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NCAA Championship Day 1
Hartmann Into Quarters; Duke Puts 3 Through to Day 2
3/19/2015 11:09:00 PM | Wrestling
ST. LOUIS –The exciting ride continued for the Duke University wrestling team on a successful day one of the 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. A program-best three Blue Devils advanced to day two of competition, including redshirt junior Conner Hartmann moving on to the quarterfinals in front of 18,414 fans Thursday night..
Moving through with Hartmann are seniors Immanuel Kerr-Brown at 157 and Marcus Cain at 149. It marks the first time the Blue Devils have advanced more than two wrestlers to the second day of wrestling. Freshman Mitch Finesilver and sophomore Jacob Kasper both saw their fantastic seasons end in the consolation first round Thursday evening. Duke stands in a tie for 24th with 6.5 points.
After cruising through his opening match with an 8-1 decision, 10th-seeded Hartmann squared off against No. 7 seed Abram Ayala of Princeton. Ayala scored an early takedown, but Duke's 197-pounder escaped and scored an immediate takedown for the 3-2 advantage. Hartmann built his riding time to nearly two minutes and forced Ayala into an option start in the third. Hartmann was outstanding again in the final period, picking up the 5-2 decision. The win was the 29th of the year for him and sets up a quarterfinal meeting with No. 2 seed Morgan McIntosh of Penn State.
The 2014 All-American is into to the quarterfinals for the second straight season as he looks to become the second two-time All-American in Duke history.
Cain, after a hard-fought loss to the No. 5 seed in the first round, wasted no time in making sure he was wrestling Friday with a pin of Chattanooga's Shawn Greevy in just 36 seconds. The fall was the fastest of his career and the fourth of the year. He improves to 22-8 overall and will wrestle Garrett Schaner of Stanford.
Kerr-Brown, coming off of a heart-breaking loss in his opening bout, rolled past Purdue's Doug Welch with a 10-1 major decision in the consolation pig tail match to start his evening on the right foot. Just over two hours later, the veteran captain returned to wrestle Penn's Brooks Martino. Kerr-Brown trailed the Ivy League junior 2-0 after the first period and started the second in the down position. Kerr-Brown, after Martino had built his riding time to over two minutes, wrestled his way to a reversal to tie the bout heading into the third.
Martino chose neutral to start the third, but it was Kerr-Brown remaining on the offensive. As time started to tick down he scored a takedown to go up 4-2. Action stopped with nine seconds left on the clock and Penn challenged the takedown call. After what seemed like an eternity at the monitor, the referees ruled it a takedown and Kerr-Brown held on for the nine remaining seconds to move on to the consolation second round for the second straight year.
Finesilver ended a great rookie campaign with a loss to Troy Heilmann of North Carolina in the pigtail consolation match. Kasper fell to Nikko Reyes of Illinois in the consolation bracket to finish his season with a 24-12 overall record. Both were first-time NCAA qualifiers for the Blue Devils.
Action begins again Friday at 11 a.m., (ET) at the Scottrade Center. Each match can be seen on ESPN3 with ESPNU carrying the full day of wrestling.
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Players Mentioned
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