UNI wrestling places five into second day of NCAA Championships

CLEVELAND --- UNI wrestling team wrapped up the first day of 2026 NCAA Division I Men's Wrestling Championships on Thursday at Rocket Arena as all five wrestlers stayed alive in the competition.

Jared Simma (174 pounds) and Nick Fox (184 pounds) each picked up a pair of wins while Julian Farber (133 pounds), Caleb Rathjen (149 pounds) and Ryder Downey (165 pounds) each fell in their second round championship bouts, sending them to the backside of their respective brackets.

HOW IT HAPPENED
In the first round of consolation matches, Simma defeated Grant O`Dell (Bellarmine) in sudden victory, 4-1, to stay alive in the competition at 174 pounds. Nick Fox meanwhile finished with a 4-1 upset win over No.10 Isaac Dean (Iowa State) after snagging a second period takedown.

Farber fell to the backside after dropping his second round match against No. 4 Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech) at 133 pounds.

Caleb Rathjen battled three-seed in ninth-ranked Cross Wasilewski (Penn) in a tight head-to-head match up. After crawling back from a first period takedown, Rathjen and Wasilewski tied 5-5 at the conclusion of the third period sending them into sudden victory. Rathjen stayed heavy on offense, making two solid shots that went out of bounds. Rathjen would take one final shot but Wasilewski was able to defend, reattack and finish the takedown for the 8-5 win over the Panther senior.

At 165 pounds, Downey struggled to crawl back from a first period takedown ultimately falling 4-3 in the second round against No. 20 EJ Parco (Stanford).

UP NEXT
The third session of this year's national championships will begin on Friday morning at 11 a.m. CT with quarterfinal round and consolation matches. Fans can catch all the action on the networks of ESPN with links to all matches on UNI's NCAA Championship Hub.

UNI RESULTS (Through Session 2)

[Seed] (NCAA Coaches rank) #Intermat/FloWrestling ranking listed

133 | [20] (24) #20/19 Julian Farber (1-1)

W - [13] (10) #9/9 Jacob Van Dee (Nebraska), 5-4
L - [4] (5) #4/5 Aaron Seidel (Virginia Tech), 22-4 TF

149 | [14] (24) #21/16 Caleb Rathjen (1-1)

W - [19] (19) #16/16 Brock Herman (Little Rock), 3-1
L - [3] (6) #9/10 Cross Wasilewski (Penn), 8-5 SV-1

165 | [11] (6) #6/6 Ryder Downey (1-1)

W - [22] #21/19 Matthew Olguin (Oregon State), 10-4
L - [27] #24/20 EJ Parco (Stanford), 4-3

174 | [17] (13) #13/14 Jared Simma (1-1)

L - [16] (22) #23/30 Nick Fine (Columbia), 3-2
W - [33] Grant O`Dell (Bellarmine), 4-1

184 | [29] (19) #21/19 Nick Fox (1-1)

L - [4] (4) #9/9 James Conway (Franklin & Marshall), 4-1
W - [13] (11) #10/10 Isaac Dean (Iowa State), 4-1

UNI wrestling action can be followed all season long on social media on Facebook (University of Northern Iowa Wrestling), X (@UNI_wrestling) and on Instagram (@uni_panther_wrestling). Check out the latest Panther news and information online at UNIpanthers.com.

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