OMAHA, Neb. — Three Oklahoma wrestlers are one win away from achieving All-American status after the first day of the NCAA Wrestling Championships at Quest Center.
Kyle Terry (149 pounds), Tyler Caldwell (165 pounds) and Eric Lapotsky (197 pounds) all won their first two matches Thursday to advance to today’s semifinals.
“I couldn’t be prouder of how we bounced back this evening after a tough and challenging start to the tournament,” OU coach Jack Spates said. “In a national tournament, everything is not going to go your way and we have battled back magnificently.”
Terry, who is the No. 3 seed in his weight class rolled to a 10-0 victory over North Carolina State’s Bobby Ward.
Caldwell scored OU’s biggest win of the day when he upset Ohio State’s Colt Sponseller with an escape late in the second tiebreaker period.
Lapotsky has been the most dominant. He pinned Pittsburgh’s Matthew Wilps Thursday to score his second fall of the day.
The Sooners had four wrestlers advance to the second round, but Shane Vernon (157 pounds) fell to Chase Pami of Cal Poly, 7-5 Thursday night.
OU ended Thursday’s opening session tied for 10th in the team standings. Six Sooners lost their opening match and will try to battle their way through the consolation brackets.
Jarrod Patterson (125 pounds) started the day with a loss, but it still alive after a 9-2 decision over Maryland’s James Knox.
Kendric Maple scored 5-0 win over Central Michigan’s Scotti Sentes. At 141 pounds, Zack Bailey kept his season going with an 11-3 major decision over Cal-State Fullerton’s Adin Duenas. At 174 pounds, Jeff James scored a 4-3 win over Millersville’s Shane Smith.
At press time Thursday night, the only OU wrestler eliminated on the first day was Erich Schmidtke, who lost both his matches. Heavyweight Nathan Fernandez will still waiting to wrestle in an elimination match.
