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Big Ten Wrestling Championships Session III Results

Session III featured all of the wrestling left in the tournament other than the 1st, 3rd, and 5th place matches. Those are reserved for session IV. The Hawkeyes had five matches during session III where the took three victories and suffered two losses.

In the 125 lb consolation semifinal, junior #2 seed Thomas Gilman threw #5 Elijah Oliver of Indiana to his back after Oliver tried a costly trip. The throw resulted in a second period pin for Gilman who will now advance on to face #4 Tim Lambert from Nebraska in the 3rd place match.

Edwin Cooper Jr., the 157 lb #5 seed, rode #3 Richie Lewis of Rutgers the entire second period and then added an escape of his own to win the match 2-0. The Hawkeye junior will now wrestle Michigan’s Brian Murphy, the #6 seed, in the consolation final.

The last consolation semifinal that the Hawks competed in was at 174 lbs where junior #2 seed Alex Meyer seemed to suffer from a bad case of lethargy as he dropped his match 11-7 to Indiana’s #5 seed, Nate Jackson. Meyer got deep on several different shots, but each time he wound up stuck under Jackson, unable to turn the corner and finish.

The other two matches for Iowa’s grapplers were 7th place matches at 165 lbs and 285 lbs. Senior #8 seed Patrick Rhoads pulled out an exciting overtime victory that led to a standing ovation from the Hawkeye fan-filled Carver. Rhoads beat #7 Geno Morelli of Penn State by a score of 4-2 to take 7th place.

Finally at heavyweight, freshman standout #3 seed for the Hawkeyes, who has been hampered by a knee injury ever since facing two-time NCAA national champion Nick Gwiazdowski two weeks ago, was forced to give up a medical forfeit to unseeded Brock Horwath of Wisconsin. Stoll will probably still receive an at-large bid to attend the NCAA national tournament in a week and a half.

The team standings at the end of session III had Penn State leading with 136.5 points, Iowa trailing with 116, Nebraska close behind with 115, and Ohio State easily still in the mix with 114. The Hawks will have an uphill battle to beat Penn State as the Nittany Lions have six wrestlers competing in the finals. Of those six, two are head-to-head matches with Iowa: Sorensen will face Zain Retherford at 149 lbs and Burak will have Morgan McIntosh at 197 lbs.

Session IV will start at 3 p.m. and feature Clark, Sorensen, Brooks, and Burak wrestling for 1st place, Gilman and Cooper wrestling for 3rd place, and Meyer wrestling for 5th place.