Three things you should know before Day 2 of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships
The first day of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia has wrapped up, and the championship race at every weight — and on the team level — is coming into focus.
Here’s everything you need to know coming out of the first day of wrestling on Thursday.
Several top-5 seeds fall on Day 1
Thursday’s action was littered with potential All-Americans and finalists dropping to the consolation bracket before they could even reach the quarterfinals, shaking up the brackets at several weights. Nine top-5 seed lost on Thursday, with the biggest upset coming at 133 pounds when Wisconsin’s Zan Fugitt, a No. 14 seed, defeated Arkansas Little Rock’s Nasir Bailey, a No. 3 seed. Bailey was expected to have a legitimate chance at the national title at the weight, but instead can only finish as high as third.
Three No. 4 seeds lost, with Iowa State’s Paniro Johnson (149 pounds) losing in the first round and Virginia Tech’s Rafael Hipolito (157 pounds) and Ohio’s Garrett Thompson (174 pounds) falling in the second. And while Johnson’s first-round loss to No. 29 seed Jack Gioffre of Virginia was a shocker, it was nearly matched in the second round when Arizona State’s Richie Figueroa, the defending national champion at 125 pounds and No. 5 seed this year, was pinned by Rutgers’ Dean Peterson.
He was joined by five other No. 5 seeds who lost Thursday. That included Northern Colorado’s Dominick Serrano (133 pounds), Iowa’s Kyle Parco (149 pounds), Ohio State’s Brandon Cannon (157 pounds), Cornell’s Julian Ramirez (165 pounds) and South Dakota State’s Bennett Berge (184 pounds).
Chalk reigns among the best of the best
Upsets have altered some of the paths to the national title, but every top-3 seed at NCAAs has advanced to the quarterfinals, setting up some potential massive matchups in the semifinals and finals.
At 133 pounds, Nos. 2 and 3 seeds Beau Bartlett of Penn State and Jesse Mendez of Ohio State remain on a collision course in the semifinals. Penn State’s Tyler Kasak and Cornell’s Meyer Shapiro, the top-2 seeds at 157, have both advanced with relative ease. Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole, Penn State’s Levi Haines and Oklahoma State’s Dean Hamiti are all in the quarters with matchups between any two of the three constituting must-see wrestling.
That applies to another trio, this one at 184 pounds — Penn State’s Carter Starocci, Northern Iowa’s Parker Keckeisen and Minnesota’s Max McEnelly — who all won twice Thursday. And, at 197 pounds, all four of the top 4 advanced, with Michigan’s Jacob Cardenas, Iowa’s Stephen Buchanan, Cal-State Bakersfield’s A.J. Ferrari and Penn State’s Josh Barr staying alive for what could potentially be the best pair of semifinals at NCAAs this season.
And of course, Minnesota’s Gable Steveson continues to steamroll everyone at heavyweight. Despite the upsets, the best of the best remains in the winners’ bracket, setting up for high-level wrestling Friday and Saturday in the City of Brotherly Love.
Penn State well on way to team title
Even with all that potential parity in some of the weights, there looks to be no parity at the very top of the team title race. The Nittany Lions have all 10 wrestlers in the quarterfinals and are well on their way to a fourth straight national title — and could break the scoring record they set last year at 172.5. At this point, it seems more likely than not that they’ll be unreachable by the second-place team before the end of the day Friday. The only question, then, is who finishes second. That’s still a highly contested race with schools like Oklahoma State and Nebraska fighting for it.
The Cowboys have six quarterfinalists. They spent most of the season as one of the top-3 teams in the country in dual rankings and are performing well at NCAAs under head coach David Taylor. The Huskers have grabbed a few extra bonus points and upsets to put five in the quarterfinals themselves, setting up for a race for second between those schools, with teams like Iowa, Ohio State and Minnesota trying to get back in the picture.
This story was originally published March 20, 2025 at 11:29 PM.
