Tyler Knox with an OT win right in front of us on mat 1. 

Braden Davis with a last-second TD end of the 2nd period to go up 5-4 and chooses neutral to start the 3rd. Gets a 3rd period TD for the 8-4 win. 125 was complete chalk with the 1 exception of the 18 beating the 15 seed. It sets up some great matchups this evening. 

Nic Bouzakis vs Kai Orine is a 7 vs 26 seed that is compelling. And as soon as I say that Bouzakis locks up a cradle and pins the 2x All American. Sean Spidle of CMU upsets returning AA Shawver from Rutgers. A third-period TD was the difference. 3 upsets at 133, #21 Rini over #12 Oakley, #23 Spidle over #10 Shawver and #18 Farber over #15 Noto. Nasir Bailey with a 9-8 victory that included four 3rd period stalling calls. 

Happel gets the Panther Train excited with a fall. Koderhandt the 4 seed at 141 goes 1-1 in regulation as we head to OT. Koderhandt gets to the legs for the winning TD. Jesse Mendez with a TF in his bid to repeat as champion. Composto and Edmond 5-5 with :30 to go. Heading to OT. It is sensory overload right now folks. Josh Saunders the 20th seed with an 8-2 upset over #13 Todd Carter. 

Dylan Chappell with two third-period TDs to get the upset vs #12 seed Sam Latona of VT. Sergio Lemley with a swim and pin in the 3rd period vs Mosha Schwartz. The third 18th seed vs 15 seed win happens as Tagg from SDSU majors Olivieri from Rutgers. 

Ridge Lovett survives and advances in a wild 10-8 decision that included him giving up a four NF. Brandon Cannon from Ohio State with a win. The young man was most likely the third-stringer at the beginning of the season behind Sasso and Gallagher. A testament to perseverance. 

Paniro Johnson the fourth seed heads into OT vs Gioffre from UVA. The 29 seed with an OT TD and a MASSIVE upset over Paniro Johnson of ISU. 141 is in the books. 

Swisher from UPenn gets the crowd on their feet with a fall. Saldate was down 7-3 going into the 3rd period. An attempted dive roll by Ethen Miller leads to a seven-point move for Saldate and a fall. Probably the most watched 18 seed of the day is multiple-time All-American Jacori Teemer of Iowa. He is down 4-0 with :30 to go in the second period. 149 is in the books, 2 mild upsets 19 beats 14 and 17 beats 16. 

157 was also super chalky. #20 Chumbley beats #13 Jared Hill, #23 Saldate pins #10 Miller, and a non-upset of note Lovett from CMU majors Teemer. Matty Bianchi the 11th seed wins an OT bout vs Ed Scott NCST. 

The first six matches at 165 are all chalk which sets up an 8 vs 9 rematch Amine vs Steed. 

Maxx Mayfield gets a TD with :19 left to get a W vs Nicco Ruiz of ASU. Cade Devos of SDSU gets a last-second escape to get a 5-4 win vs Braunagel of Illinois. Returning AA Lennox Wolak who has had an uneven year, at best, showed up in March. He gets a third-period TD and beats Kharchla of tOSU. Harkins from Army gets a big win vs Lenny Pinto of Nebraska. #19 Thomsen of UNI beats #14 Drake Rhodes of SDSU 13-8. MJ Gaitan with a major decision over the #10 seed Alex Cramer CMU. 174 is a wrap. 

We have a #24 vs #25 round 2 matchup, #21 Josh Ogunsanya beat #12 Takats and #23 Gaitan with the victory as well. At 184 Carter Starocci, on a path to become the only 5x National Champion, gets career victory #100. Max McEnelly this year has won all his non-OT matches via major, TF, or fall. He picks up another TF here rd 1. 

Gabe Arnold starts off his first NCAA tournament with a win. Nick Fine of Columbia WBF over #13 Evan Bockman of ISU. 184 is very chalky besides that. 

We are off and running at 197. Cardenas the 1st seed gets a major. AJ Ferrari is on the mat. Luke Surber is in a barnburner on mat seven vs Patrick Brophy of the Citadel. Brophy leads 9-7 going into the third period. #24 Gabe Sollars of Indiana with an upset win over #9 Braunagel of Illinois. Sollars and Brophy will matchup round 2 in a #24 vs #25 matchup. Andy Smith sends a flex to the VT faithful as we get a 1st round win and prevents the Ferrari vs Glazier rematch. Freshman sensation Josh Barr jumps out to an early lead. Braunagel vs Surber now becomes a round one wrestleback match tonight. Gable Steveson gets a round one fall. Josh Barrs with a 9-1 major. Seth Shumate the 23 seed with a big upset fall over returning AA Salazar of Minnesota. 

The Stout brothers are going to wrestle each other this evening. We believe this is the 1st ever match of brothers in the D1 national tournament. 

Buchanan has a scare giving up back points but survives and advances. Lenny Pinto and Carson Kharchla will meet round 1 WB and 1 of them will do the 0-2 BBQ. Brock Zurawski of Rider with a massive upset of #7 Voelker of UNI. 285 the 1st quarter bracket chalk. Kueter vs Feldman for the 3rd time this evening.