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DETROIT -- Oak Glen High School graduate and West Virginia University sophomore Peyton Hall opened the NCAA wrestling championships with a pair of wins Thursday.
Hall (27-3), the ninth seed, will meet top-seeded Cal Poly redshirt senior Evan Wick (19-0) in the 165-pound quarterfinals today at Little Caesars Arena.
Hall, a four-time West Virginia high school state champion, opened with a 10-5 decision over No. 24th-seeded Cleveland State sophomore Riley Smucker.
Hall has outscored Smucker by a combined 20 points in their three meetings.
Smucker (21-5) was a standout at Smithville High School and was the Ohio Division III state-runner-up at 170 pounds as a senior.
In Wednesday's evening session, Hall handed eighth-seeded and Harvard sophomore Philip Conigliaro a 7-3 loss.
Conigliaro (20-5) was a four-time New England prep champion and finished in second place at the U23 Freestyle Nationals.
As a freshman, Hall posted a 3-2 record at the NCAA Championships to advance into the round of 12.
In today's quarterfinals, he will take on Wick.
Wick placed third at nationals as a freshman at 165 pounds in 2018 and fourth as a sophomore in 2019. Hlso qualified for the nationals in 2020 as a junior despite wrestling injured.
He was the 2016 Wisconsin high school state champion at 152 pounds and brings a 104-17 collegiate record into today's match against Hall.
The quarterfinals will be shown on ESPNU at 11 a.m. today, followed by the semifinals on ESPN at 8 p.m.
Penn State leads
DETROIT (AP) -- Penn State led the team race after two rounds of the NCAA wrestling championships Thursday, with six of its nine wrestlers moving to the quarterfinals.
The Nittany Lions will head into Friday with 27.5 points, six ahead of Arizona State, which had five of its seven wrestlers advance.
Michigan was a half-point behind the Sun Devils and has seven of its nine wrestlers in the quarters. Defending national champion Iowa was fourth with 20 points and six of its 10 wrestlers in quarters.
All four of Penn State's top seeds advanced: Roman Bravo-Young at 133, Nick Lee at 141, Carter Starocci at 174 and Max Dean at 197.
Penn State has won eight of the last 10 national titles.
There were two major upsets in the second round.
Iowa State's David Carr, who had a 55-match win streak and was going for his second straight title at 157, lost in a tiebreaker against Oregon State's 17th-seeded Hunter Willits.
North Carolina's 15th-seeded 141-pounder Kizhan Clarke scored a takedown to win in sudden victory over No. 2 Jaydin Eierman of Iowa, who was national runner-up to Penn State's Lee last year.
Cornell's Yianni Diakomihalis remained on track in his bid for a third NCAA individual title, winning both of his matches by decision.
No. 1 Nick Suriano of Michigan easily won his first two matches at 125 and will face a surprise opponent in No. 24 Sam Latona of Virginia Tech on Friday. Latona upset No. 9 Devin Schroder of Purdue in the first round and then beat No. 25 seed Caleb Smith of Appalachian State.
Stanford's Shane Griffith, the No. 5 seed at 165 after winning the title at that weight last year, easily won his matches to advance to quarters.
Bravo-Young, the defending champion at 133, and Oklahoma State's Daton Fix won their matches and stayed on track for a second straight meeting in the finals.
Minnesota heavyweight Gable Steveson, the 2020 Olympic gold medalist and defending NCAA champion, won both his matches by technical fall.