Day One NCAA DII Championship Bracket

Birmingham, Ala. - On day one of the NCAA Division II Wrestling National Championships in Birmingham, Ala., Nate Rodriguez reached the semifinals of the championship draw at 141 to highlight action for Maryville. The Saints are in 10th place with 22 team points after the first two sessions. Action resumes Saturday at 10 a.m.

Rodriguez cruised into the 141 semifinals in dominating fashion. He started his day with a fall at the 3:42 mark over Chandler Minnard. In the quarterfinals, Rodriguez jumped out to an early 9-2 lead and kept his foe, Joshua Ailey from Central Oklahoma, at bay in an 11-4 victory.

James Krischke was involved in a close 149 opening match and came up with a key late reversal to beat Ian Steen of Western State 7-3. However, he fell behind to Juwan Edmond and lost a 5-1 decision in the quarterfinal round. In the wrestle backs, Krischke faced Dominick Nania. He used a second period reversal and added a takedown for a 5-0 victory.

Zeb Wahle started his run at 184 with a 4-0 shutout in his opening match. He followed up with a quarterfinal bout with Nicholas Fiegner. The duo each earned one point for escapes as the match moved into overtime. However, Feigner edged Wahle in a TB-1 2-1 decision. Wahle bounced back with a fall at the 3:35 mark in his first match in the consolation draw to keep his tourney run going. 

Heavyweight Donnell Walker faced a tough opening opponent in No. 10 Christian Lance but had a takedown with 25 seconds left to emerge with an exciting 3-2 victory. In the quarterfinals, Walker had a back-and-forth match against Kameron Teacher of Notre Dame. He trailed 7-6 in the waning moments but escaped for a 7-7 tie. However, Teacher came up with a takedown 35 seconds into overtime to edge Walker 9-7. In the consolation draw, Walker gave up one point during an escape and was unable to earn back the point and lost 2-0.

At 125, Jaret Singh suffered a loss to No. 2 ranked Dustin Reed of Newman and was eliminated in the consolation draw by a 7-4 count. Ethan Sherertz suffered a fall against No. 11 ranked Evan Rosborough to slip into the 197 consolation bracket. In his next bout, he fell behind to Wes Phipps and tried to mount a comeback but was denied by an 8-6 decision to end his run.