2018 Midlands Championships

Midlands Session I Notes

Midlands Session I Notes

Highlights from the opening rounds of the 2018 Mildands Wrestling Championships

Dec 29, 2018 by Willie Saylor
Midlands Session I Notes

Session is in the books at Midlands. Action resumes at 7:00 this evening with quarterfinals. Below you'll find some notes and highlights from the morning session.

For full results and team scores view brackets on FLO ARENA HERE


Watch the 2018 Midlands Championships Live On Flo

Quarterfinals - 7:00 PM CT


Pigtails 

• ASU's 5th-ranked Ryan Millhof (125) injury defaulted.

• Elder statesmen Ryan Prater out here beating the young bucks. The 29 year old former DI NCAA qualifier for Illinois and DIII NCAA Champion for Elmhurst used awesome top work to get a 2nd period tech in his opening bout.

• Alec Pantaleo wasted no time introducing himself back to the 149 fold. He picked up a fall over Army's Beau Guffey in :56.

• Anthony Valencia was in a battle with Buffalo's Troy Keller but prevailed in OT.


Round 1

• Spencer came out firing against with two takedowns before pinning talented freshman Malik Heinselman in a tilt. 

• Sammy Sasso (#4) and Jacori Teemer (#8) were two of the best recruits in the country last year. They met in round 1 and it delivered. The two traded takedowns and were tied at 4 late when Jacori drove through a shot. Sammy countered for a reversal for what looked like a tie at 6 but Teemer was awarded 2NF in the process. Awesome bout. 

• At the completion of the 1st Championship round, Iowa (42pts) leads Wisconsin (27), Northern Iowa (26), Princeton (26) and Northwestern (24).

• All ten of Iowa's starters are undefeated. 


Round 2

• Justin Cardani (Illinois) beat Brandon Courtney on a RT point. 

• UNC's Zach Sherman beat Michigan Frosh Joey Silva. 

• Hunter Kosco (Brown) scored first against Nathan Tomasello before NATO built up an 11-5 lead. But in the 2nd NATO went down with an injury. Not sure, but it looked like a hamstring.

• Bucknell's Joey Gould took out #13-Tristan Moran (WISC)

• The #1 wrestler in the nation, Matt Kolodzik (Princeton) was taken down by Jacori Teemer and trailed 3-1 with :44 left. Kolodzik escaped and got a takedown but after a restart with 0:06, Teemer got the escap to put it to OT. Kolodzik scored with a quick strike to move to quarters.

• Aaron Brooks rallied to beat #12-Ben Harvey and reach the quarters. Tied off a :07 restart, Brooks scored a five point play.

• AJ Nevills (Fresno St.) and Anthony Cassioppi (Iowa) were in a wild one at HWT. 6-6 after 1. Cassioppi built up over 3 minutes of riding time and won 12-8.

• The brackets were loaded with some of the best freshmen from the high school Class of 2018. And 11 of them have reached the quarterfinals. They are: Patrick Glory (Princeton/125), Carmen Ferrante (Penn/125), Doug Zapf (Penn/133), Michael Blockhus (UNI/141), Brayton Lee (MINN/149), Quincy Monday (Princeton/157), Aaron Brooks (PSU/174), Gavin Hoffman (Ohio St./184), Tanner Sloan (SDSU/197); Mason Parris (MICH/285), Anthony Cassioppi (Iowa/285)


Team Scores at the Break

1    Iowa   59.5

2    Princeton   36.5

3    Northern Iowa   36.0

4    Wisconsin    35.0

5    Northwestern   34.5

6    Army West Point   34.0

7    Illinois   32.5

8    Central Michigan   28.0

9    Penn   27.5

10    Northern Illinois   27.0