Midlands Championships coverage: Session I

The 48th Midlands Championships held at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena will begin soon. About 334 wrestlers will compete in the two-day event. There will be eight mats going and, if memory serves me correctly, they run straight through until the quarterfinals for this round.

The action is fast and furious. I'll try to keep up with as many wrestlers from Iowa, ISU, UNI, Wartburg and the other native Iowans (like Josh Ihnen of Nebraska). Updates will range from "McDonough won first round match" and "Gambrall wins, 7-2." to actual match play-by-play.

Refresh to get the occasional updates.You can send me questions at kj.pilcher@sourcemedia.net. I don't get alerts from comments any more so it's hard for me to catch them. Emails are easier. By the way, most typos will go unfix so you'll just have to deal with it.

Here's to a hectic two-day stretch.

Matt ballweg is up first. He's down to 149, looking to strengthen the lineup or at least add some depth. Ballweg dropped Dillon Pousson, Unattached of S. Illinois, 11-1. He looked tough, getting a takedown and nearfall in the second period. he faces Dylan Marriott, unattached-Northwestern, next for a chance to face Bucknell's top-seeded kevin LeValley in the third round.

Jarion Beets is up4-2 with 1:35 to go in the second over Oklahoma's Ronnie Balfour at 184. Beets wins, 8-3, and Pittsburgh's Karl Deciantis of Pitt next with that winner facing the winner of ISU's Jon Reader and Bobby Bowman, unattached of Arizona St.

UNI 157-pounder David Bonin is wrestling Missouri's Nick Gregoris. It just started. Winner faces Derek St. John in the second round. I looked up to see Bonin trailing 9-4 on the scoreboard. Then Bonin shot and outside single for a T2 to make it 9-6. He then turned gregoris and pinned him in 4:49. Talk about a turnaround. Now it's a rematch from the Iowa/UNI meet. Last year, the same thing happened. UNI's Reiner and Iowa's Janssen had a rematch here. Janssen won in the dual, but Reiner avenged it with a win at Midlands. Not sure Bonin will repeat the feat.

McDonough's first round match is underway against Triton's Jose Torres. McD up 7-2 with 40 seconds to go in 1st. McD 9-2 after first. McD scores 19-2 tech fal in about 6 minutes to advance. McD took care of business.

Waiting for Ramos and Clark to take the mat. Ramos is the No. 3 seed, while Clark is the 11th-seed. Nate Moore was seeded sixth, but is just getting over the flu. He is here watching but is not competing.

Ramos is stepping out to face Kevin tao of American. We'll be bombarded by Iowa wrestlers on the mat (Ramos, Clark, Ballwegs, Jauch and Alec Hoffman of UNI, Ben Cash and Drouin of ISU).

Ramos up 5-1 in the second. Two T2 in the first and opened second with E1. Ramos leads 9-2 after second. Ramos wins 14-3 with 3 minutes of RT.

Tyler Clark up against Keith Surber (Unattached). Clark up, 2-0, after first. Clark up, 5-0, in the third. Clark scored a T2 in the first, rode out Surber in the second, and added an E1 and T2 early in the third. Clark wins, 10-2, with more than 3 minutes of RT.

Cash is wrestling Illinois' #2 seed B.J. Futrell, who leads 8-2 after first. Watko of Clarion pins UNI's Ryan Jauch at 133. Watko moves on to face Futrell, who beat Cash, 18-3.

Drouin up now againstNick Dardanes (Unattached-Minnesota). Drouin leads 5-1 in the second. Drouin wins, 18-1.

Mark ballweg wins by fall over Clarion's Colby Pisani at 141.

Clarion's Cameron Moran defeated Alec Hoffman, 17-5.

Matt Ballweg up again, facing Dylan Marriott of NW. Scoreless after first. Ballweg wins, 7-2.

Chiri and Timmy Boone of Stanford also going at 149. Chiri up, 5-0, in second. Chiri wins, 8-6.

Nate Carr Jr. wins for ISU. Mat 7 is the only scoreboard I can't read, so I don't have a score. Sandy Stevens just announced that Carr won, 6-3, over Vince Castillo of Northern Illinois.

Iowa freshman Michael Kelly loses to top-seeded jake patacsil, 13-0, at 157.

ISU's Max Mayfield wrestling Andrew Nadhir of Northwestern now. Nadhir defeates Mayfield by major decision.

Bonin and St. John wrestling. I have St. John with a 5-1 lead in the second. My eyes are too bad or the scoreboard is too dimly lit for me to read it for sure.

