Dean Peterson of Rutgers shakes up the 125-pound NCAA wrestling bracket; more from Day 1
Steven Falk- Rutgers' Dean Peterson pinned Arizona State's Richard Figueroa in the NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championship pre-quarterfinal round.
- Peterson will wrestle North Carolina State's Vince Robinson in the quarterfinal, needing one more win to become an All-American.
- Sammy Alvarez, now at Rider University, won his first-ever NCAA tournament match at 149 pounds.
Dean Peterson recorded what was probably the biggest win of his collegiate career Thursday night in an NCAA Division 1 Wrestling Championship pre-quarterfinal round bout at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia.
Trailing Arizona State's defending 125-pound national champion Richard Figueroa of Arizona State by two points after a Figueroa takedown early in the third period, Peterson, a redshirt junior at Rutgers University, quickly reversed Figueroa and then suddenly put Figueroa to his back for the pin with 1:18 left to advance to the quarterfinal.
The win also put Peterson (22-6), a two-time NJSIAA champion and three-time state finalist during his scholastic career at St. John Vianney, within one win of becoming an All-American.
The No. 12 seed, Peterson will wrestle No. 4 Vince Robinson of North Carolina State Friday in the quarterfinal. The quarterfinals will take place Friday at noon.
Robinson, a freshman, defeated Princeton's Marc Anthony McGowan, 6-4, on a last-second takedown. Peterson injury defaulted to Robinson on Nov. 17 in North Carolina State's 23-14 win over Rutgers. Robinson was winning 11-3 in the second period at the time Peterson injury defaulted.
A win in the quarterfinal would ensure Peterson a top six finish and All-American status. A defeat in the quarterfinal means Peterson would have to win a fourth-round wrestleback bout to become an All-American. The top eight in each of the 10 weight classes earn All-American status.
Peterson was within one win of becoming an All-American in 2023. He went 1-2 in last year's NCAA Tournament.
Like in his 6-5 win over Oklahoma's Antonio Lorenzo Thursday afternoon in the opening round, Peterson fell behind as Figueroa got a takedown midway in the first period.
Peterson tied the bout 4-4 with a takedown with 34 seconds remaining in the second period and then took a 5-4 lead when Figueroa cut him loose at the start of the third period. That set up the sequence of events that led to Peterson's pin.
Also advancing to the 125-pound quarterfinals was Virginia Tech's Eddie Ventresca.
Ventresca, the No. 3 seed and the 2019 NJSIAA 120-pound champion, when he was a junior at Pope John, defeated North Carolina's Spencer Moore 6-3.
The seventh-place finisher in 2023 after he was seeded 27th, Ventresca will wrestle No. 6 Jeff Strickenberger of West Virginia in the quarterfinal.
A near miss for New Jersey against another past champion
Stanford redshirt freshman Lorenzo Norman, who was a two-time national prep champion at Blair Academy, had two-time champion Keegan O'Toole on the ropes in a 174-pound pre-quarterfinal.
However, like he often does, O'Toole found a way to survive as he rallied for a 10-8 win on two third period takedowns. The winning one came with 23 seconds left.
Norman, a South Bound Brook native, led 7-3 on a takedown in the first period and one in the final seconds of the third period.
But, a stalling point for O'Toole near the midway point of the third period, changed the bout. O'Toole then quickly got a takedown to tie the bout. The winning points came shortly after he cut Norman lose for a brief 8-7 deficit.
Composto rallies
Penn 141-pounder C.J. Composto, the NCAA eighth-place finisher at 141 in 2022 and the NJSIAA third-place finisher at 126 in 2019 when he was a senior at Westfield High School, caused a stir when he rallied to defeat No. 7 Tagen Jamison of Oklahoma State 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinal.
Trailing 4-0, Composto took Jamison down with 1:26 left and then put him to his back for three back points. He then erased the riding time point advantage Jamison had by riding him out the rest of the way, which included fending off a Jamison attempt for a reversal in the final seconds.
Composto, the No. 10 seed, will wrestle returning runner-up Beau Bartlett of Penn State in the quarterfinal.
Staying alive
Rutgers' Dylan Shawver (133) and Joey Olivieri (141) remained alive in the wrestleback portion of the tournament with wins in sudden victory
Shawver, the seventh-place finisher last year, defeated North Carolina State's two-time All-American Kai Orrine 4-1 on a takedown 21 seconds into the sudden victory period. He will wrestle Maryland's Braxton Brown Friday in a second-round wrestleback bout. Brown has two wins over Shawver this season. Shawver defeated Brown twice last season.
Olivieri defeated West Virginia's Jordan Titus 4-1 on a takedown 58 seconds into the extra period. He will wrestle Lock Haven's Wyatt Henson Friday in a second round wrestleback bout.
