Nat'l Duals Quarters: Big Ten Roughed Up, Upsets Galore

The National Duals didn't take long to get heated up and Minnesota & Ohio State, thought to be the 2nd & 3rd best teams in the country all season long, are "on the bus home" already. Individual upsets accompanied the #3 & #4 seeds losing in a wild start to the controversial way of determining the best team in the land. 

Minnesota was unable to survive Cornell losing 19-17. #1 Dylan Ness fell to #6 Brian Realbuto 9-3 for Ness' first loss of the season. Palacio was able to score a surprising tech fall over Wanzek to also aid the Big Red in advancing to the semis over the Gophers. 

Perhaps the biggest surprise (at least to me) is Lehigh upsetting Ohio State 21-18. At 174, Mark Martin fell to Santiago Martinez 4-2 and at 184 Kenny Courts was pinned by Nathaniel Brown. With bonus points from Logan Stieber, Bo Jordan, and Kyle Snyder the Buckeyes were tied going to heavyweight despite only winning 4 matches compared to Lehigh's 5. But Nick Tavanello in his first match in over a month fell in overtime to Douglas Vollaro. 

Missouri seemed vulnerable to Illinois if the marquee match of #1 Jesse Delgado vs #2 Alan Waters went Delgado's way. It didn't as Waters won 6-2 with almost 3 minutes of riding time. Missouri won 23-13. Even though it looked like a swing match on paper, John Eblen pinned Zach Brunson in just 50 seconds to put the dual away for Missouri.

Iowa cruised as expected 44-3, but Sean Boyle (Chattanooga) knocked off #5 Thomas Gilman 3-1 in the first period of sudden victory. 

This was an event that was going to possibly be dominated by the Big Ten at least with the first round going to Iowa, Minnesota, Ohio State and then having Missouri be vulnerable against Illinois. It certainly wasn't the case and now we will see a surprising semi-final. It certainly looks like we will watch Iowa vs Missouri tomorrow, but after the first round I question my own wrestling knowledge.