141 lb. Recap
One of the featured quarterfinal matches will come at 141, where at the bottom of the bracket Liberty’s 2-seed Reid Stewart will face Apprentice’s 10-seed Shalek Colon. Stewart is the front end of the bulk of Liberty’s middleweight prowess, and continued his fine season with two major decisions and a first-period pin in the round of 16 for key bonus points for Liberty, while Colon edged 7-seed and returning All-American Nick Reddy of Grand Valley State 10-7 in the round of 16. The winner there could play a big part of the championship picture.

The 141-pound bracket provided the day’s first upset when Liberty’s Ashton Robinson, unseeded outside the top 24 in the bracket, beat 4-seed Michael Harris of Emmanuel in sudden victory, 9-7. Robinson reached the round of 16 before losing to 13-seed Danny Buteau of Husson University. Buteau faces East Carolina’s 5-seeded Wesley Hollingsworth in the quarters. Hollingsworth had an efficient Thursday winning 7-2 and 12-4.

Deviniare Hayes of Queens blasted into the quarterfinals with a 12-0 major decision over two-time All-American and 14-seed Carlos Garcia of Middle Tennessee to close Thursday’s action. Hayes will face Nick Pipes of another first-year NCWA program at Macomb Community College. Pipes, the 6-seed, beat BYU’s Tanner Williams 7-6 to reach the quarters, a big loss for BYU.

Top-seeded Tyler Sage of Florida reached the quarters with an 8-4 win over Middle Tennessee’s Daniel Clark in the round of 16, plus a first-period pin earlier in the day. Sage can help the Gators stay in the top 20 in the standings with a win over Grays Harbor’s 8-seed Damon Thomas in the quarters. Thompson gritted out three decisions Thursday.

149 lb. Recap
Top-seeded Jay Sheppard of Emmanuel dominated the upper part of the bracket, scoring two pins to reach the quarters to set up a key match between returning All-Americans facing 8-seed Ty Boyd of Apprentice. Emmanuel is a two-time All-American who placed third at 157 pounds last year, while Boyd is a two-time All-American who took fifth at 133 last year. The only unseeded wrestler to reach the quarterfinals came at 149 when Ty’Rae Carter of Texas A&M beat Utah State’s Mitchel Egbert 15-3 by major decision in the round of 16. Carter started the day with a 21-7 major decision, then upset Liberty’s 4-seeded Chad Cantrell 12-9. Carter takes on Temple’s Nick Puliti in the quarters. Puliti, the 5-seed, won by fall and then had two decisions on the first day.

Carter is one of two Southwest Conference upstarts in the bracket along with North Texas’ Scott Akers, the 6-seed who posted an 11-0 major decision over 11-seed Tyshane Young of Grays Harbor to reach the quarters. Akers will face third-seeded Martin Mitchell of Maryland-Baltimore County on Friday morning. Mitchell posted three pins in his first-day action.

Zach Blevins of Toledo is the 2-seed who scored two pins to reach the quarters, and he’ll face 10-seed Tyler Weiss of BYU in a key match for the Cougars. Weiss won by fall to open his tournament, then won in sudden victory over UNLV’s 7-seed Jared Brathor, 7-5.