2021 NCAA Div. I Championship Notes – 149 pounds

The following are notes about the 149-pound weight class at the 2021 NCAA Division I

Championships that will take place March 18-20 in St. Louis.

Return to WIN’s NCAA Championships Central

Head-to-head Matchups of WIN’s Top-10 Ranked Wrestlers

• #1 Sammy Sasso (Ohio State)  dec. #25 Yahya Thomas (Northwestern), 8-3 — The Buckeye scored a takedown in each period, including his second early in the second period after the Wildcat was awarded a penalty point.
• #4 Boo Lewallen (Oklahoma State) dec. l#12 Max Murin (Iowa) 6-4 — The Cowboy countered a shot by the Hawkeye and scored the deciding takedown of a low single with xx seconds in sudden victory. The Hawkeye trailed 3-0 in the second period before rallying with an escape and takedown at the 1:23 mark in the third frame.
• #3 Brock Mauller (Missouri) dec. #6 Bryce Andonian (Virginia Tech), 8-3 — The Tiger scored two of his three takedowns in the first period and added the third with two seconds left in the second period before adding a riding time point.
• #7 #2 Austin O’Connor (North Carolina) dec. #7 John Millner (Appalachian State), 5-2 — The Tar Heel earned his third All-American honor by scoring a takedown in both the first and second periods.

• Top-seed Sammy Sasso of Ohio State got a big scare against Fresno State Kyle Parco, who scored a takedown and two-point near fall in the final 12 seconds of the second period to lead 8-7 at the end of the second period.  The Buckeye fought back to score two takedowns to eventually win 11-10 with the final takedown coming with five seconds left.
• Oklahoma State’s No., 4 Boo Lewallen scored a takedown in the closing seconds to edge Campbell’s No. 20 Josh Heil, 7-6, in the second tiebreaker.  Heil’s older brother Dean was once a two-time NCAA champ from Oklahoma State. Josh led 3-1 after the second period, but needed a third-period escape to force overtime.  In the first tiebreaker phase, Heil scored a reversal to take a 6-4 lead before the Cowboy earned an escape six seconds into the 30-second period before tallying the late takedown.
• Iowa’s Max Murin avenged a Big Ten tournament loss to Nebraska’s Ridge Lovett, when the Hawkeye beat the Husker, 5-3. After Lovett battled back to tie the bout, Murin scored the winning takedown with 23 seconds left.
• Appalachian State’s John Millner held off Northern Iowa’s Tristan Lara, 9-8, in a bout that saw a wild first period. In those first three minutes, Millner scored three takedowns to lead 7-6, but the Panther scored five straight points off an escape, takedown and two-point nearfall that gave Lara a 5-2 lead.

Other Notes

• Northern Colorado’s Andrew Alirez withdraws from NCAAs