WICHITA, Kan. — After powering through the consolation bracket to lock up a second straight top-four finish at the super regional, Newman's Dustin Reed is making a return trip to the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships this weekend in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
TOURNAMENT CENTRAL
The junior, who is 29-3 on the season after ripping off a 21-match winning streak through the middle of the season, gets a second chance at the final tournament of the year after reaching the event last year but going 0-2. He reached a new level this season, being ranked in the top three in the country at 125 pounds nearly all season, and he'll take the mat looking for his first All-America finish beginning Friday morning on the mats at the Denny Sanford Premier Center.
TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE
Friday, March 11 (All times CST)
Session 1, 11 a.m.
First Round
Session 2, 6 p.m.
Championship Quarterfinals, First- and Second-Round Consolations
Saturday, March 12
Session 3, 10 a.m.
Championship Semifinals, Consolation Quarterfinals and Semifinals
Third-, Fifth- and Seventh-Place Matches
Session 4, 7 p.m.
Championship Finals
COVERAGE
The NCAA will provide live video of each mat during the event. Trackwrestling is providing live scoring and results. Be sure to follow along with the Newman Wrestling Twitter account, @NewmanWrestling, as well as the Newman Athletics account, @Newman_Jets, for updates.
PREVIEW
There won't be many unfamiliar faces in the weight class for Reed, who has faced off against six of the other 15 wrestlers at 125 over the past 12 months.
Two are a pair of MIAA foes on the other side of the bracket that Reed has matched up against many times in his career in Nebraska-Kearney's Connor Bolling and Fort Hays State's Adam Ludwin. Reed has combined to go 6-1 against the pair this season.
Reed starts out with one of the toughest opponents in the field, Indianapolis' Joshua Kieffer, who is ranked No. 2 in the nation at 125 in the latest D2wrestle.com poll. Reed does own a win over Kieffer back in the championship match of the Maryville Kaufman/Brand Open in November, when the Newman grappler earned a 3-1 win in sudden victory. It was a similarly close match in the first round of the same tournament when Reed topped Maryville's Jaret Singh 6-4 in the first tiebreaker, and Singh is a potential semifinal opponent.
Also potential semifinal foes are a pair who Reed is looking for a second chance at, as Western State's Ronald Wardleigh got a 7-6 win in the semifinals at the Super Region tournament two weeks ago to snap the Jet's winning streak, and Mercyhurst's Willie Bohince sent him to the consolations in last year's first round of the NCAA championships. Bohince is ranked fourth in the country, while Wardleigh moved up to fifth after winning the regional title.
The top-ranked wrestler, Pitt-Johnstown's Evan Link, is on the other side of the bracket from Reed, as are No. 3 Brett Velasquez of St. Cloud State and No. 6 Ronzel Darling of Wisconsin-Parkside. No. 8 Jacob Goodwin of Notre Dame (Ohio) is a potential quarterfinal opponent for Reed, but he has to get past Upper Iowa's Maleek Williams first.
