ST. LOUIS - Four Purdue wrestlers remain alive, while four were forced to exit during the first day of the NCAA Wrestling Championships Thursday at the Scottrade Center. Danny Sabatello (133), Nick Lawrence (141), Brandon Nelsen (149) and Chad Welch (174) will grind their way through the wrestlebacks in Friday's third session starting at 11 a.m. ET. The session features championship quarterfinals, followed by the second and third rounds of wrestlebacks.
For television and online broadcast information, brackets, match-by-match results, upcoming matches, updated records and much more, please visit the 2015 NCAA Wrestling Championships Central page here.
A trio of grapplers wrestled in the championship second round, but all three were unable to advance into the quarterfinals. Twelve seconds into sudden victory, Sabatello took Missouri's Zach Synon down for a 4-2 decision at 133 pounds. In the second session, sixth-seeded Earl Hall of Iowa State sent Sabatello into the wrestlebacks by dealing him an 11-5 setback.
Nelsen used a seven-point third period to upend the No. 16-seed, Mike Racciato of Pittsburgh, 10-6, in the first round. After a scoreless opening stanza, the redshirt senior had a pair of reversals and a three-count during the last four minutes. An 8-0 major decision from Missouri's Drake Houdashelt, the top seed at 149, sent Nelsen into the consolation bracket.
In the first round at 174 pounds, C. Welch had takedowns in the first and third periods, added an escape in the second and 2:39 of riding time en route to a 6-0 shutout of Wisconsin's 16th-seeded Frank Cousins. It was his second upset of the Badger this season. C. Welch met another familiar foe in the second round, No. 1-seed Robert Kokesh of Nebraska. The Husker was too much for the Boilermaker junior, dealing him an 11-0 major decision.
Lawrence rebounded from an 8-0 major decision loss to Nebraska's fourth-seeded Anthony Abidin in his first match with a 7-5 decision over David Pearce of Drexel. Lawrence and Pearce were knotted at 2-2 after the second period. The redshirt senior for Purdue went ahead 3-2 with an escape to start the third and proceeded to take the Dragon down. Pearce repeated the sequence to tie it once again at 5-5 with short time. Lawrence reversed his opponent and kept him down to get the win.
In order for the four remaining Purdue grapplers to guarantee an All-America finish, they must win three more matches, advancing to Friday night's consolation quarterfinals.
Four Boilermakers were defeated in their first two matches and forced to exit the tournament, three of which wrestled in their final matches for the Old Gold & Black. Pat Robinson's career came to a close at 165 pounds after suffering a 6-2 loss to Clark Glass of Oklahoma. In his four seasons, the Noblesville, Indiana, native tallied a record of 67-61, capped off by qualifying for his first NCAA Championships with an eighth-place finish at the B1G Championships.
A 9-3 decision to Brown's Ophir Bernstein brought an end for 184-pounder Patrick Kissel. Like his senior counterpart, Kissel's career ends at his first NCAA Championships. He finishes with a four-year record of 56-45.
The third senior to wrestle in his final match for the Boilermakers was Braden Atwood, falling at the hands of Virginia Tech's Jared Haught, 5-2. Atwood's decorated career is scattered throughout the Purdue record book. Only the 11th four-time NCAA qualifier for the Boilermakers, Atwood finishes with a record of 91-47. Thirty percent of his wins resulted in bonus points and his 31 falls are tied for fourth all-time. Atwood's 91 wins tie him for 19th all-time at Purdue.
Doug Welch's season came an end in a 157-pound consolation pigtail match with a 10-1 major decision to Duke's Immanuel Kerr-Brown. In his first match of the day, D. Welch was dealt a 9-4 setback to seventh-seeded Ian Miller of Kent State. The Newburgh, Indiana, native wraps up his junior campaign with a 27-13 record.
NCAA NOTES
- Purdue went 3-5 during Session I and 1-7 in Session II
- Brandon Nelsen and Chad Welch each defeated a seeded opponent in the first round
- Two reversals from Brandon Nelsen against No. 16 Mike Racciato of Pittsburgh pushed his career total to 45, where he ranks fourth all-time at Purdue. The two reversals also landed him on the single-season reversals list with 14.