Tutolo & Sparkman Head to St. Louis for NCAA Championships
3/14/2017 2:07:00 PM | Wrestling
Two Kent State sophomores look to give the Golden Flashes an All-American in nine consecutive seasons at the 87th NCAA Championships March 16-18 inside the Scottrade Center. Â Anthony Tutolo and Casey Sparkman head to St. Louis for the three-day, double elimination tournament.Â
Action begins Thursday at noon Eastern with two sessions each day. All 10 weight classes will have 33-man brackets battling for All-America (Top 8) honors. Â Â
Opening Matchups        Â
133: Anthony Tutolo (19-8) vs. Mark Grey (20-10) Cornell
157: Casey Sparkman (25-12) vs. No. 14 Sal Mastriani (16-6) Virginia Tech
Every Session Televised, Every Match Covered
All six sessions will be televised on either ESPN or ESPNU and every match will be carried on ESPN3 throughout the entire three-day competition. Â Thursday's Second Round (Session II), Friday night's semifinals (Session IV) and Saturday night's finals (Session VI) can be seen on ESPN. Â Sessions I, III and V can be seen on ESPNU. Â Thursday's sessions are set to begin at noon and 7 p.m. Eastern. Â Friday and Saturday's sessions will begin at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. Eastern.
All eight individual mat feeds will be carried on ESPN3 throughout the entire tournament. Â Computer users will be able to view four different mats at one time. Â Jim Gibbons, Tim Johnson and Anthony Robles Return to ESPN's TV Coverage with Billy Baldwin as guest analyst during the finals. ESPN3 will offer Off the Mat -- a combination of live matches, highlights and interviews with newly crowned champions.
• Live scoring of all matches will be available on TrackWrestling.com throughout the tournament. Â
• Look for updates on Twitter by following @KentStWrestl and @NCAAwrestling
ESPN3 Links
| Thursday | Friday | Saturday |
| Session I | Session III | Session V |
| Session II | Session IV | Session VI |
Tournament History
Since 2009, six Golden Flashes have combined for 11 All-American finishes, including two national final appearances by Dustin Kilgore, who became Kent State's first national champion in 2011.
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Last year in New York City, Ian Miller earned his third straight All-America finish and second semifinal appearance at 157. Â Mike DePalma put together six victories on the way to a fifth place finish at 149. Â The Flashes finished 16th in the team standings. Â Penn State won their fifth team title in six years.
The 2015-16 season marked the 10th time in 11 years the Golden Flashes have sent five or more wrestlers to the national tournament and 11th consecutive season Kent State has sent four or more.
Twenty one different Golden Flashes have combined for 27 All-American finishes at the NCAA Championships dating back to Cameron Falcone's third place finish in 1939. Â That season under Head Coach Joe Begala, the Golden Flashes finished 12th as a team. Â Begala's teams earned fifth place in both 1941 and 1942, the highest finishes in program history. Â Until Kilgore's championship in 2011, 1941 & 1942 were the only two seasons in which Kent State wrestlers (Mike Slepecky, Walter Porowski) earned spots in the championship finals. Â
With the efforts of Begala, the M.A.C. Center in Kent served as the host of the NCAA Championships in 1963 and 1967.
Quick Shots
• Kent State's eight straight years with at least one All-American is the 10th longest active streak in the nation.
• Mid-American Conference wrestlers have been crowned NCAA champions in four of the last six years.
• The Golden Flashes do not have a single senior on their roster.
• The NWCA honored Kent State for having the fifth highest grade point average in the nation last season at 3.325.
• In just over a month's span, three different Golden Flashes earned Mid-American Conference Male Scholar-Athlete of the Week honors this season, including Anthony Tutolo, who carries a 3.6 grade point average as a communications major.
• The Flashes finished second of 15 teams at the Lock Haven Classic (Dec. 19) that included four top four finishes.Â
• Nine Flashes placed in the Top 6 spots at the Navy Classic (Nov. 19).
Players Mentioned
