(Detroit, MI) Sun Devil Wrestling is making a statement in Detroit. The Sun Devils are in silver medal position (22 points), and just 5.5 points behind Penn State (27.5), after day one of the NCAA Wrestling Championships, hosted at Little Caesars Arena. Brandon Courtney, Michael McGee, Kyle Parco, Jacori Teemer and Cohlton Schultz are all in the champions bracket after two rounds of action. Schultz pinned his first two opponents, one of them in 52 seconds, Teemer earned a second-round pin, and McGee had a first-round tech.
Championship info
Direct ESPN watch links
Daily Schedule
Brackets, live results (Trackwrestling)
Friday
Session 3/ quarter finals/Consolation rounds 2 & 3: 11:00 a.m. EST
Session 4/ semi-finals/consolation rounds 4 &5: 8:00 p.m. EST ESPN
Saturday
Session 5/ consolation semis – 3rd, 5th and 7th: 11:00 a.m. EST
Grand March 6:35 p.m. EST
Championship finals: 7:00 p.m. EST
ASU earned three majors, a trio of pins and a tech fall victory on day one. McGee leads the team with 28 total match points, followed by Courtney with 26 and Parco with 20. McGee’s 18 points in his opening match against Richie Koehler (Rider) leads the team.
“We came to compete and I think the preparation was good and they’re excited,” head coach Zeke Jones said. “As we always talk about, they’re just grateful to do what they love. Combine that with preparation – they believe in their conditioning and their skill level – and they’re perfectly executing the game plan. We’ll continue to go through the same process. We’re going to game plan a little bit for each guy. Each competitor has a unique technique or skill that we want to be aware of and we’ll just go out and do what we always do.”
“They feed off each other,” Jones said. “‘You got a pin so now I’m going to go out and pin him better than you pinned him.’ I think they elevate each other’s energy that way. Wrestling’s an individual sport but you can see the team piece to it. We’re all trying to score points for the team so they feed off each other.”
Schultz is the lone wrestler to earn two pins in the tournament so far. Eight of his 18 wins this year have been pins, and he has three in the first minute. Schultz took down 14-seed Lewis Fernandes in 52 seconds to punch his ticket to the quarterfinals.
“Cohlton’s a beast,” Jones said. “He got his pins and he always comes off with a big smile on his face after he pins people. He understands that there’s something bigger than himself and he’s trying to help score points for the team. In his senior year of highschool he pinned 47 out of 48 heavyweights he wrestled in the first period so he has a tremendous feel for putting people on their backs from almost anywhere, and now I think he’s starting to feel that in college.”
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