Wisconsin’s Isaac Jordan advanced to the quarterfinals, keeping his national title hopes alive after Day 1 of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Thursday.
Jordan, the No.2 seed at 165 pounds, made quick work of Cal State-Bakersfield’s Adam Fierro, winning by major decision 10-1.
In the second round, he bested No.15 Clark Glass of Oklahoma 9-1.
Jordan (27-0) will meet up with No.10 Austin Wilson (25-9) of Nebraska in the quarterfinals on Friday. Jordan topped Wilson 8-0 when the two met back on Jan.8.
Wilson advanced to the quarters by upending No.7 Anthony Perrotti of Rutgers 4-1 in the second round.
Ryan Taylor (133 pounds) was the only other UW wrestler to advance to the second day of the tournament.
The No.12 seed Taylor scored a 13-7 win over Zach Synon of Missouri in his first match of the day.
In the second round, Taylor fell to No.5 Jordan Conaway of Penn State 8-5.
Taylor topped Conaway twice at the Big Ten Championships roughly two weeks ago.
Dalton Brady (17-3) of Arizona State awaits Taylor(10-6) in Friday’s consolation round 2.
The Badgers’ three remaining qualifiers, Johnny Jimenez (125), Ricky Robertson (174) and Ryan Christensen (184), were eliminated on the tournament’s opening day.
Jimenez (125) saw his season come to a close with consecutive losses in his first NCAA Tournament appearance.
Jimenez was on the short end of an 11-3 major decision against the 12 seed, Darian Cruz of Lehigh in the first round.
He then fell to Lorenzo Bentley of Pittsburgh 12-4 in the opening round of consolation action. It was the second time this season Jimenez was bested by Bentley who won a 14-12 barn burner in overtime back in December.
The sophomore ended his season with an overall record of 18-16.
Robertson (174) also was eliminated after a pair of losses.
He fell to Stanford’s Keaton Subjeck 9-4 in his preliminary match before being edged by David Kocer of South Dakota State in the consolation prelims 4-3.
The match was tied at two late in the third period when the South Dakota State coaching staff asked for a review of a sequence on the mat, believing Robertson had locked his hands. With the call of no locked hands was confirmed, wrestling resumed, Robertson in the top position.
Kocer quickly earned a reversal to grab a 4-2 lead. Robertson was able to escape, but was unable to score in the brief time that remained in the match.
Robertson, a redshirt sophomore, ended his season with a record of 14-15. He is 2-4 all-time at the NCAA Tournament.
Christensen (184) dropped a 7-4 decision to No.10 Nate Brown of Lehigh in his first match. He then lost to Stanford’s Garet Krohn 7-5 in the consolation first round.
The redshirt freshman closed his campaign with an 18-20 mark.
Wrestling resumes with Session 3 at 10 a.m. CT on Friday. The session will feature quarterfinal action as well as the second and third rounds of wrestlebacks.
Session 4 is slated to begin at 7 p.m. Friday with semifinals as well as the fourth and fifth rounds of wrestlebacks.
All matches are available on WatchESPN.
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