Hunter Willits tried to not get wrapped up in the complexities of his bracket path at the NCAA Championships. 

His first-round assignment -- Penn State's Brady Berge -- was difficult enough. A win there meant a second-round bout against David Carr, a guy whose only college loss occurred 833 days ago. 

The Oregon State 157-pounder's thought process entering the NCAA Championships: "Gotta just step up and perform well and do the best that I can because I've got a tough draw." 

Willits took a colossal step up Thursday, sending shockwaves through Little Caesars Arena and across the college wrestling landscape by stunning Carr in the biggest upset of the opening day at the NCAA Championships. 

The 17th-seeded Oregon State junior escaped with three seconds left in the second tiebreaker session to capture a 2-1 victory that snapped Carr's 55-match winning streak and sent one of the tournament's biggest favorites tumbling into the consolations. 

Carr's loss was the first for a #1 seed on the opening day of the NCAA Championships since 2011 when Darrion Caldwell, who battled through shoulder injuries that season, injury defaulted in the second round. 

This one was hard to forecast. 

Carr had scored bonus points in 15 of his 22 bouts this season entering Thursday night, including an opening-round technical fall earlier in the day. Points usually aren't a problem for the Iowa State junior, but they were hard to find Thursday night. He stalked Willits in the opening period, taking ground and firing off shots, but Carr couldn't get to the legs. 

"He was on me, on me, on me and I was just trying to weather the storm but also not stall and so I was trying to get my shots off but not get in bad position at the same time but also if I can score, try to score," Willits said. "I gave up a stall call (in the first period) and it made it that much harder because now I have to really start showing the ref I'm not stalling, I'm wrestling because one more stall call is huge." 

Carr's best scoring opportunity in regulation came late in the second period when he got to Willits on a single-leg shot on the edge of the mat, but he couldn't college the second leg and ran out of time. 

Willits escaped with 1:10 to go in the third period to tie the match and Carr went back on the attack, taking territory and firing off attacks, but he couldn't break through Willits' defense and couldn't pick up another stall warning. 

The returning national champion had another prime opportunity to score in overtime on a reattack that he almost finished before Willits scrambled into a slightly better position. Carr put the Oregon State 157-pounder in a neutral danger situation, but the sequence ultimately ended in a stalemate with 55 seconds remaining. 

After two scoreless minutes in sudden victory, Willits rode out Carr in the first 30-second tiebreaker session and created a flurry in the closing seconds of the second session that enabled him to escape for the win just before time expired. 

"I had to create some motion," he said. "I rolled, broke his lock and turned and got an escape." 

What happened next was a bit of a blur for Willits. He tossed his headgear, peeled off his ankle bands and reality began to sink in -- a "man, this really happened" moment, he said. 

"Hunter's a 4.0 mechanical engineering major, he gets five hours of sleep a night because he's doing everything the right way for school and for his training and he's had so many near misses on big (matches)," Oregon State coach Chris Pendleton said. "I keep telling him to stay the course and keep the faith. It's going to come, it's going to happen, and finally, it has been happening. (It was) a little more dramatic than I would've preferred and I think I'm going to work on stapling headgears on people's heads so we can stop losing dang team points on it." 

Bracket Busters 

A couple dozen upsets became a primary storyline coming out of Thursday's opening session. Although there were half as many upsets in the round of 16, there were bigger bracket-shaking outcomes Thursday night. 

In addition to the Willits win over Carr, North Carolina's Kizhan Clarke toppled second-seeded Jaydin Eierman of Iowa 4-2 in overtime at 141, #13 seed Jacob Woodley returned to the quarterfinals for the second straight year by posting his second win of the season over #4 seed Patrick Brucki of Michigan, and Nebraska's 12th-seeded Christian Lance handed Air Force's fifth-seeded Wyatt Hendrickson his first loss of the season, using a pair of third-period takedowns to pull out a 5-4 victory. 

Clarke's victory came with the most suspense. He outscrambled Eierman in sudden victory for the winning takedown and then had to wait through a several-minute video review before the call on the mat was upheld. 

