CLEVELAND — Almost everything seemed to go Iowa’s way in Session 1 of the NCAAs on March 15. Session 2 was a different story.
Of Iowa’s eight wrestlers still in their championship brackets, only Spencer Lee, Michael Kemerer, and Alex Marinelli advanced to the March 16 morning quarterfinals.
With only three wins in Round Two of the tournament, Iowa sits at third in the team score with 27 points. Ohio State has surged into the lead, winning 19 of its 20 bouts for a healthy 36 points. Penn State sits at 28.5.
Spencer Lee started action for the Hawkeyes with his second tech fall of the tournament, this time over Purdue’s Luke Welsh.
“Score points,” Lee said about his mindset in his matches. “Move hands and feet for seven minutes hard. That’s what was going through my head the whole time.”
Lee will face Nick Piccininni in the quarterfinals.
Vince Turk dropped into the consolation bracket after losing a 4-2 decision to top-seeded Bryce Meredith of Wyoming.
The biggest surprise of the day for the Iowa faithful came when their lone senior dropped a 3-2 decision to Lock Haven’s Ronald Perry. Perry scored a late takedown in the third period to upset Iowa’s second-seeded Brandon Sorensen.
“You strategize against [Sorensen], and we let [Perry] hang,” Tom Brands said. “He picked one, and he took us down. We were kind of off the whole time, timing-wise, I thought, just kind of slapping at stuff … We have to be more physical and get focused.”
Sorensen now drops to the consolation bracket in his final NCAA Tournament.
Despite — or because of — the senior’s loss, Michael Kemerer and Alex Marinelli pinned their opponents. Kemerer forced a fall in the second period over Stanford’s Paul Fox, and Marinelli’s came in the third over Minnesota’s Nick Wanzek.
“I think Kemerer and I feed off each other,” Marinelli said. “If he gets a pin, I want a pin. We’re roommates right now, living together in the hotel. We’re shacking up, and we want to top each other right now. We both have two pins, so that’s pretty cool.”
The pair has seemingly turned things around since their last outings, at the Big Ten Championships just two weeks ago. Marinelli suffered three losses — the first three of his college career — and Kemerer was pinned in the semifinals of that tournament.
“The little things are different,” Marinelli said. “I’m noticing it body-wise. I got a good warm-up in, got some good food in me. Just a lot of things are different right now, and I’m liking it.”
Kemerer will face Penn State’s third-seeded and returning national champion Jason Nolf in the quarterfinals, while Marinelli will see fourth-seeded Chad Walsh of Rider.
The two Iowa pins seemed to be the last flair Iowa could muster up for the day. Tom Brands’ wrestlers dropped their next three matches. Mitch Bowman lost a major decision to second-seeded Miles Martin of Ohio State, and Cash Wilcke dropped a decision to third-seed Jared Haught.
The evening’s final performance in Round Two seemingly summed up Iowa’s trip to Cleveland so far. Junior Sam Stoll had a 2-0 lead over Marylands’ Youssif Hemida with seconds to go in the third period. Hemida proceeded to escape and take Stoll feet-to-back and walk away with a 7-2 lead.
Iowa’s Joey Gunther was knocked out in the consolation bracket by Josef Johnson of Harvard. Gunther finished his season with a 16-10 record.
Iowa wound up on top after Session 1, but Session 2 was a reality check for the Hawkeyes. Still, there’s plenty of wrestling to be done this weekend at the Quicken Loans Arena, as Iowa has three in the quarterfinals and five still in the consolation bracket.
“We got to come back strong tomorrow,” Brands said. “This is a three-day tournament, and this is just Day 1. We’re in Session 2, we didn’t do well … We got wrestling tomorrow. So, we got to be ready to go tomorrow.”