Stanford redshirt sophomore Paul Fox knocked off two seeded wrestlers Thursday to advance to the quarterfinals of the 2017 NCAA Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center.
Fox, who is unseeded, held off 11th-seeded Russell Parsons of Army, 7-5, for his second upset of the tournament. Fox, a redshirt sophomore from Gilroy is now 28-13 this season after taking out sixth-seeded Clayton Ream of North Dakota State in the opening round. He will face No. 3 seed Joey Lavallee of Missouri in the quarterfinals Friday morning.
True freshman Gabriel Townsell (125) and redshirt junior Connor Schram (133) both knocked out returning All-Americans in the wrestlebacks to remain alive in the consolation brackets.
Townsell ousted Michigan’s Conor Youtsey with a commanding 9-4 decision. He now stands at 19-11 overall and will face 16th-seeded Nathan Kraisser of Campbell Friday morning.
Schram held off 13th-seeded Earl Hall of Iowa State, 6-5, to earn the decision. Schram will wrestle 14th-seeded Mitch McKee of Minnesota on Friday.
Redshirt senior Josh Marchok earned a fall in 50 seconds over NC State’s Malik McDonald to earn his first NCAA Tournament victory. It was the fastest fall of the season for Marchok, who moves to 16-9. He will wrestle Iowa’s Cash Wilcke on Friday morning.
Joey McKenna, the No. 3 seed at 141 pounds, forced overtime against the No. 14 seed Thomas Thorn of Minnesota when he was awarded a point for stalling to tie it at 4-4.
In the sudden victory period, Thorn earned a takedown with less than 30 seconds remaining and put McKenna on his back, earning the fall in 7:57. It is the first time McKenna has been pinned in his collegiate career as he drops to 56-5 overall. He falls into the consolation bracket where he will face Maryland’s Ryan Deihl on Friday.
The No. 10 seed at 285 pounds, Nathan Butler took on seventh-seeded Tanner Hall of Arizona State for a spot in the quarterfinals.
In typical Butler-Hall fashion, the match went to overtime after being tied 1-1. Butler got the best of Hall in the dual meet at Stanford on Jan. 22, but this time Hall secured the takedown and turned Butler for the fall in 7:37.
Redshirt junior Keaton Subjeck dropped a 5-3 decision in the second tiebreaker against NC State’s Brian Hamann in the 165 pound consolation bracket.
Tied 3-3 in the second tiebreaker, Subjeck attempted a throw as time was winding down because Hamann had nine second advantage in riding time. Hamann countered for the takedown as time ran out. Subjeck finishes his season at 22-10 overall.
Fifth-year seniors Peter Galli (174) and Zach Nevills (184) saw their careers come to a close on Thursday.
Galli fell in a 6-3 decision to Harvard’s Josef Johnson in the wrestlebacks and will end his career with a 61-31 career record. Nevills dropped a 5-0 decision to Rutgers’ Nicholas Gravina in the consolation bracket, finishing his Stanford career at 55-47.
Friday’s quarterfinals are set to begin at 8 a.m.
Men’s golf
Stanford senior Maverick McNealy has been selected to the United States’ Arnold Palmer cup team for the third straight year, as announced Thursday during the opening round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill Club & Lodge. The annual Ryder Cup-style competition will be played June 9-11 at the Atlanta Athletic Club.
The additional five United States players determined by the ranking includ Sam Burns of LSU, Texas A&M’s Chandler Phillips, Collin Morikawa of California, Virginia’s Jimmy Stanger and Oregon’s Norman Xiong.
John Coultas of Florida Southern, Southern California’s Sean Crocker and Illinois’ Nick Hardy were committee selections. Coultas was the designated non-Division I player. Doug Ghim of Texas was John Fields’ coach’s pick.
McNealy, the world’s top-ranked amateur, represented the United States in 2015 and was selected compete in 2016. When McNealy withdrew from the 2016 event, Ghim was added to Team USA.
Women’s tennis
No. 4 Stanford returns to Taube Family Tennis Stadium for a three-match homestand, beginning with a pair of conference matches this weekend.
Coming off a road sweep of the Southern California schools, Stanford (9-1, 2-0 Pac-12) welcomes No. 45 Arizona State (7-3, 2-0 Pac-12) to The Farm on Friday for a 1:30 p.m. contest that will be televised on Pac-12 Networks. Arizona (9-4, 1-1 Pac-12) visits Saturday at noon.
The Cardinal has won five in a row and its overall resume continues to receive a considerable bump in the ITA’s computerized national rankings. Stanford jumped 10 spots from last week and has climbed 21 spots overall since checking in at No. 25 just three weeks ago.
Stanford’s only loss came at the hands of unbeaten Florida, which has occupied the top spot in the poll all season.
Early deficits have done little to slow Stanford, which has won nine of its last 11 matches when losing the doubles point. That was the case last Friday at UCLA, when the Cardinal fell behind 1-0 but capitalized on its lower-lineup singles depth to pull out a 4-3 win over the Bruins.
Emma Higuchi (20-3 overall, 9-0 overall) leads the team in victories and is riding a nine-match win streak. Melissa Lord (16-2 overall, 7-1 duals) is Stanford’s highest-ranked player at No. 13 while Emily Arbuthnott (13-2 overall, 7-0 duals) leads the team with four clinchers and has won 10 in row since her last loss two months ago.
Two doubles teams have reached seven overall victories: Caroline Doyle/Lord and Arbuthnott/Taylor Davidson.
Head coach Lele Forood, who has guided Stanford to eight NCAA titles, is three victories away from 400 in her career.
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics
By Stanford Athletics