Rutgers will have three other wrestlers in the wrestlebacks in Andrew Clark (149), Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184) and Yaraslau Slavikouski (heavyweight).
Clark was majored 11-1 by Penn State's Shayne Van Ness, the third-place finisher in 2023 and a former Blair Academy standout and Somerville native.
Cartagena-Walsh was defeated by technical fall by Penn State's four-time national champion Carter Starocci.
Slavikouski, the seventh-place finisher last year, was defeated by two-time champion and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson of Minnesota on a disqualification by stall calls in the first period. Steveson was leading 9-1 at the time of the DQ.
New Jersey's other quarterfinalists
Wrestlers with New Jersey ties who also advanced to the quarterfinals were:
Cornell's Simon Ruiz (174) and Chris Foca (184), Navy's Danny Wask (174), Penn's Nick Incontrera (174), Michigan's Jacob Cardenas (197) and Cal State Bakersfield's A.J. Ferrari (197).
Ruiz, who was a two-time state champion at Delbarton, defeated North Carolina's Joshua Ogunsanya 4-2 and will wrestle No. 13 Cade DeVoss of South Dakota State.
Foca, who was the NJSIAA 182-pound champion 2019 when he was at Bergen Catholic, majored Iowa's Gabe Arnold 12-1 and will wrestle No. 3 Max McEnelly of Minnesota.
Wask, who was a three-time national prep champion at Blair Academy majored Iowa State's M.J. Gaitan 12-4 and will wrestle 2024 157-pound champion Levi Haines of Penn State.
Incontrera, the No. 22 seed, defeated No. 27 Jasiah Queen of Drexel 3-0. Queen was the NJSIAA runner-up at 165 in 2023 when he was a senior at St. John Vianney, 3-0. Incontrera, who defeated No. 11 Patrick Kennedy of Iowa in the first round, will wrestle No. 3 Dean Hamiti of Oklahoma State.
Cardenas, the No. 1 seed and a two-time NJSIAA champion at Bergen Catholic, defeated Northwestern's Evan Bates 4-1 and will wrestle No. 24 Gabe Sollars of Indiana.
Ferrari, who wrestled parts of his prep career at Blair Academy and Bergen Catholic, defeated Virginia Tech's Andy Smith 5-1. Ferrari, the No. 3 seed who was the 2021 champion when he was at Oklahoma State, will wrestle No. 6 Mac Stout of Pitt.
Stout defeated his brother, Luke, of Princeton 4-2 in what was believed to be the first matchup of brothers in the history of the NCAA Division 1 Tournament. The Stout brother's father is Bryan Stout, who was the 1992 NJSIAA 189-pound champion when a senior at Southern and a four-time All-American for Clarion (Pa.).
Princeton and Rider report
Princeton has five wrestlers alive in the wrestlebacks in McGowan, Eligh Rivera (141), Ty Whalen (149), Kole Mulhauser (184) and Luke Stout.
Whalen was also defeated in the pre-quarterfinal
Rider has three alive in the wrestlebacks in Sammy Alvarez (149), Isaac Dean (184) and Brock Zurawski (197). All three were defeated in the pre-quarterfinals.
Thursday day session
It took Sammy Alvarez over five years and three collegiate schools to finally get the chance to wrestle in the NCAA Division I Wrestling Tournament.
Alvarez, now at Rider University, is poised to make the most of his one chance to wrestle in the national tournament.
He advanced to the 149-pound pre-quarterfinal Thursday at Wells Fargo Center, Philadelphia, with a 4-2 win over North Dakota State's Gavin Drexler.
Alvarez, the No. 11 seed, will wrestle No. 6 seed Lachlan McNeil of North Carolina Thursday night.
In reality, this was the second national tournament Alvarez had qualified for. As a freshman at Rutgers University in 2020, Alvarez was seeded 10th at 133 pounds . However, that tournament was canceled the day after it was seeded due to the pandemic.
Alvarez, who was the 2019 126-pound NJSIAA champion when he was a senior at St. Joseph (Montvale) did not wrestle in the post-season until earlier this month when he won the Mid-American Conference Tournament.
Weight issues ended his 2021, 2022 and 2023 seasons at Rutger short. He then left Rutgers and transferred to Oklahoma State in January, 2023. He did not make Oklahoma State's post-season lineup last season and transferred to Rider last spring.
In Thursday's bout, Alvarez (21-5) broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown with 59 seconds remaining.
In McNeil, Alvarez will be facing a two-time All-American in a weight that is headed by defending champion Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech, Big Ten champion Ridge Lovett of Nebraska and 2023 third-place finisher Shayne Van Ness of Penn State.
149 was a good weight for New Jersey
Alvarez joins two other former NJSIAA champions in the 149-pound pre-quarterfinals.
