Gophers heavyweight wrestler Gable Steveson rolls through two rounds at NCAA Championships

Gophers heavyweight Gable Steveson opened his bid for his third NCAA championship with two victories at the NCAA Championships on Thursday at Philadelphia.

Steveson, the top seed who is trying to become just the sixth heavyweight to win three NCAA titles, opened with a victory over Purdue’s Hayden Filipovich by pin in 1:25. The victory was the 67th consecutive and 100th overall for Steveson’s Gophers career. Steveson became the 48th wrestler in program history to reach 100 career victories. He’s 101-2 in his career.

Steveson’s second-round match against Yaraslau Slavikouski of Rutgers was stopped in the first period, when Slavikouski was disqualified for stalling.

Steveson will wrestle eighth-seeded Cohlton Schultz of Arizona State in the quarterfinals.

Also advancing to Friday’s quarterfinals for the Gophers were Vance VomBaur (141 pounds) and Max McEnelly (184 pounds).

VomBaur, seeded sixth, outlasted Greyson Clark of Purdue 2-0 in the first round before defeating Virginia’s Dylan Cedeno 4-0 in the second round.

McEnelly, the No. 3 seed, made his NCAA meet debut with a 19-4 technical fall victory over Lock Haven’s Colin Fegley. In the second round, McEnelly defeated Oklahoma’s DJ Parker, the No. 14 seed, 11-3 to advance.

Tommy Askey (157 pounds) and Andrew Sparks (165 pounds) dropped into the consolation bracket after losing their second-round matches.

Askey, the No. 9 seed, defeated Pittsburgh’s Dylan Evans 7-2 in the first round but lost to Purdue’s Joey Blaze in the second round by pin.

Sparks, the No. 10 seed, opened with a 4-2 victory over The Citadel’s Thomas Snipes before losing to Stanford’s Hunter Garvin by a 14-4 major decision in the second round.

Cooper Flynn (125), Tyler Wells (133), Clayton Whiting (174) and Isaiah Salazar (197) lost their first-round matches and dropped into the consolation bracket. Flynn, Wells and Whiting won consolation matches to stay alive. Salazar lost his consolation match to Northern Iowa’s Wyatt Voelker, 4-1 in overtime.

The Gophers, with 18 points, were tied for fourth place with Iowa and Ohio State after the first two rounds. Penn State was in first with 38.5 points, followed by Nebraska with 26.5 and Oklahoma State with 24.

Penn State’s wrestlers went 20-0 in the first two rounds, including two victories by former Simley heavyweight Greg Kerkvliet.