"I was scared because usually, reviews don't take that long," Clarke said. "I felt like I had the takedown, I felt like he had no control. The refs, I don't know what they were talking about for 10 minutes, but I guess it took them that long to figure out it was a takedown." 

Survive And Advance

Survival skills are often an essential part of navigating the NCAA brackets. 

Unbeaten Rutgers 141-pounder Sebastian Rivera and top-seeded Penn State 197-pounder Max Dean pushed through to the quarterfinals after getting pushed to the limit in the second round. 

Rivera downed Nebraska’s Chad Red 7-6 on a stall point in sudden victory after an action-packed third period. Rivera took a 3-0 lead into the third before Red scored an escape and a takedown to tie it. Then things got wild. Rivera regained the lead on a reversal with 42 seconds left. Red regained the lead on a reversal with 24 to go. Red got hit for stalling on top with 13 seconds left, effectively tying the bout. 

In overtime, though, Rivera took him to the edge and Red was hit for stalling on the boundary line much to the displeasure of many inside Little Caesars Arena. 

The crowd was even more upset by what transpired at 197, where Dean defeated Virginia’s Jay Aiello 4-2.

Dean was in on a leg on the edge in the first period when Aiello used a nifty counter to knock Dean back to a hip. The Virginia 197-pounder quickly circled back in and covered Dean, but the action was ruled out of bounds and the call was upheld after the Cavalier corner challenged. 

Aiello broke the scoreless tie in the second period on a reversal with 38 seconds remaining. Moments later, he pulled Dean back into a position where the Virginia corner thought Aiello should’ve been getting a count but didn’t. That call was also upheld after an official’s video review. 

The bout tipped in Dean’s favor midway through the third period when he scrambled for a go-ahead takedown after it appeared as if Aiello might add to his lead. Dean rode Aiello out the rest of the way for the victory. 

Five Returning Finalists Fall On Thursday

The degree of difficulty attached to the NCAA Championships was reflected Thursday by those who fell into the consolation bracket. 

Carr, Eierman, North Carolina’s Austin O’Connor, Pittsburgh’s Jake Wentzel, and teammate Nino Bonaccorsi wrestled on Saturday night’s main stage last year in St. Louis. The five returning finalists all got knocked off Thursday. 

O’Connor fell to The Citadel’s Dazjon Casto 8-2 in overtime in Thursday’s opening round at 157, while Wentzel and Bonaccorsi fell in Pitt-Ohio State second-round clashes. Buckeye freshman Carson Kharcla defeated Wentzel 7-1 at 165 and Ohio State’s Gavin Hoffman scored an overtime takedown to beat Bonaccorsi 6-4 at 197. 

Round of 16 Roundup

Thursday night’s round of 16 action was filled with fireworks. Among the other highlights:

— West Virginia’s fifth-seeded Killian Cardinale rallied back from a six-point deficit to defeat Utah Valley’s Taylor LaMont 10-8 at 125. LaMont pancaked Cardinale in the opening period for a six-point move, but Cardinale came back with a pair of third-period takedowns and another in overtime to seize the win. 

— Virginia’s Brian Courtney became the lowest-seeded quarterfinalist after posting an 8-7 win against Penn’s Michael Colaiocco at 133. 

— Virginia Tech’s Bryce Andonian used a pair of four-point near-falls to take control on his way to a 16-11 win at 149 against #6 seed Jonathan Millner of Appalachian State. 

— Wisconsin freshman Dean Hamiti dug himself out of a 9-3 second-period deficit with four takedowns and a two-point near-fall to beat Cornell’s Julian Ramirez 15-11 at 165. 

— Top-seeded heavyweight Gable Steveson of Minnesota ran his tournament-high point total to 48 after piling up 23 points in a technical fall win against Zach Elam. 

— Second-seeded heavyweight Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State took a different path to the quarters. He was the only wrestler in the tournament to score two falls on Thursday.