Day 1 Results

Ray Porter (Strongsville, Ohio/Strongsville H.S.) and Nick Henneman (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.) have both advanced to the semifinals of the Sooner Athletic Conference Championships following day one of competition on Friday inside of Mueller Sports Center in Bartlesville, Okla.
 
The league championships are being conducted in conjunction with the Kansas Collegiate Athletic Conference as a combined qualifier for the NAIA National Championships.
 
Of the 12 wrestlers Lourdes sent to the championships, 10 have advanced to day two while 11 of the 12 won at least one match.
 
"This was a tremendous first day of wrestling action," head coach Dock Kelly III said afterwards.  "We got off to an awesome start, but we were not able to sustain that momentum in the quarterfinal round.  I am proud of the way that the entire time we battled through adversity.  We still have 10 wrestlers alive, and we are counting on all 10 of them to come ready to wrestle tomorrow."
 
Porter wasted little was on the mat less than five minutes total in his two matches at 125 pounds.  He began his day with a fall against Chris Ray of Central Christian just 54 seconds into the match.  The senior followed that up with another pin at the 3:50 mark in the second period in the quarterfinals against Taylor Holman of Bethany.
 
Henneman also made quick work of his first two matches at 141 pounds.  The redshirt-sophomore pinned Cleary's Travis Starr at the 51 second mark of the opening period in his first match.  He followed that effort up with another fall at 4:21 in the second stanza against David Hunter of Saint Mary (Kan.) in the quarterfinals.
 
Porter will face Jake Ayers of Saint Mary and Henneman will battle Jaxen Gilmore of Oklahoma City in their respective semifinals on Saturday.
 
Jimmy Balazy (Parma, Ohio/Padua Franciscan H.S.) won his opening round match at 133 with a 12-4 major decision before falling in the quarterfinals.  In the consolation round, he earned a 12-1 major decision over Oklahoma Wesleyan to stay alive heading into Saturday.  Liam Alicardi (Westerville, Ohio/North H.S.) also competed at 133, falling in his opening round match before winning a consolation contest in a tie-breaker 8-3 before bowing out in his next match.
 
Chris Jedding (Mason, Ohio/Mason H.S.) and Garrett Carter (Garfield Heights, Ohio/Saint Vincent-Saint Mary H.S.) both won their opening bouts at 149.  Jedding earned a fall against Wayland Baptist at the 4:09 mark in the second period while Carter posted a 5-0 decision over Saint Mary.  Both grapplers dropped quarterfinal bouts to fall into the consolation round.  Jedding added another pin in the consolation round just 18 seconds into the second period against Texas Wesleyan while Carter extended his tournament with a 16-0 technical fall against Ottawa (Kan.).
 
Garret Anderson (Oregon, Ohio/Clay H.S.) posted an opening round fall of his own at 157, pinning his opponent from Central Christian at the 1:44 mark of period one.  He then dropped his quarterfinal bout.  In the consolation draw, he bounced back with another pin, this time at the 1:31 mark in the opening stanza to advance to Saturday.
 
At 174, Grant Pittroff (Miamisburg, Ohio/Miamisburg H.S.) scored a fall at 1:22 in his opening bout against Central Christian before falling to the consolation bracket after dropping his quarterfinal match.
 
Alec Moore-Nash (Price Hill, Ohio/Elder H.S.) continued Lourdes opening round success with yet another pin, downing his opponent from Bethany at the 1:34 mark.  He also fell in the quarterfinal round.  Moore-Nash advanced to Saturday with a 10-6 decision over Ottawa.
 
Greg Briggs (Seville, Ohio/Cloverleaf H.S.) dropped his opening round match at 165, but took advantage of byes in the consolation bracket.  He then registered a 16-0 technical fall against York to keep his weekend alive.  Ryan Marvin (Swanton, Ohio/Swanton H.S.) used the same method to keep his tournament alive.  He scored his first collegiate victory, a 14-6 major decision over Bethany at 165 pounds
 
As a team, Lourdes is in fourth place, tallying 86.5 points, trailing third place Saint Mary by only 2.5 points.  Indiana Tech leads the way with 129.5 points, six more than second place Oklahoma City.  Ottawa is fifth with 81 points.
 
"We have an opportunity to make one final push tomorrow, to attempt to place in the top three," Kelly added.  "Individually, I'm excited for Ray Porter and Nick Henneman to capitalize on their opportunities to secure their berths to the national tournament.  We also have several other wrestlers who can wrestle their way into a better position to secure a wild card berth.  I'm excited to see how things will unfold for us tomorrow."
 
The final day of competition is set for Saturday, with action beginning at 10 a.m. EST inside of Mueller Sports Center.