PITTSBURGH, Pa. – After one day of action at the 2019 NCAA Wrestling Championships, the Iowa State wrestling team (10-4, 6-2 Big 12) is in 11th place with 14.5 team points. Penn State paces the field with 32.5 team points.

Eighth-seeded Jarrett Degen and 10th-seeded Sam Colbray both went 2-0 on day one and have advanced to the quarterfinals at 149 and 184 pounds, respectively. The Cyclones brought nine wrestlers to Pittsburgh and all have advanced to day two of the NCAA Championships.

Championship Second Round
Jarrett Degen was locked in a barnburner with N.C. State’s No. 9 Justin Oliver with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. The two were knotted at 8-8 late in the third before Degen used his patented unconventional offense to secure a late takedown and push his riding time to over a minute to take the match by 11-8 decision.

Sam Colbray was in complete control of his match against No. 26 Dakota Geer of Oklahoma State. Colbray notched three takedowns and rolled to a 7-4 decision and into the quarterfinals.

No. 13 Austin Gomez was the aggressor in his match against No. 4 Micky Phillippi. In the third period, Gomez trailed 1-0 and elected to take neutral. Despite his persistent attack, Phillippi was only called for stalling once. As time expired, Gomez was in on a single leg, but ultimately fell to the Panther, 1-0.

At 197 pounds, No. 11 Christian Brunner got a first period takedown to jump out ahead of No. 6 Willie Miklus. The Boilermaker held on to that lead to push Miklus to the backside of the bracket, 6-2.

Consolation First Round
In session two, the Cyclones wrestling on the backside of the bracket combined to go 5-0 to all reach the second day of competition in Pittsburgh.

No. 23 Chase Straw put on display his toughness and grit on Thursday night. Straw trailed Princeton’s No. 26 Quincy Monday in the third period, 12-5. Straw then reversed Monday and earned a four-point near fall. Monday was dinged for stalling to tie the match at 12-12, sending it to sudden victory. After a scoreless first overtime stanza, the two went to tiebreaker one. Straw rode Monday for the first 30 seconds of TB-1 and then earned and escape to secure a 13-12 victory over the Tiger.

After dropping his first match of the day, No. 19 Alex Mackall bounced back. He surrendered the first takedown to No. 30 Bryce West, but he got to his feet, took the Huskie down and turned him to his back for a fall in 2:54.

No. 17 Ian Parker dominated in his first consolation match. He held an 11-0 lead with over three minutes of riding time before he cranked Rutgers’ No. 33 Peter Lipari for the fall in 5:35.

No. 21 Marcus Coleman made light work of No. 28 Jacob Oliver of Edinboro in the 174-pound consolations. He used three takedowns and over a minute of riding time to beat the Fighting Scott by 9-4 decision.

No. 25 Gannon Gremmel capped off the second session of day one for the Cyclones with a 7-4 victory over Standord’s No. 26 Haydn Maley. The redshirt sophomore tallied three takedowns in the victory.

Championship First Round
The Cyclones went 4-5 in the opening session of the NCAA Championships. Gomez, Degen, Colbray and Miklus all posted dominant victories to advance to the second round.

At 133 pounds, Gomez defeated No. 20 Brandon Paetzell of Lehigh by 11-0 major decision. Degen also scored bonus points for ISU, tacking on a 14-3 major decision against CSU-Bakersfield’s No. 25 Russell Rohlfing, 14-3.

Toward the end of the session, Colbray rolled through No. 23 Jackson Hemauer of Fresno State by 8-2 decision, and Miklus opened his final NCAA tournament with a 6-1 win against Navy’s No. 27 Josh Roetman.