Lincoln, Neb. — Eric Schultz will wrestle for a Big Ten title on Sunday, March 6 as the Nebraska wrestling team sits in sixth place after the first day of the 2022 Big Ten Wrestling Championships.
Session 2
Schultz continued his domination of the championship bracket, beating Michigan’s Patrick Brucki by decision, 3-2, and earning his 98th career victory. He will meet Penn State’s Max Dean in the conference title bout.
Bubba Wilson saw success in the consolation bracket as he picked up his second and third wins of the Big Ten Championships. In the second consolation round, Wilson defeated Purdue’s Hayden Lohrey by 3-2 decision, and then advanced to the consolation quarterfinals where he matched up with Michigan State’s Caleb Fish. Wilson grabbed the early 3-0 lead and held on for the 5-2 decision. Tomorrow morning he will face Dean Hamiti of Wisconsin to compete for a spot in the third-place match.
At heavyweight, Christian Lance grabbed a 7-4 decision over Rutgers’ Boone McDermot to qualify for the consolation quarterfinals. In his fourth match of the day, Lance fell to Illinois’ Luke Luffman by decision, 4-2. He will wrestle in tomorrow morning’s seventh-place match against Ohio State’s Tate Orndorff.
Ridge Lovett, Peyton Robb, Mikey Labriola and Taylor Venz were unable to complete the title run, as Lovett was pinned by Wisconsin’s two-seed Austin Gomez, Robb lost by 5-3 decision to the one-seed Ryan Deakin of Northwestern, Labriola was defeated by 6-5 decision to Michigan’s Logan Massa and Venz fell to the one-seed Aaron Brooks (Penn State) by decision, 7-2. The group of Huskers will wrestle in Sunday’s consolation semifinals and compete for a chance at a third-place finish.
Dominick Serrano and Chad Red Jr. were defeated in the second consolation round of their respective weight classes and joined Reno in wrestling for ninth place. Serrano fell to Purdue’s Matt Ramos, 5-3, and Red Jr. grabbed an early lead, but ultimately was defeated by Purdue’s Parker Filius in sudden victory, 10-6. In the first round of the ninth-place matches, Jeremiah Reno lost to Indiana’s Jacob Moran before Serrano advanced with a major decision victory over Ohio State’s Dylan Koontz.
Wrestling resumes Sunday at 11 a.m. (CT) with the consolation semifinal and seventh-place matches, and championship bouts start at 3:30 p.m. (CT).
