No. 1 Humphrey goes down ... Twice
The nation's No. 1-ranked 141-pounder, Reece Humphrey of Ohio State, an NCAA runner-up at 133 pounds last season, suffered two losses on Saturday ... first to Arizona's State's Chris Drouin and then to Cornell's Kyle Dake.
"He looks like he's under the weather," said Ohio State coach Tom Ryan. "I don't know. I thought he would be fine coming in. He's wrestling different than I expected him to. But he's a winner. You never want to lose, but now is the time. I think maybe it's a wakeup call. He's been using his talents late in matches to find ways to win ... and I think it's catching up to him now."
Drouin scored a takedown in sudden victory to pick up the 3-1 win over Humphrey.
"Going into overtime, I was just thinking takedown," said Drouin. "I was just going for the win. I really wasn't really thinking about it. I was just letting instinct take over ... let training take over. "
Drouin, a returning All-American, has struggled with consistency this season. He has wins over No. 4 Zack Bailey of Oklahoma, No. 5 Jamal Parks, and No. 7 Mike Thorn of Minnesota, but placed sixth at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and fifth at the Reno Tournament of Champions.
"I don't even know what I was seeded coming into this," said Drouin, who is ranked No. 17. "I don't even look at the seedings. I know he's 1 ... but that's just because I've been told that. I really don't even think about the seedings. I mean, look at Jaggers last year ... This is a good win for me. It's good to start slingshotting me into the end of the season."
Dake, a true freshman who is ranked No. 6, avenged a 4-2 sudden victory loss to Humphrey from the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
"I thought that I wasn't wrestling offensive and I didn't really open up my attacks," said Dake of his loss to Humphrey in early December. "I just made a few mistakes and it cost me the match. This time I corrected those mistakes and it turned out better."
Dake, a two-time New York state champion with a prep record of 224-14 record, has high expectations for himself.
"I don't want to lose ever," said Dake. "I want to be a four-time national champ. I wanted to go undefeated, but that didn't happen. I had a couple bad matches. But four-time national champ has always been my goal."
Minnesota advances to semifinals with victory over Central Michigan
Minnesota won its opening round dual meet against Missouri, 24-6, which set the stage for a quarterfinal battle against Central Michigan, who won 28-12 over Northwestern in the opening round.
Minnesota jumped out to 17-0 lead against Central Michigan as the first five Gophers picked up victories. At 125, Minnesota's sixth-ranked Zach Sanders won by decision, 5-2, over No. 10 Matt Steintrager. At 133, No. 2 Jayson Ness of Minnesota dominated No. 9 Scotti Sentes, 14-6, to put the Gophers up 7-0. Minnesota's Mike Thorn, who is ranked No. 7, picked up an 11-5 decision over Connor Beebe at 141. Freshman Mario Mason kept things rolling for Minnesota with a 19-8 major decision over Justin McDermitt. Joe Grygelko of Minnesota put the Gophers in front 16-0 with his 3-2 decision over Donnie Corby. The teams split the remaining four matches as the Gophers rolled to a 26-9 victory.
"They're wrestling good," said Minnesota coach J Robinson. "They knew they had to wrestle with a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of excitement and they did that. We told them beforehand ... some of the guys were missing, so the other guys have to step up. They've been doing a really job today."
One Gopher who has been a roll is 174-pounder Scott Glasser, who went 2-0 with two wins over ranked opponents on Saturday. Glasser, who is ranked No. 13, started his day with a 10-1 major decision over No. 10 Dorian Henderson of Missouri and then defeated No. 5 Ben Bennett of Central Michigan.
"I think he's finally got his confidence back," said Robinson. "He realizes how hard he has to wrestle and what it's all about. He knows it ... And he's known that he has had to stay in the match and wrestle hard. And he's healthy now. But I think it's all part of it. The harder he works, the healthier he says. The healthier he stays, the better he does."
Minnesota is competing without No. 2 Dustin Schlatter at 165 pounds, who is being held out of the event due to injury.
The Gophers will now battle Big Ten rival Iowa in the semifinals at 11 a.m. CST on Sunday.
"They're excited," said Robinson. "We weren't supposed to be there. Central Michigan was ranked ahead of us. We came in ... and they've been wrestling good. Iowa has some guys out. We have some guys out. So it should be exciting."
Iowa tops Boise State in quarterfinals
Iowa advanced to the semifinals with a 20-12 victory over Boise State. The Hawkeyes won six of the 10 matches against the Broncos. No. 3 Matt McDonough (125) and No. 1 Brent Metcalf (149) both won my major decision, but were the only Hawkeyes to pick up bonus points.
"Today maybe we sucked our thumb a little bit too much," said Iowa coach Tom Brands. "Maybe we think it's going to easy. Maybe we think guys are going to fall down after one takedown ... or after a certain amount of time. There are guys out there that want to battle ... that love battling. We've got to love it too. They loved it more than us in some instances today. I tell you what, if we wake up tomorrow morning and we're sulking, we've got problems."
The Hawkeyes are without the services of starters Dan Dennis (133), Chad Beatty (197), and Dan Erekson (285) this weekend. Only one Hawkeye fill-in, Luke Lofthouse (197), picked up a victory against Boise State. Brands, though, was in no mood to talk about his missing starters after the victory.
"I'm not addressing that issue," snapped Brands. "How many times are we going to go over that issue? I'm being kind of snappy here ... and I'm being a tough guy in front of the media. I'm not going to address that issue. It's a no-brainer for me. This is a glimpse of our future. Nate Moore, Blake Rasing, and Luke Lofthouse are our future. Why am I going to make excuses? We love that. I love that. I love the opportunity for these guys. This is what they came to be Hawkeyes for. They were chosen to be Hawkeyes. I believe that."
Iowa State dominates Maryland, Jensen pins Krom
Iowa State won eight of 10 matches against Maryland in the quarterfinals and came away with a convincing 26-6 victory to advance to the semifinals.
Perhaps the biggest win the dual came at 141 pounds when Iowa State's Dalton Jensen, who is filling the injured Nick Gallick, pinned returning All-American Alex Krom.
"He's a pinner," said Iowa State coach Kevin Jackson. "I think you've seen it a couple times when he's been out there. He was down by some points ... for him to snap that cradle on him and get the fall was huge for the match. It kind of gave us the feeling that we could dominate the match. It turns out to be 26-6, so we'll take the win."
Iowa State's Jake Varner won a hard-fought 5-4 decision over two-time All-American Hudson Taylor at 197 pounds. Taylor led 4-3 in the second period before Varner scored a reversal to go up 5-4, which is proved to be the difference.
Despite the convincing victory, Jackson characterized his team's performance as sluggish.
"We're making some mistakes," said Jackson. "I think our whole team wrestled a little bit sluggish. I've got to put my finger on what happened there ... why we wrestled sluggish. Maybe because of second wind ... guys might be holding their weight down, not taking each and every match as seriously as they possibly could."
Ohio State advances to semifinals with victory over Cornell
Ohio State got pins from Nikko Triggas (125) and Tony Jameson (157), which helped propel the Buckeyes over Cornell, 27-14, in the quarterfinals.
"It was a good effort," said Ohio State coach Tom Ryan. "The sign of a great team is when one of your leaders gets knocked off and you have young people stepping up. Tony Jameson, redshirt freshman, stepping up and getting a fall. Nikko Triggas hurting his shoulder but finding a way to get a fall. These guys understand the importance of team and this is a team event."
The Buckeyes will now get ready to face Iowa State in the semifinals at 11 a.m. on Sunday.
"Great match," said Ryan. "They have a great coach there. They have a great team there. We're really looking forward to it."
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