Minnesota is sending three wrestlers to the quarterfinals of the 2025 NCAA Wrestling Championships, and five more are still alive in the pursuit of All-America status as Session II concluded Thursday night inside the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia.
Thursday’s performances resulted in 18.0 points for the Golden Gophers, tying them for fourth place with Iowa and Ohio State. Penn State leads the team standings with 39.5 points followed by Nebraska (28.0) and Oklahoma State (27.0). Minnesota is one of 11 teams to have three quarterfinalists.
Vance VomBaur reached the 141-pound quarterfinals for the second year in a row as he pitched his second shutout of the day. After a 2-0 victory in the opening round, the sixth-seeded VomBaur followed with a 4-0 win over No. 11 Dylan Cedeno of Virginia Thursday night. VomBaur got a first-period takedown and escaped in the second before riding out Cedeno in the third to go to 2-0 on the day. With the win, VomBaur has earned a matchup with No. 3 Jesse Mendez of Ohio State. The two met in the regular season with VomBaur pushing Mendez to a tiebreaker in a 6-5 loss.
Max McEnelly joined VomBaur in the quarterfinals after another bonus-point win. Seeded No. 3, McEnelly majored No. 14 DJ Parker of Oklahoma, 11-3, for his team-best 19th bonus point victory, reaching the quarters in his debut appearance at the NCAA Championships. McEnelly’s lead was 3-2 entering the third period, but he put Parker away with an escape and a pair of takedowns to move to 22-1 on the season. In the quarterfinals, McEnelly will take on No. 6 Chris Foca of Cornell.
In the Round of 16 at heavyweight, top-seeded Gable Steveson advanced via disqualification over No. 16 Yaraslau Slavikouski of Rutgers as Steveson forced five stall calls in the opening period. That sets up a rematch of the 2022 title bout with No. 9 Cholton Schultz of Arizona State. In that matchup, Steveson won 6-2 for his second national title.
At 157 pounds, No. 9 Tommy Askey lost a heartbreaker to No. 8 Joey Blaze from Purdue. Like their previous matchups in the Big Ten consolation semifinals, Thursday’s bout also went to overtime. Both recorded escapes in regulation, and neither scored in sudden victory. In the tiebreaker, Blaze escaped four seconds quicker than Askey to advance to the quarterfinals. Askey moves to the consolation bracket where he’ll face Maryland’s No. 10 Ethen Miller. Askey defeated Miller earlier this month in the fifth-place match at Big Tens, 7-3.
Also dropping to the consolation bracket was No. 10 Andrew Sparks at 165 pounds. Facing No. 7 Hunter Garvin from Stanford, Sparks was bested in a 14-4 major decision. Sparks will go up against No. 25 Nick Hamilton from Virginia.
Tyler Wells stayed alive in the consolation bracket with a 5-1 win over No. 27 Ethan Berginc of Army. After a scoreless first period, Wells, the No. 22 seed, nearly rode out Berginc for the entire second period before a late escape. Down 1-0 in the third but with over a minute of riding time, Wells secured the win with a short-time takedown in the closing seconds. He moves on to Round 2 of the consolation brackets against No. 5 Dominick Serrano of Northern Colorado Friday morning.
Also staying alive was Cooper Flynn at 125 pounds as the No. 19 seed pinned No. 33 Caleb Weinad of Michigan State at the 2:48 mark. Flynn will face off with Princeton’s No. 13 Marc-Anthony McGowan in Round 2 Friday.
One of the most exciting matches of the session for the Gophers came in the 174-pound consolations where No. 28 Clayton Whiting earned his first career tournament win with an 11-9, comeback victory. A back-and-forth first period saw Whiting hold a 5-4 lead before Takats pulled ahead 8-5 after two. Takats had the three-point lead plus riding time going into the final minute of the match but Whiting picked up a pair of takedowns to emerge with an 11-9 victory.
At 197 pounds, fifth-year senior Isaiah Salazar saw his collegiate career come to an end with a 4-1 overtime loss to No. 7 Wyatt Voelker of Northern Iowa. With each recording an escape in regulation, Voelker took down the 10th-seeded Salazar with just two seconds remaining in the sudden-victory period. Salazar ends his Gophers career with an 82-24 career record, four trips to the NCAA Championships, including All-America honors in 2024, and a 2024 Big Ten Championship at 184 pounds. His 82 wins rank tied for 59th in program history.
Session III gets underway Friday at 11a.m. CT. ESPNU will have the television coverage, while ESPN+ will have mat-specific streams.
Minnesota Results through Session II
125 Pounds
First Round: #14 Spence Moore (North Carolina) dec. #19 Cooper Flynn, 2-0
Consolation – R1: #19 Cooper Flynn fall #33 Caleb Weiand (Michigan State), 2:48
133 Pounds
First Round: #11 Evan Frost (Iowa State) dec. #22 Tyler Wells, 2-0
Consolation – R1: #22 Tyler Wells dec. #27 Ethan Berginc (Army), 5-1
141 Pounds
First Round: #6 Vance VomBaur dec. #27 Greyson Clark (Purdue), 2-0
Round of 16: #6 Vance VomBaur dec. #11 Dylan Cedeno (Virginia), 4-0
157 Pounds
First Round: #9 Tommy Askey dec. #24 Dylan Evans (Pitt), 7-2
Round of 16: #8 Joey Blaze (Purdue) dec. #9 Tommy Askey, 2-2 TB2
165 Pounds
First Round: #10 Andrew Sparks dec. #23 Thomas Snipes (The Citadel), 4-2
Round of 16: #7 Hunter Garvin (Stanford) MD #10 Andrew Sparks, 14-4
174 Pounds
First Round: #5 Simon Ruiz (Cornell) TF #28 Clayton Whiting, 17-2 (7:00)
Consolation – R1: #28 Clayton Whiting dec. #12 Myles Takats (Bucknell), 11-9
184 Pounds
First Round: #3 Max McEnelly TF #30 Colin Fegley (Lock Haven), 19-4 (3:52)
Round of 16: #3 Max McEnelly MD #14 DJ Parker (Oklahoma), 11-3
197 Pounds
First Round: #23 Seth Shumate (Ohio State) fall #10 Isaiah Salazar, 4:12
Consolation – R1: #7 Wyatt Voelker (Northern Iowa) dec. #10 Isaiah Salazar, 4-1 SV1
Heavyweight
First Round: #1 Gable Steveson fall #33 Hayden Filipovich (Purdue), 1:25
Round of 16: #1 Gable Steveson DQ #16 Yaraslau Slavikouski (Rutgers)
(info and photo courtesy of Gophers Sports)
(photo credit: Brad Rempel)
