Mester advances to third round of Nationals
Greg Burghardt
Junior Kevin Carr also won his first-round match in Kansas City, but lost in the second round to move to the consolation bracket. The two entered the competition as the only seeded wrestlers for the Chippewas. Carr is seeded No. 12 at 165 pounds, and Mester is fourth at 141 pounds. Central is tied for 40th place through much of Thursday’s second session with three team points. Tournament favorite Oklahoma State is the leader of the event with 35 points, followed by Lehigh’s 24.
Five other wrestlers are competing at nationals, but all lost in their first matches of the tournament. The NCAAs are a double-elimination format. Mester won a 3-2 decision over Frank Edgar of Clarion. It was Mester’s second victory over Edgar of the season. He followed that with a 9-2 win over Virginia’s unranked Bob Seidel. Mester will face Iowa State’s No. 5 Aaron Holker Friday.
Carr defeated Lock Haven’s Jason Gilligan 5-2 in the first round but lost to Missouri’s No. 5 Tyron Woodley 12-5. Senior Brett Faustman lost to No. 11 Matt Greenberg of
Cornell in a 5-1 sudden victory. Faustman also wrestled David Dashiell of North Carolina late Thursday in the 197-pound competition.
No. 4 A.J. Grant of Michigan routed CMU redshirt freshman Kyle Stoffer 11-0 in the first round at 125 pounds. Stoffer wrestled Efren Ceballos of California State-Bakersfield late Thursday in the first round of the consolation bracket.
Junior Ty Morgan lost in the first round for the third consecutive year at Nationals. He lost 9-4 to Michigan’s Ryan Churella. Morgan then faced Boston’s Jason Holder late
Thursday. David Bolyard was beat in double overtime at 157 pounds in the first round by Purdue’s Clovis Crane 4-3. He faced the Northern Iowa’s Chris Bitetto late Thursday in a consolation match.
Sophomore Russ Vanderheyden lost to Penn State’s No. 5 Mark Becks 5-3 in the opening round. The 184-pounder wrestled Ralph DeNisco of Wisconsin late Thursday to try to stay in the tournament.
Competition resumes today at 9 a.m. EST at Kemper Arena.
