Wrapping up the first day of competition Iowa Central sit in second place, 12 points behind Clackamas who lead all with 94 points. Just behind ICCC is another Iowa college, NIACC, who have 79 points.
ICCC has placed four into today’s semifinal round – #9 Jason Alfau (141, #5 Ryan Niven (165), #3 Tyler Hoffman (184), and #1 Patrick Downey (197). #3 Alex Delacruz (125) and Chris Ballard (285) both lost their quarterfinal matches, but won their wrestle backs to guarantee top eight placement for their team. #8 Teddie Harvey (149), #1 Richie Lewis (157), and #8 Jake Meehan (174) also will be finishing on the stand. For Lewis is has been a long road back to finish on the stand after losing his first match by fall, but he has since strung together four straight wins (by technical fall, fall, decision, and major decision) on his quest for third.
Team Scores after the semifinal round:
1. Clackamas Community College 94
2. Iowa Central Community College 82
3. North Iowa Area Community College 79
4. Northeast Oklahoma 73
5. North Idaho College 62.5
6. Ellsworth Community College 58.5
10. Iowa Lakes Community College 46
11. Iowa Western Community College 45.5
NIACC’s lightweights are doing the heavy lifting in their third place performance as #7 Paul Mascarenas (125), former Iowa Hawkeye Jake Marlin (141) , #1 Nosomy Pozo (149), and #2 Yoanse Mejias (157) all have reached the semifinals. Marlin currently is the main point scorer with 14 points after winning his matches by technical fall (x2) and fall. Up next for Marlin will be #6 Clay Archer (NEO), who’s first win of the tournament was an upset of the #2 ranked wrestler. #9 Shiquan Hall and Lawrence Phillips (285) will also finish on the stand for NIACC.
After sitting in fourth after round one, Ellsworth has slid down to 6th in the team race, after placing six in the quarterfinals. It was there that Ellsworth got roughed up, only advancing #6 DeShun Brown (125) and #1 Matt Hurford (184) to the semifinals. Three of Ellsworth’s quarter-finalists were eliminated from the tournament, and #7 Matthew Rodriguez-Kirkland will be the only other All-American for Ellsworth. The biggest blow to Ellworth’s team chances were win #2 Saidyokub Kakhramanov (141) fell just one match short of All-American status.
Iowa Lakes only has a pair of wrestlers alive for today’s action, but both of them have made the semifinals, and both of them are favored to win their bracket. #1 Freddie Rodriguez (125) and #1 Andres Gonzales (141) will each face an opponent from an Iowa college in their semifinal match. Rodriguez will take on NIACC’s Mascarenas and Gonzales will face ICCC’s Alfau for a shot to wrestle for a national title.
Iowa Western will finish with five All-Americans and just one of those wrestlers will have a chance to wrestle in the finals as Oscar Ramirez (149) will face Springfield Tech’s #5 ranked Abbas Tamaradze today. #6 Clay Stine (133), #12 Matt Walker (174), #7 Jhalen Flanders (184), and Luke Nohns (197) will also earn All-American honors.