March 20, 2009
Team Standings (through session III) 
Full Brackets (through session III)
ST. LOUIS, Mo. - Purdue still has two athletes alive at the 2009 NCAA Wrestling Championships, hosted by the University of Missouri and the St. Louis Sports Commission at the Scottrade Center, sitting in 28th place with 15 team points. Senior 149-pounder Jake Patacsil and sophomore 184-pounder A.J. Kissel continue competition tonight with a shot at NCAA All-America status.
Friday's action got off to a slow start for the Boilermakers as their last wrestler in the championship bracket, Patacsil, suffered a 10-1 major decision loss to third-seeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State. The match was very close through the first two periods with the only scoring coming on a Caldwell takedown in the first. However, Caldwell broke it open in the final period, reversing Patacsil almost immediately and adding on three nearfall points. Patacsil escaped late in the match to get on the board, but Caldwell finished with another takedown to earn the major decision. Patacsil moves to the consolation bracket and will face Iowa State's Mitch Mueller in tonight's round of 12.
Sophomore Colton Salazar bounced back for Purdue at 157 pounds, earning a second-round consolation win over Indiana's Kurt Kinser. In the third meeting of the season between the Big Ten foes, Salazar used a second-period nearfall to surmount the final difference and edged out Kinser by decision, 3-2. He advanced to face eighth-seeded Adam Hall of Boise State in the next round, but fell there in a tight match, 6-3. Salazar scored a takedown in the first 15 seconds of the match, and controlled most of the match. He led 2-1 after the first period, and surrendered another escape in the second to level the count at 2-2. Salazar managed to regain the lead in dramatic fashion, escaping Hall just before he built a minute of riding time, but Hall came out on top of a late flurry earning a takedown, a penalty point for an illegal hold and a riding time point in the last two seconds.
Kissel followed Salazar's lead with a second-round consolation win, pinning Navy's Kenneth Caldwell in 2:36. Kissel snared a takedown about a minute into the match and proceeded to go to work on top, tilting Caldwell for a two-point nearfall and finished the job with 24 seconds left in the period, running the bar over for his 17th fall of the season. Kissel moved on to meet Central Michigan's Vincenzo DiDona in the consolation third round, where he picked up a 6-0 decision to join Patacsil in the round of 12. Kissel edged in front with a second-period takedown, and pushed his lead to 3-0 at the start of the third frame with an escape. He put the match away with less than 15 seconds to go, notching another takedown and the riding time point for the win.
Sophomores Luke Manuel and Logan Brown bowed out of the championship in the consolation second round as Manuel dropped a 4-0 decision to 11th-seeded Trevor Stewart of Central Michigan and Brown was pinned by fifth-seeded Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin in 1:52.
Wrestling resumes tonight at 6 p.m. (CST). Visit the Boilermakers' schedule and results page here for continuous play-by-play and results updates.