SIOUX FALLS, S.D. — Bouncing back after a close loss in the morning opening round, Newman's Dustin Reed battled for a pair of victories in the consolation bracket Friday evening to lock up a top-eight finish at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships.
Reed, who fell to the No. 2-ranked wrestler in the nation at 125 pounds during the round of 16, answered with a dominant 9-5 win in the first round of consolations, followed by a 4-3 decision over No. 1 Evan Link of Pitt-Johnstown in the second round to secure All-America status for the first time for a Newman athlete in an individual sport since joining the NCAA.
Reed started his second session off with a commanding win over Upper Iowa's Maleek Williams in the first round of consolations at the Denny Sanford Premier Center, grabbing a 9-5 victory. The junior picked up the first takedown of the match early in the first period, and managed two escapes in the second to go up 4-3 entering the final two minutes.
Starting the third period on top, Reed turned Williams for a four-point nearfall to stretch the lead. Williams managed a reversal with just over a minute left, but Reed escaped and held on to his four-point margin.
After a wild quarterfinal round that saw the top two ranked wrestlers at 125 fall to the consolations, Reed found himself matched up against his second top-two foe of the day in Link. The UPJ grappler snagged the first takedown along the edge just over a minute into the bout, and Reed was able to escape on the next restart to cut the lead to one.
A quick escape by Link to start the second was countered by another from Reed in the third, with neither wrestler able to gain much ground from neutral since Link's early takedown. Link was given a stall warning with 30 seconds to go in the match, still up 3-2, and was forced to take a shot to avoid giving away the tying point. Reed countered that shot, rolling through the bottom to pop out the other side near the boundary, and countered Link's reshot along the edge into a takedown of his own with four seconds left. He held on just long enough to preserve the 4-3 win and move into the top eight.
Reed's next opponent will be Newberry's Trung Duong, who, like Reed, fell in the first round before bouncing back with two consolation victories, including in the round of 12 against Fort Hays State's Adam Ludwin. Three straight wins Saturday morning would net Reed third place.
