Jake Woodley pulls upsets to lead four Oklahoma wrestlers at NCAA Championships

ST. LOUIS — Oklahoma’s Jake Woodley knocked off a pair of top-10 wrestlers to punch his ticket to the NCAA quarterfinals on Thursday night at the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

Outside of Woodley, three other Sooners won a match on Thursday and will wrestle on Friday at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.

"I'm proud of Jake, who wrestled up to his standard today," OU coach Lou Rosselli said. "Our other guys had their moments and all the ones still wrestling have the potential to keep advancing if they wrestle at the level they need to. We'll look to be better tomorrow."

Woodley, seeded 26th at 197 pounds, dispatched No. 7 Rocky Elam in his first-round match with a 4-1 decision to advance into round two.

Facing another tough test in the second round, Woodley trailed Michigan State's No. 10 Cameron Caffey 3-2 in the final period. With his run at a championship on the line, the Oklahoma junior secured a takedown and 42-second ride out to upset the Spartan. For Woodley, a three-time NCAA qualifier, Friday marks his first appearance in the NCAA quarterfinals, where he'll match up with No. 15 Michael Beard from Penn State, with the winner receiving All-America status.

"I knew I could beat the top guys in the country, but I just hadn't been able to put it together earlier in the year," Woodley said. "It feels great to finally get some wins because I hadn't had any over those guys so far this year. To win tomorrow, I'll just need to stick to my offense and take it one match at a time."

Dom Demas, OU's 141-pounder, took care of Minnesota's Marcos Polanco in the first round with a 6-2 decision to advance into the championship's second round. The All-American Demas took on fellow All-American Real Woods from Stanford in the second round. Demas was the aggressor for most of the match but couldn't finish a big shot, sending the match into sudden victory, where Woods scored back points as the clock expired, sending the Sooner into wrestle-backs. He'll wrestle Angelo Martini (4-2, CSU Bakersfield) on Friday morning.

OU 149-pounder Mitch Moore dropped his opening match of the championship to Josh Heil of Campbell via 2-1 decision off riding time, but bounced back in the evening session. Taking on Kent State's Kody Komora, the Oklahoma junior put Komora on his back and pinned him in 2:16 to advance in the tournament. Moore faces Minnesota's Michael Blockhus (9-6) on Friday morning in a win-or-go-home match.

At heavyweight, Josh Heindselman was defeated in his opening match with No. 14 Trent Hillger of Wisconsin, but bounced back in the evening session with a 6-2 decision over Binghamton's Joe Doyle to advance in the wrestle-backs. He'll square up with Wyoming's Bryan Andrews on Friday morning.

Tony Madrigal went to sudden victory in both of his matches but dropped each one, eliminating him from the championship at 0-2. He finished the season with a 6-10 record, but his run at the Big 12 championship at 133 pounds will give him momentum as he moves into the next season.

Sooner 157-pounder Justin Thomas entered the day as the No. 10 seed but was downed by No. 23 Jacob Wright and then No. 7 Jarrett Jacques in the wrestle-backs, eliminating him from the championship. He finished the season with an 11-5 record and was named Big 12 wrestler of the week twice during the season.

Anthony Mantanona's season came to an end after an 0-2 performance on Thursday, losing 12-2 to No. 10 Peyton Mocco (Missouri) and a first-period fall to Jackson Turley of Rutgers in the wrestle-back. The 2019 second-team All-American at 174 pounds ends his 2021 season with a record of 8-9.

As a team, the Sooners tallied five points after having a team point deducted, and are tied for 33rd. Iowa leads the field with 33.5 points, followed by Penn State with 28 and Missouri with 23.5.

Session three opens at 10 a.m. Friday and will feature Demas and Moore in the consolation bracket. The 2 p.m. session will showcase Woodley's quarterfinal bout and Heindselman's wrestle-back.