Rutgers Andrew Clark, who won the stat 145-pound championship in 2020 when he was a senior at Collingswood, rallied to defeat Cal Poly's Chance Larmer 8-3 and Princeton's Ty Whalen, who won the state 132-pound title in 2021, when he was a junior at Clearview, defeated Cornell's Ethan Fernandez 4-0.
Clark, the 19th seed, was trailing 3-0 when he took Lamer down to his back for a seven-point move early in the third period.
He will wrestle Van Ness in the pre-quarterfinal. Van Ness, the former Blair Academy standout and Somerville native, pinned Wyoming's Gabe Willochell in the second period.
A first period takedown was all Whalen needed to defeat Fernandez, who was a two-time state top four finisher during his scholastic career at Westwood.
Whalen, who won the Midlands championship on Dec. 30, will wrestle Lovett in the pre-quarterfinal.
New Jersey's main title contenders all advanced.
In addition to Van Ness, New Jersey's top three-seeded wrestlers advanced.
Michigan's Jacob Cardenas, who was a two-time state champion at Bergen Catholic and is the No. 1 seed at 197, majored Army's Wolfgang Frable. Cardenas, who was a two-time All-American at Cornell, will wrestle No. 16 Evan Bates of Northwestern in the pre-quarterfinal.
Also, at 197, Cal State's Bakerfield's A.J. Ferrari, who wrestled parts of his prep career at Bergen Catholic and Blair Academy, defeated West Virginia's Ian Bush 8-1.
Ferrari, the No. 3 seed and the 2021 197-pound champion when he was at Oklahoma State, will wrestle No. 19 Andy Smith of Virginia Tech in the pre-quarterfinal.
Virginia Tech's Eddie Ventresca, who was the NJSIAA 120-pound in 2019, when he was a junior at Pope John, advanced with a 5-1 win over Gylon Sims of the Citadel. Ventresca, who was seventh as the 27th seed in 2023, will wrestle No. 14 Spencer Moore of North Carolina in the pre-quarterfinal.
Rutgers' day
The Scarlet Knights rallied late to go 4-3 in the opening round. However, they have tough pre-quarterfinal matchups.
In addition to Clark, Rutgers wrestlers alive in the championship portion of the tournament are:
Peterson (125), Shane Cartagena-Walsh (184) and Yaraslau Slavikouski (heavyweight).
Peterson defeated Oklahoma's Antonio Lorenzo 6-5 on a takedown with 1:21 remaining. The No. 12 seed, Peterson will wrestle No. 5 seed and defending champion Richard Figueroa of Arizona State in the pre-quarterfinal.
Cartagena-Walsh, in his first national tournament and wrestling 12 days after he had to medically forfeit out of the Big Ten Tournament due to a slam by Ohio State's Ryder Rogotzke, majored North Carolina's Gavin Kane 11-3.
Cartagena-Walsh took the lead with a takedown late in the second period and added two more in the third period.
He will wrestle No. 1 and four-time national champion Carter Starocci of Penn State in the pre-quarterfinal.
Slavikouski, who was seventh a year ago, defeated Jake Andrews of Cal State Bakersfield 4-2 on a takedown with 1:13 left in the second period.
He will wrestle No. 1 and two-time champion and 2021 Olympic gold medalist Gable Steveson in the pre-quarterfinal.
Rutgers' Dylan Shawver (133), who was seventh at 133 last year, Joey Olivieri (141) and Jackson Turley (174), the 2021 eighth-place finisher at 174, were all defeated and have to win four wrestleback bouts to attain All-American honors.
Rider and Princeton's day
Rider and Princeton each have three pre-quarterfinalists.
In addition to Alvarez, Issac Dean (184) and Brock Zurawski (197) advanced.
Dean, seeded seventh, defeated Rogotzke 7-3 and will wrestle No. 10 Edmond Ruth of Illinois in the pre-quarterfinal.
Zurawski, seeded 26th, knocked off No. 7 and Big 12 Conference champion Wyatt Voelker of Northern Iowa 5-2 in sudden victory. He will wrestle No. 23 Seth Shumate of Ohio State in the pre-quarterfinal.
Princeton's other pre-quarterfinalists, in addition to Whalen, are Marc Anthony McGowan (125) and Luke Stout (197).
McGowan defeated Ohio State's Brendan McCrone 4-3. Seeded 13th, McGowan will wrestle No. 4 Vincent Robinson of North Carolina State in the pre-quarterfinal.
Stout defeated Drexel's Mickey McGowan 4-3 to set up a pre-quarterfinal matchup with his brother Mac Stout of Pitt.
The Stout brothers are the sons of Bryan Stout, who was the 1992 NJSIAA 189-pound champion at Southern Regional and a four-time All-American at Clarion (Pa.).