After a splendid showing on day one of the National Collegiate Wrestling (NCWA) Championships on Thursday, two of the four championship qualifying Kent State Tuscarawas Golden Eagles wrestled their way to the Friday championship round. The two remaining wrestlers were thrust into the consolation bracket with long shot chances of getting back to the championships.
Freshman, Elijah Nash, from Canton McKinley High School, led the way on Thursday with a 3-0 record on two pins and forfeit. Nash is ranked eighth nationally in the NCWA 125lb. weight class and is in his first semester of collegiate wrestling competition after graduating from high school in May 2018. He lost in his first match on Friday, but bounced back by winning a 12-2 decision to place him in the Round of 12---often referred to as the Blood Round---which guarantees that he will finish no worse than eighth place and as high as third in the national tournament. He has also earned Kent State Tuscarawas' first NCWA All-American honor.
Lane Householder, a sophomore from Sheridan High School, was 2-1 after day one and advanced to the championship round in the 149lb. division where he won by pin for the third time in the competition. In his second match of the day on Friday, Householder led the defending 149lb. runner up from Texas A&M before losing near the end of the final period. He finished his sophomore season with an overall record of 26-11 and was ranked third nationally in the NCWA.
Meanwhile, Collin Mancuso, a freshman from Milan Edison High School near Toledo, won two first-day matches by pin and lost once by pin, so he was sent to the 165lb. consolation bracket with a 3-1 record. He would have to win three times to get back into the championship round and faced with such a difficult task, started off day two with two pins---one his third pin of the tournament. After such a gutsy effort, Mancuso was eventually knocked out of the competition in the third round losing a heartbreaking 4-3 decision in triple overtime. He bowed out of the competition with a 5-2 record.
KSU Tusc's 141lb wrestler, Austin Bailey, from Northgate High School in Sharpsburg, Georgia, won his first match by pin on the day one of wrestling, but was ousted with two consecutive losses to finish at 1-2.
Even though the Golden Eagles have four wrestlers in the championships, they currently hold the 15th team spot with 34 points in the field of 74 teams.
Nash will wrestle in the NCWA Championship semifinals on Saturday morning.