Session III, which includes the semifinal bouts, consolation rounds and seventh place matches, begins tomorrow at noon.
No. 4 seed Levi Mele was the first Northwestern wrestler to reach the semifinals with his 7-0 shutout of No. 5 seed Trent Sprenkle from North Dakota State at 125 lbs. Mele will take on No. 8 seed Jarrod Garnett, who is wrestling unattached from Virginia Tech, after he pulled off one of the biggest upsets of the tournament pinning Illinois' No. 1 seed Jesse Delgado in 6:35 in another quarterfinal match. Mele brings a perfect 16-0 record with him into his semifinal bout against Garnett.
Top-seeded Jason Welch then punched his ticket into the semifinals with a 13-4 major decision over Eastern Michigan's Aaron Sulzer at 157 lbs. Welch trailed 4-0 at the end of the first period but used a 13-0 run to secure the victory and meets No. 4 seed Matt Lester from Oklahoma in the semifinals. The quarterfinal major decision over Sulzer was Welch's fourth win by bonus points during the tournament (three major decisions, one pin). Welch also added to his unbeaten record and is now 8-0 on the year.
Fifth-seeded Lee Munster was the third NU grappler to make it to the semifinals with a 3-1 win over Tanner Weatherman, who was wrestling unattached from Virginia Tech, at 174 lbs. With the win, Munster takes on UW-Parkside's (Division II) Luke Rynish, the No. 9 seed at 174. Rynish advanced to the semis due to injury default by the No. 1 seed Chris Spangler from Iowa State. Rynish and Spangler wrestled to double-overtime before Spangler defaulted out of the tournament.
After defeating the reigning Big Ten champion at heavyweight in the morning session, No. 10 seed McMullan had the tall task of facing second-seeded Peter Sturgeon from Central Michigan. McMullan got out to a 4-0 lead but Sturgeon was able to come back and scored a takedown in the closing seconds of regulation to knot everything up at 6-6. McMullan then scored the winning takedown with 23 seconds remaining in overtime to win 8-6 and help Northwestern go 4-for-4 in the quarterfinals. It was McMullan's second upset of the day and he now faces No. 3 seed Bobby Telford from Iowa in the semis.
Kaleb Friedely and John Schoen are both still competing in the wrestleback rounds. No. 9 seed Friedley pinned Kyle Rosser from Lehigh in 2:01 then defeated Central Michigan's Joey Kielbasa, 6-2 at 149 lbs. Friedley matches up against No. 12 seed Shane Welsh from Lehigh tomorrow.
Schoen advanced due to a medical forefit to James Fox from Harvard and then used overtime to defeat Iowa State's Cole Shafer. After a 1-1 tie in regulation, Schoen scored the winning takedown with less than 10 seconds remaining in the sudden victory to advance, 3-1. Schoen meets No. 8 seed Mario Gonzalez of Illinois tomorrow in the wrestlebacks.
Jameson Oster (133), Pat Greco (141), Colin Shober (141), David Helmer (157), Pierce Harger (165), Robert Kellogg (174) and Marcus Shrewsbury (184) were all eliminated from competition during Session II.
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