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Top-seeded Isaiah Martinez and No. 9 seed Jackson Morse advanced to the quarterfinals, and their eight teammates are still alive in the consolation brackets after day one at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, Mo.
[MORE: Update brackets after day one]
Martinez began his run to completing an undefeated season with a 18-2 technical fall over Russell Parsons (Army). The technical fall is the 11th of the season and leads the NCAA. He followed that up with gaining more bonus points with a fall at 1:25 against Spartak Chino (Ohio) to advance to Friday's quarterfinals. Martinez will face Nick Brascetta (Virginia Tech) for a berth in Friday night's semifinals.
Morse grabbed a 5-3 decision over Connor Brennan (Rider) in his opening match then muscled his way to a 7-2 decision over No. 8 seed Peyton Walsh (Navy). He will face No. 1 seed and 2014 157-pound champion, Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma State) for a semifinal spot.
The Illini are in eighth place with 16.5 points. Ohio State leads the team standings with 23 points, two points ahead of Iowa (21). Oklahoma State (19.5) is third, Penn State has 18.5 points and Missouri has 18 points to round out the top five. Michigan is the only other Big Ten school in the top 10 with 15 points to tie for ninth-place with Virginia Tech. Minnesota sits in 11th place with 14 points.
Two-time defending champion Jesse Delgado's journey for a third championship ended to at the hands of an unlikely opponent. After knocking out returning All-American No. 8 Tyler Cox (Wyoming), 3-2, Delgado dropped a 4-2 decision to David Terao (American), who also beat two-time All-American Dylan Peters (Northern Iowa). Delgado will have to wrestle through the consolation bracket to make his fourth appearance - he earned seventh place his freshman year - on the podium. He will wrestle Nick Hermann (Virginia) on Friday.
Fifth seeded Zane Richards also opened his tournament run with a win, a 12-2 major decision over Jack Hathaway (Oregon State). Richards gave up a last-second takedown to No. 12 George DiCamillo (Virginia) to fall to the consolation bracket. Richards will face Eric Montoya (Nebraska), who Richards has beat in their previous two meetings this season, in the consolation bracket.
Following a 5-2 decision over Ryan Wolfe (Rider), No. 11 Zac Brunson fell 4-0 to No. 6 Logan Storley (Minnesota) in the second round. Brunson will wrestle Jadaen Bernstein (Navy) on Friday morning.
Steven Rodrigues (141), Kyle Langenderfer (149), Nikko Reyes (184) and Brooks Black (HWT) each suffered opening round losses, but rebounded with wins in consolation pigtail matches to stay alive in the tournament. Rodrigues looked sharp in an 11-4 win over Tyler Smith (Bucknell), Langenderfer came back from a six-point deficit to pin Michael Depalma (Kent St.) at 4:48, Reyes managed an 8-2 decision over Jacob Kasper (Duke) and Black repeated his ending at the Big Ten Championships with a late-second reversal to knock Nick Tavanello (Ohio State) out of the tournament with a 6-5 win.
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