Rutgers Wrestling: Big Ten Championships, Ashnault a Finalist!

2016 Big Ten Wrestling Championships

March 6	Session III: 1 p.m. | Session IV: 4 p.m.
Location	Iowa City, Iowa | Carver-Hawkeye Arena
Championship Central	Click Here
Live Results	TrackWrestling.com
Live Stream	BTN Plus
TV	BTN (Championship Finals Only)
Match Notes	Rutgers
Statistics	Rutgers
Social Media	@RUWrestling | Facebook/RUWrestling

Brackets: Click here

We've gone through the first two sessions in Iowa City.  Those who stayed undefeated on Saturday move to the finals on Sunday.  And how does a fifth place team sound?

Here's how the day began began:

The first victory of the weekend goes to @HuskerWrestling's Tim Lambert by Tech Fall #B1Gwrestle

— Big Ten Wrestling (@B1GWrestling) March 5, 2016

Rutgers Semifinalists

Anthony Ashnault and Anthony  Perrotti were the only two RU wrestlers in the semifinals and automatically qualify for the NCAA Championships on March 17-19.  Ashnault would go on to win his semi and move to the finals.

Rutgers in the wrestlebacks

Eight RU wrestlers made their way into the wrestlebacks.

NCAA Qualifiers

Besides Ashnault and Perrotti, Giraldo, Dippery, Lewis, Bakuckas, Gravina, Hrymack, and Smith had qualified for the NCAA Championships at the end of the first day.

125 No. 8 Seed Sean McCabe

First round: Bye

Second round: No. 1 Nathan Tomasello (OSU) lost 20-5

Third round: Wreste-back vs. Garrison White (NU)  Won 8-0

Fourth round: Wrestleback vs. No. 5 Elijah Oliver (Ind)  Lost 8-6

Seventh Place Match: vs. Johnni Jimenez (Wis)

133 No. 10 Seed Anthony Giraldo

First round: vs No. 7 Johnni DiJulius (OSU), lost 5-1

Second round: Wrestle-back vs. Rossi Bruno (Mich)   With reversal with four seconds remaining, wins in TB-1, qualifies for NCAAs.  Countered 4-2 TB-1 loss in dual. Qualifies for first trip to NCAA Championships.

Third round: Wrestlebacks vs. Geoffrey Alexander (MD)  Won 6-0, earning revenge for 9-2 loss in dual.

Fourth Round: Wrestleback vs. Ryan Taylor (Wis)  Still eligible for 3rd place

141 No. 3 Seed Anthony Ashnault

First round: vs George Fisher (Mich)  wins by fall 3:40   didn't wrestle in dual

Second round: vs. No. 3 Anthony Abidin (Neb)  Won 5-2  This was a rematch of the dual match, won by Ashnault, 11-2

Third round/Semifinal: vs.No. 7 Danny Sabatello (Pur)   WINS 8-4  Moves to Finals

Finals: vs #8 Jimmy Gulibon (PSU)

149 Unseeded Tyson Dippery

First round: vs. No. 5 Alec Pantaleo (Mich) Lost 3-2.  In the dual meet, Pantaleo won 14-5

Second round: Wrestebacks vs. Luke Blanton (Ind)  Wins by Tech Fall (3:06)

Third round: Wrestlebacks vs. Cody Burcher (OSU)  Wins 8-1

Fourth round: Wrestleback vs. Pantaleo  Still eligible for 3rd place

157 No. 3 Seed Richie Lewis

First round: vs. Mark Bozzo (MSU) Won on Tech Fall, 18-3

Second round: vs. No. 6 Brian Murphy (Mich)  Lost 2-1 (TB-1)

Third round: Wrestle-backs vs Anthony Petrone (NU)  Wins by Tech Fall 16-1

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. No. 7 Tyler Berger (UW)  Won 5-3 Qualifies for NCAA

Fifth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Edwin Cooper (Iowa)  Still eligible for 3rd place

165 No. 4 Seed Anthony Perrotti

First round: Bye

Second round: vs. vs. 5th Chad Welch (Pur) Won by Fall 4:49  This was a rematch of the dual meet when Perrotti was taken down but reversed, putting then-No. 8 Welch on his back for a fall in 1:35.

