Champions try to add to their legacy at NCAA championships

North Carolina State’s Vincent Robinson, right, battles Lehigh’s Sheldon Seymour in Friday night’s NCAA semifinal at 125 pounds. Robinson beat Seymour to advance to the NCAA Division I finals. (Photo courtesy Sam Janicki /SJanickiPhoto.com)

Earlier this year, North Carolina State freshman Vince Robinson took over the starting spot at 125 pounds, displacing four-time NCAA qualifier Jakob Camacho of Danbury.

A few months later, Robinson is still on the mat.

No. 4 seed Robinson earned a 4-2 decision over No. 8 Sheldon Seymour of Lehigh in Friday night’s semifinals at the NCAA Division I championships at the Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia to advance to the final.

Robinson (23-3) will face No. 7 Troy Spratley of Oklahoma State in Saturday night’s championship finals. Spratley advanced to the final with a takedown in the second OT in a 6-4 decision over Eddie Ventresca of Virginia Tech.

Penn State will be looking for their fourth straight national championship and their 12^th since 2011. Nebraska, who cut the Nittany Lion lead to four points at one point during the semifinal round, is solid in second place with three finalists.

Camacho’s season ended on Nov. 23 when he was injured in a loss against Utah Valley at 133 pounds. Camacho has a career record of 64-23 with the Wolfpack with three Atlantic Coast Conference titles and the OW award at the 2020 ACC championship.

Robinson has looked sharp in as he seeks to become the first North Carolina State wrestler since 2018 to win a national championship. Robinson got a takedown in the final seconds to beat Princeton’s Marc Anthony McGowan in the second round, 6-4.

“I want to thank God first, and I want to thank my family and all my supporters and my coaches and my teammates that believed in me,” Robinson said. “I put in so much work, and they all seen it.

“And I told ’em at the beginning of the year, like, once I get this shot, bro, I’m just going to take it. That’s what I did the whole year. Now we’re here, living my dream,” he said.

“It’s like a dream. I swear, I swear,” he said. “It’s insane, bro. I can’t even talk right now. I just go to sleep, I wake up, and I dream about this every day. Now it’s just here.”

The finals, which begin at 7 p.m. on ESPN, will include plenty of big-name wrestlers. The medal round will begin at 11 a.m. on ESPNU.

Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez controls Penn State’s Beau Bartlett in Friday’s semifinal at 141 pounds at the NCAA Division I championships in Philadelphia. (Photo courtesy Sam Janicki / SJanickiPhoto.com)

Olympic champion Gable Steveson of Minnesota will be aiming for another NCAA championship at 285 pounds against Oklahoma State’s Wyatt Hendrickson, who won a pair of NCAA titles at Northern Iowa before transferring to wrestle for the Cowboys.

At 184 pounds, Penn State’s Carter Starocci will be looking to become the first wrestler to win five NCAA Division I championships. Starocci, who won four consecutive NCAA titles at 174 pounds, beat No. 4 Dustin Plott of Oklahoma State in the semifinals, 9-3. Starocci has give up just four points in four victories.

Starocci will face defending NCAA champion Parker Keckeisen of Northern Iowa (25-0) in the championship match. Keckeisen (27-0) needed a scramble in overtime to advance past Minnesota’s Max McEnelly, 4-1.

The work didn’t end last night after Starocci’s semifinal victory as he prepares for Saturday’s title match.

“Obviously, I will have to get my weight down tonight. That’s the wrestling process right there,” he said “But for me it’s no different, what goes through my mind. For me, when that whistle blows, you’ve got to turn the kill switch on. And whoever is out there in front of you, that’s who you’ve got to take out.

“That’s my mind-set. And for me, that’s easy to do. Doing the media stuff, getting the weight cut, going to practice, sitting around all day, for me, I get to watch my teammates because a lot of my teammates are going before me. So that is exciting,” Starocci said.

“But I also have to stay cool and collected. So that whole process, it feels like you’re chained up. And that’s almost the hard part. And when you are out there wrestling, that’s the easy part. I can do that all day long.”

At 141 pounds, there was a NCAA finals rematch in the semifinals where Ohio State’s Jesse Mendez and Penn State’s Beau Bartlett battled for a spot in the championship match. A year ago, Mendez beat Bartlett to win the NCAA championship.

