Iowa Puts 5 in Quarterfinals at NCAA Wrestling Tournament

Day one of the 2023 NCAA Wrestling Tournament went mostly as expected for #2 Iowa, at least according to the seeds. Iowa went 8-2 in Round One; the higher-seeded wrestler won 9 of those 10 matches, with the only upset being (14) Cobe Siebrecht's loss to (19) Garrett Model (Wisconsin). In the second round, Iowa wrestlers went 5-3, with the higher-seeded wrestler going 6-2 in those bouts. Iowa benefited from one upset (at 174, where (11) Nelson Brands edged Ohio State's (6) Ethan Smith, 3-1) and was the victim of the other upset (at 165, where (6) Patrick Kennedy lost 3-2 to Michigan's (11) Cameron Amine).

All told, Iowa went 15-5 on Thursday, putting five wrestlers into the quarterfinals and the other five staying alive in the consolation bracket. Those results were good enough to put Iowa in second place in the team race behind #1 Penn State, the heavy pre-tournament favorite.

Iowa remains within range of Penn State in the team race for now, but the quarterfinal round will provide opportunities for separation. That round is the first big point round, since winners in the quarterfinals assure themselves of no worse than a sixth-place finish. Iowa has five quarterfinalists, but will only be favored in three of those matches. Penn State has seven semifinalists and will be favored in six of those matches.

Iowa's top wrestlers -- Spencer Lee, Real Woods, and Tony Cassioppi -- all performed more or less up to expectations in Round One, dispatching their overmatched opponents with ease. Lee was, as he so often is, unstoppable -- he quickly took Owens down, turned him for four points, and then adjusted to pin him... all in just 36 seconds. That was certainly an emphatic way to start his quest for a fourth NCAA championship.

Woods and Cassioppi rolled with lopsided major decisions. Woods got some early takedowns and a few tilts of his own to build a large lead, then coasted to the finish. Cassioppi picked up a takedown in each period, as well as a few stall points, and earned a mountain of riding time to get his own easy major decision victory.

Iowa's other five wins in Round One came via decision. Max Murin used takedowns in the first and third periods to set up a 6-3 win at 149; Abe Assad followed a similar template in his 6-2 win at 184. Patrick Kennedy had a workmanlike 7-2 win at 165, while Jacob Warner used some early takedowns to get an easy win over Caffey.

Nelson Brands' match at 174 featured more drama -- Brands trailed 3-2 late in the match, but was awarded a takedown after an attack with time running out in the match, then got two near fall points as well for exposing Faison's back to the mat. He went from 3-2 down to a 6-3 win in the span of a few seconds.

Iowa's two losses also featured some similarities -- namely, both Brody Teske and Cobe Siebrecht got put on their backs, which put them in large holes they weren't able to escape. Teske's miscue came early in the match and he battled well after that -- especially in the third period, when Lucas Byrd's gas tank seemed to hit E -- but couldn't fully overcome that early 6-0 hole. Siebrecht's loss stung even more as he was leading his match before getting put on his back during a scramble; that put Model in control of the match and Siebrecht was never able to claw his way back.

Round Two brought tougher opposition, which meant fewer wins (Iowa went 5-3) and fewer bonus points (only Lee and Cassioppi earned extra points). Spencer Lee's match lasted longer than 30 seconds, but it was still as one-sided as it gets. Lee took Jack Medley down quickly, then took him on several trips to Tilt Town as he racked up near fall points on his way to a 16-0 major decision. All told, Lee wrestled a grand total of 3:06 on Thursday. He truly is remarkable.

Cassioppi earned Iowa's other bonus point win with a 9-0 major decision; he outscored his opponents 19-0 on Thursday, which is certainly impressive. He followed a similar formula against Tyrell Gordon that he used in his first match: multiple takedowns, a few stall points, and a lot of riding time.