Third round/Semifinal: vs. No. 1 Isaac Jordan (Wis) Lost on injury default

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs Austin Wilson (Neb)  Had beaten Wilson in dual 9-4  UPDATE: Will medical forfeit

174 No. 9 Seed Phil Bakuckas

First round: vs. No. 8 Ricky Robertson (Wis) Won 2-0   Bakuckas reversed the result from the dual meet, where he lost to Robertson 4-3.

Second round: vs. No. 1 Bo Nickal  Lost 15-3

Third round: Wrestlebacks vs. Mitch Sliga (NU)  Wins 13-0 to qualify for his first NCAA Tournament.

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Nate Jackson (Ind) Lost 3-2

Seventh Place Wrestleback: vs. Robertson (Wis)

184 No. 5 Seed Nick Gravina

First round: Tanner Lynde (Pur)  Won 6-0

Second round: vs. No. 4 T.J. Dudley (Neb) Lost 8-2  Gravina's gutsy 3-2 win in the dual propelled Rutgers to a stunning upset of the Huskers at the RAC.  It was not to be repeated as Dudley, last year's Big Ten 6th place finisher, took the victory.

Third Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Matt Irick (Ind)  Wins 10-2 with almost four minutes of RT.

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Ryan Christensen (Wis)  Wins 4-0

Fifth Round: Wrestleback vs. Matt McCutcheon (PSU)  Still eligible for 3rd place

197 No. 7 Seed Hayden Hrymack

First round: vs. Drake Stein (Pur) Won 5-3   Scott Goodale was not pleased at how Hrymack and several others wrestled to close out the Purdue match last month.  Hrymack lost that bout by a Fall in :27.  Payback!

Second round: vs. No. 2 Brett Pfarr (Min)  Lost 9-0

Third round: Wrestlebacks vs. Jake Masingale (Ind)  Wins 7-3

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. No. 6 Mark Martin (OSU) Wins 1-0

Fifth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Aaron Studebaker (Neb)  Still eligible for 3rd place

285 No. 4 Seed Billy Smith

First round: vs. Dimitrus Renfroe (MSU) Won 14-3

Second round: vs. No. 5 Michael Kroells (Minn) Lost 3-3 OT on RT   For the second time this season, Smith and Kroells went into OT, the first time a win for Smith in TB-1.

Third round: Wrestlebacks: vs. Youssif Hemida (MD)  Wins 8-1 for 99th victory in his career.

Fourth Round: Wrestlebacks vs.  Brock Horwarth (Wis)  Wins his 100th career match and is four time NCAA Qualifier

Fifth Round: Wrestlebacks vs. Colin Jensen (Neb)  Still eligible for 3rd place

Team Scoring

After the first session, which included all matches up to the semifinals plus the first of the wrestlebacks, Penn State led the scoring with 74 points, followed by Iowa with 68 and Nebraska with 63.  Rutgers, with its two wrestlers in the semifinals, sat in seventh place with 27.5 points.  The second session was critical for the Knights to come away with as many wrestleback wins as possible.  There would be two rounds of wrestlebacks in the night session on Saturday.

And that made a difference.  At the end of two sessions, Rutgers had moved into fifth place.  Penn State solidified its hold on the top spot.

Scoring through Two Sessions

	Team	Score
1	PSU	133
2	IOWA	106
3	OSU	100
4	NEB	98.5
5	RUT	90.5
6	ILL	78.5
7	MICH	70
8	WIS	53
8	MINN	38
10	PUR	30
11	IND	26
12	MSU	10.5
13	NU	8
14	MD	7.5