Kansas City, MO — As the roars of a packed stadium of over 15,000 wrestling fans echoed throughout the T-Mobile Center, redshirt sophomore Chance Lamer started to feel blood begin flowing out of his nose and drip onto his arm.
The match was temporarily stopped so medical personnel could stop the bleeding with wads of gauze.
The match would be stopped a total of four separate times before Lamer’s nose would be wrapped with gauze around his head to stop the bleeding for good.
While the staff tended to Lamer’s nose, associate head coach Chris ”Chewy” Chionuma approached Lamer and said, “Just do you, whatever you’re doing is working, just do you.”
These words instilled confidence in Chance. The slim 3-2 lead and his flattened nose from the gauze didn’t deter him. He secured a takedown to take a commanding 6-2 lead going into the final period on his way to securing the 7-2 win.
“It was important to stay composed through it all and just keep looking to score points,” Lamer said. “I just went out there and wrestled my match and had fun with it.”
Lamer was the only one of five Cal Poly wrestlers who competed in the NCAA Championships to advance to the quarterfinals on Friday, March 21, the first day of the tournament.
Overcoming early adversity in session one
Redshirt freshman Zeth Romney held the No. 11 seed in the 133-pound weight class and started the day off for the Mustangs in session one.
Romney struggled to get going in his match and any of his offensive advances were shut down by his opponent.
A takedown with just under 30 seconds left in the match gave Romney’s opponent a late lead and secured the 4-1 win, which sent Romney to the consolation bracket.
Lamer was the only Mustang to advance to the quarterfinals and started the day off with a 7-2 decision win while battling a nosebleed to advance to the second round.
“I’m just taking it one match at a time, and living in the moment and enjoying this,” Lamer said. “I only get to do this four times in my life, so I’m really appreciating it.”
Immediately after his match, Chance’s older brother, redshirt junior Legend Lamer, had a tough go around in his first match of the day, falling via a 19-3 technical fall to the No. 4 seeded 157-pounder.
Graduate 174-pound Pac-12 champion Adam Kemp secured a takedown early on in his opening match, which was something he emphasized going into his matchup.
“I’ve watched [my opponent] wrestle before, so I knew I could get his legs pretty early on,” Kemp said.
Kemp took a 4-1 lead going into the final period and stuffed multiple last-effort takedown attempts from his opponent to close out the narrow 4-3 victory and advance to round two.
Redshirt sophomore heavyweight Trevor Tinker also had a tough matchup and fell to the No. 5 seeded heavyweight in an 11-4 decision to round out session one.
Surviving the storm in session two
After a roughly four-hour break between sessions, Romney drew the No. 27 seed Gable Strickland in the 133-pound consolation bracket and found himself caught up in another defensive battle.
Romney tied things up at 1-1 late in the third period to force an overtime period and sudden victory.
In a rather controversial call, just over a minute and a half into the first overtime period, the referee awarded Strickland a penalty point for Romney’s supposed accessive grabbing of his uniform, effectively ending his breakout season.
“This tournament is grueling and unforgiving,” head coach Jon Sioredas said.
Romney finishes an unexpected breakout season with a 19-9 overall record and a third-place finish in his weight class at the Pac-12 Championships and at the Ken Kraft Midlands Championships in late December.
Chance Lamer continued his run in his third matchup of the season against Stanford’s Jaden Abas. He fell to Abas during the regular season of the Pac-12 dual-meet season in a narrow 4-3 loss.
The redshirt sophomore evened things up in the Pac-12 tournament with a convincing 11-3 major decision win to advance to the finals of that tournament.
When given the chance to take the season series, Lamer jumped on the opportunity and improved to 2-0 on day one with his second 7-2 victory of the day.
“He’s wrestling the best he has been all year,” Sioredas said. “He shines the brightest when the stakes are the highest.”
Almost immediately after Chance wrapped up his match, Legend took the mat trying to avoid elimination against the No. 20 157-pound seed.
With all the pressure on, Legend secured a takedown in the second period of a defensive battle to just edge out a 4-2 win and stay alive in the tournament.
Kemp faced his toughest challenge yet in the second round as he drew three-time All-American and NCAA Champion Carter Starocci out of Penn State.
Kemp came out of the gates sprinting as he secured a takedown and a 3-0 lead just 15 seconds into the match.
Starocci answered quickly with a takedown of his own, taking the lead from Kemp and going up 4-3 going into the second period.
Starocci would hold onto that lead and knock Kemp into the consolation bracket that he’ll take on Friday morning.
“There’s no place to hide in this tournament,” Sioredas said. “I mean all 33 [wrestlers] in every bracket are tough as nails.”
Tinker would see his season end on a rough note as he was pinned just over a minute and a half into the second period of his match.
Despite some difficult losses on day one of the tourney, Sioredas says he is still proud of how far his wrestlers have come.
“I’m happy with our effort and I think we’re wrestling to our abilities right now,” Sioredas said.
Kemp and the Lamer brothers will continue their pursuit of an All-American award on the morning of Friday, March 22.
“It’s going to start getting interesting,” Sioredas said. “You see upsets at every weight class, all day today and that’s not going to change tomorrow.”