It took roughly 25 minutes Thursday morning for twentysomething seeds to blow up the 125-pound bracket at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

In all, six lower-seeded wrestlers pulled off opening-round upsets at 125, five of whom were seeded 20th or lower. 

The bracket busting began with West Virginia All-American Killian Cardinale, who tumbled to a #28 seed after injury defaulting in his first match at the Big 12 Championships and medical forfeiting out of the tournament. Cardinale scored a takedown midway through the second period and fended off #5 seed Caleb Smith of Appalachian State late to win a 3-2 decision. 

"(I've) been hurt all year, been hurt all my career, but it doesn't matter," Cardinale said. "Everyone's hurt here. We're all going through something." 

Moments later, #27 seed Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech took out sixth-seeded Stevo Poulin 4-2 with an overtime takedown. 

U20 World champ Jore Volk followed a similar script to bounce returning All-American and 12th-seeded Michael DeAugustino into the consolations. The 21st-seeded Wyoming freshman used an overtime takedown to pull out a 3-1 win, sending DeAugustino to the backside, where he’ll face fifth-seeded Smith in a first-round consolation bout. 

"I knew I had more left in the tank than he did, so I went after it," Volk said. "I just had to stay on my offense and keep attacking." 

Additionally, #26 seed Jack Wagner of North Carolina made a first-period takedown stand in a 3-1 win against #7 seed and returning All-American Brandon Kaylor of Oregon State, #20 seed Jarrett Trombley of North Carolina State defeated #13 seed Dean Peterson of Rutgers and #19 seed Braxton Brown of Maryland beat #14 seed Noah Surtin of Missouri 8-6.