ST. LOUIS – The No. 4-ranked West Liberty University wrestling team tied an NCAA-era school record here Friday with five wrestlers clinching All-America honors after the first day of wrestling at the 2022 NCAA Division II National Championships inside Chaifetz Arena.
    Two former national champions – defending 125-pound champion Cole Laya and 2019 174-pound champ Connor Craig at 184 – swept their first two matches on Friday and will be seeking a return trip to the top of the podium on Saturday. Three other Hilltoppers – senior vets Tyler Warner (141) and Logan Kemp (197) along with sophomore Ty McGeary (174) – had to shake off early losses and fight their way to Saturday through the consolation brackets.
    Coach Danny Irwin's two-time defending Mountain East Conference and Super Region 3 champions finished Day One in fourth place in the team standings. Nebraska-Kearney racked up 67.5 points for a solid lead over second place Central Oklahoma (52). Defending champion St. Cloud State (42.5) held off West Liberty (35.5) for fourth place with Indianapolis (30) and Adams State (28) not far behind.
    "When you're competing in a national tournament, things are never going to work out perfectly for you but our guys fought and fought hard," Irwin said. "We would have liked to get more guys through but we had five guys make All-American and two of them made it to the (championship) semis.
    "Cole and Connor really took care of business today. Both of them are just two matches away from being national champions again. They're excited. Our other three guys are excited. Everybody is going to be dinged up after today but we control our destiny. We just have dig back down again and if we do, we can come home with another team trophy." 125 Pounds
    Laya got his 125-pound title defense off to a flying start with a 17-1 technical fall against Lindenwood's Isaac Jacques and a 6-1 quarterfinal round decision over Limestone's Kevin Radcliffe. Laya will face No. 5-seeded Nick Daggett of UNC Pembroke in the championship semifinals. Laya beat Daggett in last year's 125-pound national championship match.
141 Pounds
    Warner lost a heartbreaking 3-2 decision to No. 6-seed Nick James of Nebraska-Kearney when James scored a takedown in the waning seconds to pull out the win. The two-time national champion rebounded with a 5-0 shutout of Mercyhurst's Alexis Soriano, a 2019 All-American and regional champion before clinching his 5^th NCAA Division II All-America berth with a 7-1 romp past No. 5-seed Christian Small, another returning All-American.
    "Warner lost a really tough first-round match to an All-American and then had to go up against two more All-Americans on the back side," Irwin said. "He's going to be wrestling tomorrow as a 5-time All-American. That's only happened once, maybe twice before in Division II history. Really proud of him."
149 Pounds
    The brackets weren't kind to Jordan Watters in his first trip to the NCAA Nationals. The hard-nosed freshman dropped a hard-fought 6-3 decision to No. 2 seed Brik Filippo of Central Oklahoma in the first round and then ran into No. 7 seed Nick Novak in his first-round consolation match. The veteran Novak pulled away late for a 7-0 decision.
165 Pounds
    It was a similar story for Chase Morgan, making his second trip to Nationals at 165 pounds. The WLU veteran made a strong impression in his first-round match, battling unbeaten No. 2 seed Shane Gantz of Wisconsin-Parkside to the wire before falling by a 5-0 count. No. 7 seed James Penfold of Lake Erie, an upset victim in his first-round match, was Morgan's opponent in the consolation round and moved on with a first-period fall.
174 Pounds
    The No. 5 seed at 174, McGeary came out smoking with an 8-0 shutout of Colorado Mesa's Seth Latham in a first-round match. He couldn't get anything going against No. 4 seed Trevor Turriff of Minnesota State in the quarterfinals, however, and came out on the short end of a 7-2 tally. McGeary, a first-time NCAA qualifier, became a first-time All-American with an 8-5 decision over Glenville State's Hunter DeLong in a second-round consolation bout.
184 Pounds
    Craig's quest to add a second national championship trophy to his collection is off to an impressive start. The top-seeded and unbeaten senior blitzed Gannon's Cam Page in their first-round match, pinning Page at 5:35 of the third period. Craig followed that up with a 4-1 decision against Northern State's Treyton Cacek in the quarterfinals. That sets up a semifinal match with McKendree All-American Daniel Filipek, last year's third-place finisher at 184. Central Oklahoma's Heath Gray, who edged Craig in last year's national championship match, wrestles No. 3 seed Billy Higgins of Nebraska-Kearney in the other semifinal.
197 Pounds
    One of the best stories of this year's tournament is Logan Kemp's successful run to All-America honors in his fourth try. Thanks to the bracket, Kemp traveled a rocky road to redemption on Friday. He opened with a gritty 3-2 win over No. 6 seed Hayden Prince of Nebraska-Kearney but dropped into the consolation bracket after losing his quarterfinal match to No. 3 seed Derek Blubaugh of Indianapolis. Trailing by a slim margin midway through his second-round consolation match with Colorado Mesa's Donald Negus, Kemp caught the Colorado grappler on a shot, turned him to his back and heard the referee slap the mat for the fall – touching off a wild celebration on the WLU sidelines.
    "We all knew what that match meant to him," Irwin said, "and the match itself was totally insane. Kemp got slammed right at the end of the first period and had the wind knocked out of him. He could have ended the match right there with a (disqualification) win but he didn't want to win that way. He showed a lot of mental toughness to come back strong, get a fall and become an All-American. That was a pretty special moment for all of us.
285 Pounds
    Coming into the tournament as an unbeaten No. 9 seed in an incredibly deep heavyweight class, Francesco Borsellino had one of the most frustrating afternoons imaginable. Taking a lead and nearly four minutes of riding time into the third period against Augustana's Steven Hajas, Borsellino got caught in a reversal and Hajas finished off a fall before the WLU standout could recover. A similar scenario played out in the consolation round. Borsellino led Limestone's Juan Holmes in the second period only to be victimized by another flash pin.
    "We let a couple matches get away from us," Irwin said. "I know the pain he's feeling and so does our staff but at the same time, he's given a ton to our program and you have to believe he'll come back stronger than ever.
    "Days like today you look at guys like Kemp and Warner. Those are two guys who can ride off into the sunset after this weekend and fell pretty darned happy with what they accomplished. Without those two incredibly gutsy performances, we'd be going into tomorrow hoping for good individual success but not really being in position to have any sort of team success that would measure up to our standards."
    Action starts at noon on Saturday with championship semifinals and third-round consolations and runs through the consolation semifinals and the Third-, Fifth- and Seventh-place bouts. Saturday night's championship session begins with the traditional Parade of All-Americans at 7:40 p.m. with the first of the 10 championship finals hitting the mat at 8 p.m.