Four Wrestlers Set for Next Week's NCAA Tournament
3/11/2021 11:30:00 AM | Wrestling
KENT, OHIO- Four Kent State wrestlers learned their opening round matchups as the NCAA Wrestling Championship bracket was unveiled on Wednesday night.
Jake Ferri at 125 pounds, Kody Komara at 149, Andrew McNally at 174 and Colin McCracken at 197 all earned berths in this year's championships that are being held in Saint Louis.
Jake Ferri went 13-2 for the Golden Flashes in 2021 at 125 pounds and wrestled to a third-place finish at the MAC Championships. That resume placed Ferri as the 20th seed in next weekend's championships. He will face 13th seed Liam Cronin of Nebraska. The senior is 7-3 on the year and earned an at-large bid after a 9th place finish at the Big-10 championships.
Kody Komara finished the 2021 regular season at 12-6 at 149 pounds. Komara earned an at-large berth in the NCAA tournament after wrestling to a fourth-place finish. Komara will be seeded 29th in the championship bracket. He will take on the four-seed Boo Lewallen of Oklahoma State in the opening round. Lewallen won the Big-12 title this season and comes into the tournament at 16-1 on the year. Komara and Lewallen share a common loss, to Missouri's Brock Mauller. Mauller got by Komara in the MAC semi-finals and defeated Lewallen as part of the Cowboy Challenge late in the regular season.
Andrew McNally finished off a phenomenal 2021 regular season with capturing the 174-pound Mid-American Conference title. At 10-1 overall (the only loss coming due to an injury) earned McNally the 6th overall seed in the championship bracket. There he will face Dakota Howard of Virginia Tech, who finished the season at 5-5. One of those five losses came against McNally, who defeated Howard 13-8 as part of the Kent State vs Virginia Tech dual held at West Virginia back on January 10th.
Colin McCracken went 8-5 at 197 pounds in the regular season. He earned an at-large bid to the NCAA championships earlier this week. He will join Komara as a 29-seed in the tournament, facing off against Oklahoma State freshman A.J. Ferrari. Ferrari won the Big-12 title and is 15-1 on the season. Both share a loss to West Virginia's Noah Adams.
This year's tournament will be held in "waves" with the first wave being the opening round of the first five weight classes: 125, 133, 141, 149 and 165. The first wave will start at 10 a.m. CT/ 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, March 18th. The next "wave" will consist of the final five weights: 165, 174, 184, 197 and 285, the second wave of wrestling will start at 1 p.m. CT/ 2p.m. ET. The early sessions can be seen live on ESPNU.
The second sessions of the day will start with the first five weights at 5 CT/6 ET and the second at 8 CT/9 ET, Thursday night's wrestling will air on ESPN2.Â
Players Mentioned
