Through ups and downs, it was ultimately a successful first two days at the NCAA Championships for the Cyclones. Four Cyclones became All-Americans and Cyclone legend David Carr punched his ticket to his third national title match.
Here are three takeaways from days one and two of the NCAA Wrestling Championships.
Cyclones find success on day one
The Cyclones got off to a solid start at the NCAA Championships, going 6-3 in the first session and 8-1 in the second session.
The first round saw six Cyclones advance to round two of the tournament (Evan Frost, Anthony Echemendia, Casey Swiderski, David Carr, Will Feldkamp and Yonger Bastida).
Echemendia, Carr, Feldkamp and Bastida all secured bonus points in their opening matches, with Feldkamp and Bastida getting pins while Echemendia and Carr each secured tech falls.
Kysen Terukina, Cody Chittum and MJ Gaitan dropped their first-round matches and fell to the wrestlebacks.
The Cyclones’ success in the first session was apparent in the team standings, as they found themselves in fourth place, trailing first-place Penn State by two points.
Session II was even better for the Cyclones as all wrestlers survived and advanced to the second day of the tournament.
Frost, Echemendia, Carr, Swiderski and Bastida each won their second-round matches to move to the quarterfinals of their respective weight classes.
The only match out of those five that had real intrigue was Swiderski’s at 149 pounds. Swiderski was matched up with No. 9 Ethan Fernandez from Cornell.
The match entered tie-breakers tied 5-5, and in the first 30-second tie-breaker, Swiderski rode out Fernandez to keep the match tied. In the second 30-second tie-breaker, Swiderski chose neutral and secured a takedown and ran out the clock to win 8-5.
Feldkamp dropped his second-round match to fall to the consolation bracket while Terukina, Chittum and Gaitan all kept their seasons alive by winning their matches in Session II.
After an 8-1 record in Session II, the Cyclones found themselves in second place in the team standings with 24.5, tied with Iowa and trailing first place Penn State by 10 points.
Echemendia and Carr headline quarterfinal round
It was an up-and-down quarterfinal round that saw two Cyclones become All-Americans as well as heart-breaking defeats.
At 133 pounds, Evan Frost took on No. 1 Daton Fix of Oklahoma State, who he had lost to in the finals at the Big 12 Championships.
Frost was up for the challenge, taking Fix into sudden victory with the match tied 1-1. After no score in the sudden victory period, Fix escaped to take a 2-1 lead in the first 30-second tie-breaker.
Frost chose neutral in the second tie-breaker and got a shot on Fix, but the referees ruled that it had turned to a stalemate with eight seconds left. Frost was then unable to score, losing the match 2-1.
The biggest heartbreaker though was Bastida’s match at 285 pounds. Up 4-3 late, Bastida surrendered a takedown in the final seconds, losing the match 6-4 and his chance at a national championship.
It would later be revealed through Bastida’s X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had broken a finger in practice earlier in the week, which may have contributed to Bastida ultimately not making the podium after later losing his second match of the day in the blood round.
At 149 pounds, Swiderski dropped his quarterfinal match to No. 1 Ridge Lovett of Nebraska 14-4.
On the other side of the coin, two Cyclones wrestled their way into the semifinals while securing All-American status.
At 141 pounds, Echemendia took on No. 4 Ryan Jack from North Carolina State. Echemendia pushed the pace in this match, drawing a stall call and recording a takedown to take 4-2 lead. From there Echemendia held on to secure the 5-3 victory to earn All-American for the first time in his career.
At 165 pounds, Carr matched up with Wisconsin’s Dean Hamiti. Carr had already beaten Hamiti 2-0 earlier in the season, and on Friday night it was all Carr.
Carr eased to a 5-0 win to set up Carr vs. Keegan O’Toole again in the semifinals.
After session III, the Cyclones slipped to fourth place in the team standings with 42 points, trailing Arizona State (44.5), Michigan (50.5) and Penn State (86.5).
Carr dethrones O’Toole in semi-final
Two Cyclones made their way to the semi-finals, but it was Carr who stole the show Friday night.
Carr and O’Toole have maybe been wrestling’s biggest rivalry for the last two years, and it was Carr who got the last laugh in the pair’s final meeting.
The match was one of the tightest of the night as the two went back and forth throwing their best shots. Carr was up with 53 seconds left in the match when O’Toole secured a takedown to take the late lead.
Carr then struck back with a lead-taking takedown of his own with 10 seconds left, ultimately winning the match 8-6. Carr snapped a two match losing streak to O’Toole, in which O’Toole had beaten him for both a national and Big 12 championship.
Carr ended O’Toole’s chances of a three-peat at 165 pounds and punched a ticket to his third national final. Carr will take on Penn State’s No. 2 Mitchell Mesenbrink in the 165-pound final.
On the other side, Echemendia dropped his semi-final match to No. 1 Jesse Mendez of Ohio State. Echemendia rallied late but could not complete the comeback, ultimately losing 6-4.
After two days four Cyclones (Echemendia, Frost, Swiderski and Carr) became All-Americans, the most since 2009.
Heading into the final day the Cyclones are tied for fourth place in the team standings.
Swiderski will wrestle in the seventh-place match, while Frost and Echemendia will wrestle in the consolation semifinals starting at 10 a.m. Saturday.
David Carr will wrestle for his second national title on Saturday night, with the final round set to begin at 6 p.m. All of the action can be watched on ESPN.
