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Big Ten Wrestling Championships Session II Results

The Iowa Hawkeyes came into session II with seven wrestlers still in the mix for conference titles, but after the night was over only four remained. Those four are junior Cory Clark at 133 lbs, sophomore Brandon Sorensen at 149 lbs, junior Sammy Brooks at 184 lbs, and senior Nathan Burak at 197 lbs.

The other three wrestlers who made it to the semifinals will now have the chance to wrestle their way back to third place. Junior #2 seed at 133 lbs Thomas Gilman lost to #3 Nico Megaludis of Penn State after failing to score off of a single leg that Gilman fought over for the last thirty seconds of the third period which sent the match into overtime. Gilman then blundered in the second overtime when he tried a risky roll and was reversed.

At 157 lbs, senior #5 seed Edwin Cooper Jr. suffered a technical fall to the still undefeated #1 Jason Nolf of Penn State. At 174 lbs, #2 Alex Meyer did not seem to wrestle with much urgencey, as usual, and wound up getting taken down, cradled, and pinned in only 2:00 by #3 Zach Brunson of Illinios.

The other major let down of the tournament for the hawkeyes was freshman heavyweight #3 seed Sam Stoll disappointed again in the consolation bracket by losing 3-0 to the #7 seed Brooks Black of Illinois, and this was coming after a quarterfinal round loss to the #6 seed Collin Jensen of Nebraska. Stoll will now face the unseeded Brock Horwath of Wisconsin for 7th place.

In the 165 lb bracket, senior #8 seed Patrick Rhoads picked up a major decision in the consolation bracket over unseeded Brandon Krone of Minnesota 15-7. He then dropped his next match to the #5 seed from Purdue, Chad Welch, 2-0. Rhoads will join Stoll in session III in competing for 7th place. He will face the #7 seed Geno Morelli of Penn State.

The final hawkeye wrestler who competed in session II was the unseeded senior, Brody Grothus, at 141 lbs. Grothus lost his very first match to the #1 seed Micah Jordan of Ohio State 5-3, which sent him to the consolation bracket. His very next match pitted him against the #2 seed Tommy Thorn of Minnesota, who had lost out in the quarterfinal. Grothus once again came up short against top seeded competition losing by decision 7-5, which effectively knocked Grothus out of the tournament.

The final team standings at the completion of session II had Penn State in the lead with 133 points, followed by Iowa with 106, then Ohio State with 100, and in fourth was Nebraska with 98.5. Penn State has six wrestlers in the finals, two of which will face Iowa wrestlers: at 149 lbs and 197 lbs. Also worth mentioning in the Iowa-Penn State competition is 165 lbs where the two teams will compete for 7th place. There are no other possible meetings between the two teams other than at these three weight classes.

The wrestlers who made it to the finals will not compete until session IV, which begins at 3 p.m. Sunday. For Iowa, Cory Clark will face Zane Richards of Illinois at 133 lbs, Brandon Sorensen will face Zain Retherford of Penn State at 149 lbs, Sammy Brooks will face T. J. Dudley of Nebraska at 184 lbs, and Nathan Burak will face Morgan McIntosh of Penn State at 197 lbs.