125 lb. Recap
Seven of the top eights seeds are still alive into the quarterfinals, paced by top-seeded Byron Smith of Middle Tennessee. Smith won three matches Thursday by tech fall, with combined scores of 48-2. The senior from Memphis is a two-time All-American who placed third last year. He will face eight-seed Brandn Felan of Texas A&M in the quarterfinals. Felan is perhaps the Southwest Conference’s top wrestler this season, and edged Florida’s Raymon Troncoso 12-10 in sudden victory to reach the quarters.

UCF has two keys to its championship run in the 125 bracket. Two of the Knights’ 10 wrestlers still alive heading into Friday are at 125, with four-seed Timothy Sakow one win away from a fourth consecutive All-American season and third-seeded Jacob Toledo in opposite sides of the quarterfinal brackets. Sakow got a key win over Liberty’s Jason Smith in the round of 16 to close Thursday’s action, while Toledo won both his matches by tech fall.

Colton Messick, the second seed from Apprentice, scored a pin and a decision to reach the quarters at the bottom of the bracket. He’ll face Emmanuel’s Albert Perez, who as the 10-seed beat West Chester’s 7-seed Manuel Canfin in the bracket’s only upset of the day. Queen’s University of Charlotte has 6-seed Melvin Rubio in the quarters following three pins in Thursday’s action, two of them in under a minute and the other in 1:28. Rubio faces Toledo in the quarters. Deonte Carter, the 5-seed, is the other quarterfinalist and won his only match Thursday by fall following a first-round forfeit.

133 lb. Recap
Two of the tournament’s biggest upsets on the first day came in the 133 weight class. BYU’s Colton Tracy helped the Cougars’ charge into the top five of the standings with a 6-1 decision over fourth-seeded Emery Cline of Emmanuel. He’ll face fifth-seeded and returning All-American Justus Griffith of UCF in the quarters in another key match for the Knights. The bracket’s other notable upset based on seeding came in the bottom of the bracket as Kolin Johnson of Apprentice pinned two-time All-American and 3-seed Brendan Hazleton of Grand Valley State in the round of 16. Johnson faces returning All-American Deonte Evans of Toledo in the quarters. Evans topped Liberty’s 11-seed Blake Justus in the round of 16, 4-3.

Top-seed Arthur Payne of Mott Community College won two tech falls by a 33-2 count to reach the quarters at the top of the bracket, where he’ll face 8-seed Demetri Koures of Montana Tech. Koures won three matches Thursday by pin, a tech fall, and a 5-2 decision over Tyler Petrochko of Yale in the round of 16. At the bottom of the bracket are second-seeded Noah Gilbert of Queens, and returning All-American Michael Perdomo of Penn State-Fayette. Perdomo beat Junior Francois of UCF in the round of 16 13-11 by sudden victory.