On Friday night, Mendez rode out Bartlett for 30 seconds to prevail in two overtimes, 2-1. Bartlett had rode out Mendez for 23 seconds in the first 30 second of the second OT session.

“Give a shout out to Beau,” Mendez said. “It’s been one of my favorite rivalries I’ve had in college.

“He’s helped me jump a lot of levels, just knowing I’m going to have to go to war with him every time, the Big Ten (and) nationals,” Mendezi said. “Having a competitor like that, it helps me. It’s a tough one. It’s a war out there.”

Mendez will face Nebraska’s Brock Hardy in the final. The 141 pound weight class will be the first of three straight bouts with Huskers in the finals.

At 149, Ridge Lovett beat Penn State’s Shayne Van Ness, 14-8 to earn a spot in the final. Lovett will face defending national champion Caleb Henson of Virginia Tech.

At 157, Nebraska’s Antrell Taylor beat top seed Meyer Shapiro of Cornell, 7-2. Taylor (25-4) will face No. 8 Joey Blaze of Purdue (24-5) in the final. Blaze beat No. 1 seed Tyler Kasak of Penn State, 5-4, in the quarterfinals thanks to a takedown with 48 seconds remaining.

Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole (174) will be looking for his third NCAA championship after outlasting No. 16 Cade DeVos of South Dakota State, 7-6 on riding time. O’Toole will face No. 3 Dean Hamiti of Oklahoma State, who beat Penn State’s Levin Haines, 4-2 thanks to an early first-period takedown.

NCAA results
After day 2: Penn State 135½, Nebraska 101½, Oklahoma State 91, Iowa 73½, Minnesots 47
2025 NCAA Division I championships brackets and results (TrackWrestling)

Semifinal results
125 pounds
No. 4 Vince Robinson (NC State) dec. No. 8 Sheldon Seymour (Lehigh)  4-2
No. 7 Troy Spratley (Oklahoma State) dec. No. 3 Eddie Ventresca (Virginia Tech)  6-4, 2 OT
133 pounds
No. 1 Lucas Byrd (Illinois) dec. No. 4 Zeth Romney (Cal Poly)  2-0
No. 2 Drake Ayala (Iowa) dec. No. 14 Zan Fugitt (Wisconsin)  6-1
141 pounds
No. 1 Brock Hardy (Nebraska) dec. No. 5 Cael Happel (Northern Iowa)  11-4
No. 3 Jesse Mendez (Ohio State) No. 2 Beau Bartlett (Penn State)  2-1, 2 OT
149 pounds
No. 1 Caleb Henson (Virginia Tech) dec. No. 13 Dylan D’Emilio (Ohio State)  6-2
No. 2 Ridge Lovett (Nebraska) dec. No. 3 Shayne Van Ness (Penn State)  14-8
157 pounds
No. 8 Joey Blaze (Purdue) dec. No. 20 Trevor Chumbley (Northwestern)  4-2
No. 3 Antrell Taylor (Nebraska) dec. No. 2 Meyer Shapiro (Cornell)  7-2
165 pounds
No. 1 Mitchell Mesenbrink (Penn State) dec. No. 12 Christopher Minto (Nebraska)  13-2
No. 3 Michael Caliendo (Iowa) dec. No. 2 Peyton Hall (West Virginia)  14-10
174 pounds
No. 1 Keegan O’Toole (Missouri) dec. No. 13 Cade DeVos (South Dakota State)  7-6
No. 3 Dean Hamiti (Oklahoma State) dec. No. 2 Levi Haines (Penn State)  4-2
184 pounds
No. 1 Carter Starocci (Penn State) dec. No. 4 Dustin Plott (Oklahoma State)  9-3
No. 2 Parker Keckeisen (Northern Iowa) dec. No. 3 Max McEnelly (Minnesota)  4-1, OT
197 pounds
No. 4 Josh Barr (Penn State) dec. No. 1 Jacob Cardenas (Michigan)  5-3
No. 2 Stephen Buchanan (Iowa) dec. No. 3 AJ Ferrari (CSU Bakersfield)  3-0
285 pounds
No. 1 Gable Steveson (Minnesota) dec. No. 4 Owen Trephan (Lehigh)  13-5
No. 2 Wyatt Hendrickson (Oklahoma State) dec. No. 3 Greg Kerkvliet (Penn State) 8-2