2014 NCAA Wrestling Championships, preview: Consolation finals

The roughly 25% of wrestlers who last to the final day of the NCAA Wrestling Championships are top-eight place winners, and thus All-Americans. The purpose of session V, this morning’s session, is to determine the placing of the wrestlers remaining in the consolation bracket. During this session, the matches will determine the order of placing from third to eighth.

In many, or even most NCAA tournaments, session V serves as an after thought. Usually the semifinals of session IV on Friday night clearly establish the eventual winner of the team championship. This year, however, the team championship remains up for grabs heading into day 3, adding incredible team-race significance to this morning’s matches.

Currently, and incredibly, the three teams at the top of the scoreboard sit within four points of one another. Penn State clings to the top spot with 91 points, Minnesota follows closely with 90.5 and Oklahoma State chases the two with 87.5 points.

All three of these schools have multiple wrestlers competing this morning in crucial matches. Penn State’s Nico Megaludis at 125 pounds, Zain Retherford at 141 pounds and Matt Brown at 174 pounds all vie for third place, while James English at 149 pounds and Morgan Mcintosh at 197 pounds wrestle for seventh place.

Second place Minnesota features three wrestlers in contention for third place: David Thorn at 133 pounds, Logan Storley at 174 pounds and Kevin Steinhaus at 184 pounds. Also, the Golden Gophers’ 165 pounder Danny Zilverberg finds himself in the seventh-place match.

Finally, third place Oklahoma State fields one wrestler this morning, heavyweight Austin Marsden, who wrestles for seventh. Important team points remain up for grabs in these placing matches, and the team that grabs them will find itself in a better position come this evening’s final round.

Wrestling this morning starts at 11 am (EST), it airs on ESPNU.