Varner advances convincingly, 4 'Runners alive at NCAA wrestling tourney
| Thursday, Mar 18 2010 10:54 PM
Last Updated Thursday, Mar 18 2010 11:08 PM
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Jake Varner
OMAHA, Neb. -- Bakersfield High graduate Jake Varner of Iowa State dominated his first two foes, advancing to the quarterfinals of the NCAA wrestling championships Thursday night.
The defending champion from Bakersfield High scored a pair of major decisions in the 197-pound division. He opened with a 17-3 victory over Boise State's Matt Casperson before beating Cal State Bakersfield's Riley Orozco 10-1 in the third round.
Top-seeded Varner will face No. 8 Sonny Yohn of Minnesota this morning.
Orozco started strong, beating Lamar Brown of Rutgers, 3-1, in his opening match. He will face Patrick Bond of Illinois in the consolation round today.
CSUB's Elijah Nacita and Frank Lomas won their opening matches. Nacita earned a 4-2 victory over Pennsylvania's Zack Kemmerer at 141 pounds. Lomas (125) defeated Shane Young of West Virginia 7-2.
However, both were defeated in the third round. Lomas was pinned by Indiana's Angel Escobedo at 1:46. Nacita was pinned at 3:48 by Cornell's Kyle Dake.
Lomas will face Minnesota's Zachary Sanders and Nacita will meet Virginia Tech's Christopher Diaz today.
Heavyweight Mitch Monteiro lost his opening match to Minnesota's Benjamin Bersho, 6-4. He regrouped with a consolation victory over Ohio State's Corey Morrison, 8-2.
Monteiro will meet Arizona State's Eric Nye today.
CSUB 184-pounder Michael Larson was eliminated. Larson was pinned my American University's Michael Cannon in 4:22 and fell to Ohio University's Nick Purdue, 6-3.
Former Arvin High star Ricardo Alcala was eliminated from the heavyweight division after two one-point losses. Alcala narrowly lost to Navy's Scott Steele, 3-2. He later fell to Oregon State's Clayton Jack, 2-1.
Iowa started a methodical march toward a third straight national title. The Hawkeyes advanced eight of their 10 wrestlers to the quarterfinals and finished the meet's first day with 34.5 points. Oklahoma State was second with 26 points and Iowa State third with 24.
All 10 of the wrestlers who came to nationals unbeaten remained that way heading into the quarters.
Action continues today with quarterfinal, semifinal and consolation matches. Finals are Saturday and will be shown on ESPN.