Iowa's other wins featured a lot more drama, though none as much as Real Woods' narrow 7-5 decision win over Ohio State's (17) Dylan D'Emilio. Woods opened up an early lead with a pair of takedowns, but D'Emilio's ability to wriggle free of Woods on the mat and get escapes earned him three escape points and gave Woods only a narrow 4-3 lead in the second period. D'Emilio then caught Woods with a sharp double-leg attack to score his own takedown and go up 5-4; a Woods escape tied it at 5-5.

The winning points came from another Woods escape in the third period and a riding time point, but Woods had to use some stout defense in the third period to fend off D'Emilio's attacks and he very nearly gave up a match-tying takedown in the final seconds (the officials on the mat said no takedown and after a lengthy video review, that call stood). Woods will need to wrestle better than he did in that match if he wants to be on top of the podium on Saturday night.

Murin and Brands picked up 3-1 wins at 149 and 174, riding a single takedown and some stingy defense to victories. Brands' win was especially notable, as he upset the 6th-seeded Smith.

That upset win for Brands essentially canceled out an upset loss for Patrick Kennedy at 165. Kennedy dropped a 3-2 decision when Amine was able to get an escape and a takedown in the third period. Kennedy and Amine have had some tight matches this year; unfortunately, this one went Amine's way.

Abe Assad and Jacob Warner also lost back-to-back matches for Iowa at 184 and 197. Assad took Iowa State's (5) Marcus Coleman to tiebreakers, but got ridden out and wasn't able to convert any of his attacks into takedowns (in the tiebreaker period or the match as a whole). Warner gave up a pair of takedowns to Missouri's (3) Rocky Elam to fall behind early and was never able to find enough offense to get back into the match after that.

Iowa did go 2-for-2 in consolation round action on Thursday night. Teske used a takedown and tilt to build a big early lead on Brown and rode that to a comfortable decision win to stay alive at 133. Siebrecht overcame an early takedown to pour on the points for a major decision win over Hill.

Heading into Friday's sessions, Iowa has five wrestlers alive in the championship bracket and five going in the consolation bracket. As noted above, wrestlers in the quarterfinals just need to win one more match (either in the quarterfinals or in the Round of 12/blood round if they lose in the quarterfinals) in order to become All-Americans. Wrestlers in the consolation bracket already must win three matches tomorrow (two during the Friday morning/afternoon sessions and one during the Friday night session) in order to lock up All-America status.

In the quarters, Lee, Woods, and Cassioppi should be favored in their matches. Lee has never wrestled Anthony Noto before. Woods beat Allan Hart 4-0 last year, but he'll likely need to wrestle better than he did in Round Two in order to make it to the semifinals. Cassioppi is 2-0 all-time against Cohlton Schultz, but both of those wins (4-1 and 5-0) came in the 2021 NCAA Tournament. Schultz has been wrestling well and he ought to be a difficult test for Cassioppi.

Iowa's other two quarterfinalists, Max Murin and Abe Assad, will need to pull significant upsets in order to make it to the semifinals. Murin has to get by top seed Yianni Diakomihalis, who -- like Spencer Lee -- is trying to become a 4-time NCAA champion this year. Murin and Diakomihalis actually wrestled in the quarterfinals at last year's NCAA Tournament; Yianni won 6-3. A win for Murin here would be one of the upsets of the tournament.

Nelson Brands also has to defeat a former NCAA champion -- Virginia Tech's (3) Mekhi Lewis was the NCAA champion at 165 in 2019. That won't be easy, but Lewis hasn't looked overwhelming at this tournament -- he won his first match 2-1 and his second bout 5-4. Brands has been able to keep things tight against top guys at this weight; if he can do that here and finish an attack as well, he might be able to produce a huge upset.

In the consolation rounds, the job is simple: win or your tournament is over. Brody Teske has the toughest task as he gets 9th-seeded Micky Phillipi. Siebrecht split two matches with Trevor Chumbley this year, beating him 6-3 at the dual but losing 3-2 at the Big Ten Tournament. Kennedy, Assad, and Warner haven't previously faced their opponents, but they should be favored against them (though Assad's match is a bit of a toss-up).

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