The NCAA Wrestling Championships got underway Thursday at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, with Troy Heilmann and Chip Ness giving UNC two wrestlers in the quarterfinals–which take place Friday.
Both wrestlers won each of their first two matches to advance that far.
Heilmann entered as the No. 4 overall seed at 149 pounds and proved why after opening with a 9-0 win over SIU-Edwardsville’s Tyshawn Williams. He then picked up a tight 7-5 win over Iowa State’s Jarrett Degan to move on to the final eight.
The next opponent for Heilmann is scheduled to be No. 5 seed Ke-Shawn Hayes of Ohio State.
Ness, meanwhile, made it this far in the 184-pound bracket without earning a national seed prior to the tournament. He scored a 4-3 upset over No. 10 Emory Parker of Illinois before taking out No. 7 Taylor Venz of Nebraska by a score of 11-6.
Next on the docket for Ness is a match with Ohio State’s Myles Martin, the No. 2 ranked 184-pounder in the nation.
Kennedy Monday (157 pounds), Ethan Ramos (174) and Danny Chaid (197) each picked up first-round victories for the Tar Heels, before ultimately losing their second matches and entering into the consolation brackets.
At 133 pounds, Zach Sherman lost his first match, but battled back with a 4-2 overtime win in his consolation bracket.
A.C. Headlee (141) and Cory Daniel (heavyweight), on the other hand, were each eliminated from the tournament after going 0-2 on Thursday.
The Tar Heels finished with 9.5 team points on Day One, leaving them 17th overall in the standings.
Photo via UNC Athletics
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