Bonin with an E1 and T2 in third to close it to 5-4. he releases St. John, who is called for stalling. I believe DSJ has RT.

Bonin with a T2 and then caught St. John on his back. Bonin gets the fall in 6:58 and moves on to third round. It's Iowa's first official loss of the day (Kelly was unattached).

Andrew Howe wins by major decision over Michael Moreno of ISU-unattached.

Aaron Janssen down 4-1 to 12th-seeded Conrad Polz of Illinois after two periods. Janssen does have 1:25 of RT.

Janssen with an E1 to make it 4-2 and has 1:20 of RT. 1:13 to go. Janssen with T2 and its 4-4 with 40 seconds to go. Janssen has 1:34 of RT. Janssen rides Polz out for 5-4 win.

Kerr down 2-1 after first. Kerr gives up an E1 and  T2 and trails Northwestern's Kevin Bialka, 5-1, in second. Bialka has more than 2:30 of RT as well. Bialka wins 8-2. Second loss for Hawkeyes.

ISU's Chris Spangler up 2-0 in first. Spangler wins 6-1.

Robert Nash of Michigan Statepinned Riley Banach in 2:14.

ISU's top-seeded 174-pounder Jon Reader wins easily, 18-1, in 4:35.

Jarion Beets of UNI is up now at 174.  Beets leads 2-1 going into third. Beets adds a takedown in the third and has 1:40 of RT to win 5-2.

Ethen Lofthouse up and beating Kyle Kwiat, 6-1 after first. Ethen Lofthouse wins 12-2.

Austin Meys of Lehigh pinned Mikey England of ISU at 174.

Mike Evans of Iowa (Unattached) is up against Wisconsin's 10th-seed Ben Jordan. Scoreless after first. Evans rides Jordan out for the second.

Evans is released and then taken down by Jordan and released again. Evans ends up finishing witha  takedown and a 6-2 win over Jordan.

UNI's Brice Wolf beats 11th-seed Caleb Kolb, 8-4, at 174.

At 184, Iowa's top-seeded Grant Gambrall handled Cleveland State's Corbine Boone, 16-3.

Ryan Loder up for UNI at 184, wrestling Robert Holbrook of Northwestern. Scoreless after first. Loder wins, 11-1.

ISU's Cole Shafer scores the first takedown and an early 2-0 lead over #7 seed Tony Dallago of Illinois. Totally missed it but Dallago came back to build a 6-3 lead, looked away and it was 6-6 with dallago on his back before Shafer pinned him in 2:16.

Right now, Phillip Hawes (197) of ISU is up 2-1 on Alex Polizzi (Unattached-Northwestern) after first. No Jerome Ward. Hawes gives up a second-period fall.

Waiting for Wartburg's Byron Tate and Iowa's Luke Lofthouse at 197.

Tate, seeded fourth, beat Mike Wagner of Rutgers,6-3. He'll face Polizzi in the next round.

Lofthouse is now up against Craig Kelliher of Central Michigan. Lofthouse dominating Kelliher, 10-4 with more than 2:30 of RT with about a minute left to go. Lofthouse wins, 13-4.

At heavyweight, Steven Andrus (Michigan State) beats ISU's Kyle Slifka, 12-8.

UNI's Christian Brantley is wrestling Northwestern's Ben Kuhar.

Wartburg's John Helgerson is wrestling Nebraska's fifth-seeded Tucker Lane. Helgerson ties it 2-2 with 25 seconds left in 2nd and Lane hollers in pain. He's flat on his back and being tended to by trainers. Lane continues but Helgerson notches 4-3 win.

Iowa freshman Bobby Telford (unattached) is up against Patrick Walker of Illinois. Telford up 2-1 with 30 seconds to go. Telford wins, 2-1.

ISU's Kyle Simonson leads Purdue's Roger Vukobratovich, 6-2, after first.

Missed final scores in Simonson, Brantley and Rasing. Will update when they're announced. UPDATE: Brantley won, 8-3. Rasing won, 5-0. Sets up another Iowa/UNI rematch. Rasing won the bout earlier this month.

ISU's Matt Gibson is up 2-1 on Alex White of Purdue at heavyweight. Gibson wins, 7-2.

Iowa's Jordan Johnson and Marty Smith of Illinois are scoreless after first.

Johnson up 1-0 and has 32 seconds of RT with 1:20 remaining. Johnson and Smith are going into OT tied 1-1. Johnson with a takedown and the 3-1 win.

For the next round, I will be stepping away because I have to track down interviews. Wrestlers don't stick around much after they're done.

I will return with a brief summary of the final round, but nothing like I've been doing.