PITTSBURGH — Sebastian Rivera (125) and Ryan Deakin (157) punched their tickets to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships with wins on Friday evening at PPG Paints Arena.
 
Rivera, the top-seeded grappler at 125 pounds, earned his Round of 16 victory over Michigan's Drew Mattin, the 16th-seeded wrestler. In a controlled bout, Rivera used a first-period high single to record the only takedown of the affair.
 
The New Jersey native logged an escape in the second period and rode out Mattin for the entirety of the third period to earn the riding time advantage point.
 

Top seeded Sebastian Rivera of @NUWrestle earns a controlled win and is now onto the quarterfinals! #NCAAWrestling pic.twitter.com/uxYKXPYWJP

— NCAA Wrestling (@ncaawrestling) March 21, 2019

 
Rivera will face off against Vitali Arujau of Cornell tomorrow morning in the quarterfinals.
 
Deakin, the third-seeded matman at 157 pounds, was dominating in his Round of 16 performance. He commanded his bout with Griffin Parriott of Purdue, shutting out the Boilermaker via 9-0 major decision.
 
The Colorado native will wrestle tomorrow morning against Iowa's Kaleb Young, the sixth seed in the national event. Deakin won their only matchup this season via 6-2 decision at the 2018 Ken Kraft Midlands Championships.
 
Wrestling in the Round of 16, redshirt senior Conan Jennings (285) was barely edged out by Iowa's Sam Stoll, the 14th-ranked wrestler in the nation, by a score of 1-0. Jennings will compete in wrestlebacks tomorrow morning.
 
In the consolation preliminary round (also known as the "pigtails"), redshirt first-year Tyler Morland earned his first-career NCAA Championships victory with a solid, 5-3 win over George Mason's Colston DiBlasi.
 
Junior Shayne Oster suffered an 11-5 setback to Navy's Jared Prince, which concluded Oster's stint at the Championships. Shortly thereafter, Morland was topped, 10-2, by Tanner Skidgel of Navy, which also ended his stay in Pittsburgh.
 
Tomorrow morning's session will feature the quarterfinals and two rounds of consolations.
 
CHAMP. SECOND ROUND
125: (1) Sebastian Rivera (NU) dec. (16) Drew Mattin (MICH), 4-0
157: (3) Ryan Deakin (NU) maj. dec. (19) Griffin Parriott (PUR),9-0
285: (28) Sam Stoll (IOWA) dec. (12) Conan Jennings (NU), 1-0
 
CONS. FIRST ROUND
149: (18) Jared Prince (NAVY) dec. (31) Shayne Oster (NU), 11-5
165: (19) Tanner Skidgel (NAVY) maj. dec. (32) Tyler Morland (NU), 10-2
 
CONS. PRELIM ROUND
165: (32) Tyler Morland (NU) dec. (30) Colston DiBlasi (GMU), 5-3
 

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