Three 2024 national runners-up fall in opening round of NCAA Div. III Championships

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Upsets are nothing new in the opening round of the NCAA Division III Championships as a trio of 2024 national runners-up found out Friday at Amica Mutual Pavilion.

Robby Bates of North Central defeated top-seeded Michael Douglas of Wisconsin-La Crosse, last year's national runner-up at 285 pounds; Luther's Connor Kidd pinned fifth seed Jaden Hinton of Baldwin Wallace in 37 seconds at 133 pounds; and Sean Conway of the University of Chicago defeated second-seeded Jacob Reed of Ohio Northern 4-1 in sudden victory at 141 in first-round matches.

"My coaches were saying beforehand, the number that comes before the name doesn't mean anything," Conway said. "It's just based on past performance, it's not how it's going to happen, it's not predictive, it's a ranking, it's a seeding."

Reed's past performance was impressive, though. He placed third as a freshman, repeated that as a sophomore and then was in the finals last year.

Conway and Reed traded escapes in regulation, setting up the overtime session.

Conway attacked first in sudden victory but couldn't finish an ankle pick, which led to a restart after a stalemate.

"In that moment my face was kind of vacant," Conway admitted. I looked at my coach and he was like, 'What!' He looked at me right away and he said, 'It doesn't matter. Be calm, take a deep breath and go after him.' It was good to know I can score; I'm going to go score."

Which he did, getting the takedown with five seconds left in the two-minute overtime.

"I honestly don't know exactly how it happened," he said. "I was hanging on his head, hanging on his head, knowing that it was going to tire him out. ... I tried to score from the front head, but he was really, really tight on my elbow, so I had to do something off the front head to get to his leg. ... As soon as I get in I know I can score."

Bates was a giant-killer for the second time, coming in unseeded despite being a returning All-American. He also beat top-seeded Max Bishop of Wabash in the 2022 tournament and went on to place fifth.

"Every time I see the brackets come out I think I'm a bad draw for anybody," Bates said. "I saw that bracket come out and I was excited. I beat the No. 1 seed and become the No. 1 seed.

The North Central fifth-year senior shut down Douglas' offense for a 2-0 win. He scored on a second-period escape and then rode out Douglas in the third period.

Douglas had beaten Bates in their previous two match-ups, so he had a good idea of what Douglas wanted to do.

"He beat me both times in overtime over a stall point," Bates said. "I know what he's going to try to do. He's going to try to snatch-single me; I'm not letting that happen. On the mat I knew I'm days ahead of him. ... I know he's not going to ride me and I know I'm going to ride him."

Kidd got the excitement started with his quick pin of Hinton, who placed fourth as a sophomore and second last year.

"It's huge; I'm still kind of in shock a little bit," Kidd said moments after the victory that moved him into Friday night's quarterfinals. "It was so quick I don't even really know what happened. I was kind of just moving, moving, kind of what my coaches have been telling me, I just need to keep moving, hitting everything as hard as I can, and it's kind of what I just did."

Kidd said the coaches told him that Hinton liked to shoot double legs and had a good two-on-one tilt.

"He kind of got that double, but I just kept moving and got to the thing I wanted to get to. It was just an assassin. Head and arm and put him right to his back, put the legs in and then he was flat."

Both Kidd and Conway had pigtail matches and were wrestling their second matches of the day.

"I think that was probably the most important thing for me was getting that good blow out," said Kidd, who opened with a wild, 16-14 win over Millikin's Caleb Haney in which he built an 11-0 lead on a takedown and two first-period near falls before having to hang on for the win. "I think that was probably the most important thing -- getting tired a little bit and then just being able to come back from that, recover and put the right things in your body and getting ready for the next one."

Conway dominated Noah Hunt of Pennsylvania College of Technology in his preliminary match, and Bates was coming off a technical fall in the preliminary round.

Those were far from the only upsets. All eight seeds survived to reach the quarterfinals at just two weights: 157 and 174.

The highest seed to fall besides Douglas and Reed was 165-pound No. 2 seed Tanner Gerber of Wisconsin-La Crosse at 165. He was leading Christopher Stathopoulos of Stevens Institute of Technology 12-5 when he was taken down with 31 seconds left in the match and pinned 11 seconds later.

Three No. 4 seeds lost:

# CJ Shea of Wesleyan lost 5-1 to The College of New Jersey's Nick Sacco, who was unseeded at 165 despite winning that weight class last year and being a two-time All-American.

# Sampson Wilkins of Vermont State-Castleton, who was knocked off 9-2 by Westminster's Austen Wetzel in the pigtail round at 184.

# Augsburg's Parker Venz was pinned in 2:30 by Pilo Perez of the University of Dubuque at 197.

Other seeds to fall were Benyamin Kamali (5-125) of Olivet, Thomas Monn (5-149) of McDaniel, Sam Lorenz (6-141) of Wisconsin-La Crosse, Jake Eckerle (7-141) of Johnson & Wales, Daniel Uribe (7-149) of Wabash, Jalen Dunson (8-125) of Wisconsin-Whitewater, Zach Sato (8-149) of Wisconsin-Eau Claire, Dustin Bohren (8-165) of Loras and Blake Williams (8-184) of Adrian.

At 285, Wartburg's Mitch Williamson, unseeded despite an 18-1 record coming in and a No. 5 ranking by the National Wrestling Coaches Association, knocked off sixth-seeded Mauro Pellot of Alvernia 5-1 and went on to reach the quarterfinals.

Host Johnson & Wales led the team scoring after the first session with 22.5 points, followed in the top three by Wisconsin-La Crosse (18) and North Central (15.5). Wartburg (14) had a half-point lead over The College of New Jersey, while defending champion Augsburg was another point back.