NCAA Wrestling Championships - Highlights and Upsets

When March rolls around every year, most of us think of basketball and the madness that overcomes fans from all corners of the nation. However, basketball is not the only sport that induces madness every spring. This weekend inside Cleveland’s Quicken Loans Arena fans raged as the 2018 NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championships shook the building’s foundation.

The tournament, which never fails to entertain the crowds of people who turn out to watch it, is consistent in that every year there are some outcomes that could not have been expected, and many that could not be avoided. In every sport, there are teams or athletes who are on a higher level than much of their competition; this was especially visible at the championships this year as many of the competitors clearly out performed everyone else is their bracket.

One such wrestler was Spencer Lee in the 125 bracket from Iowa. Lee, a three time high school state champion who’s record was 144 -1, pinned his way to the finals where he tore through Nick Soriano of Rutgers University, beating him 5-1 to take the national title. The spectacular performance by Lee was to be expected considering his high school dominance, but came as a surprise as he is only freshman at the University of Iowa.

Another Wrestler who was picked to win was Kyle Snyder, heavyweight of the Ohio State Buckeyes. The senior, who earned gold at the 2016 Summer Olympics, made it to the finals with relative ease, where he faced Michigan’s Adam coon for the third time this year. The pair had faced off twice before, each winning once. This final match in the final season of both men was a kind of tie-breaker that would ultimately determine the better of the two men. Though the match was close, ending with a 3-2 victory for Snyder, the Buckeye was almost guaranteed to win as his loss to Coon was somewhat of a shocking fluke.

The where also many upsets and unexpected victories at the tournament, as there are every year. The upsets are an integral part of the championships, and it wouldn’t be quite the same without the surprises. One match that perfectly exemplifies this was in the 197 pound bracket between Kollin Moore and Kyle Conel. Moore, from Ohio State, was a heavy favorite for the tournament and was ranked as the #1 wrestler in his weight class, Conel on the other hand, was unranked and had not earned very much attention up until this point. When the two clashed, no one expected anything to happen other than a victory for Moore, however a minute and a half into the first round, Conel caught Moore on his back and pinned him, throwing the stadium into an uproar. Conel, from Kent State, would earn bronze in the tournament, beating Moore again in the Consolaton finals.

Wrestling as a sport has been around since man has competed in athletic avents, and the NCAA Wrestling Championships have been here since 1928. There has only been one athlete to win the tournament all four of his years in college. Many have tried to achieve this goal and indeed many have come close. The tournament remains one of the most anticipated competitions on the wrestling world, and continues to entertain year after year.