The six remaining Rutgers Scarlet Knights kicked off their national tournament at the PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania. Three grapplers won their opening round match-ups, and will wrestle in the pre-quarters tonight at 7:00 PM. The other three, who dropped their preliminary matches, will also wrestle tonight, but in the wrestlebacks.

Peter Lipari kicked things off against Christopher Sandoval of Northern Colorado in a pig-tail match. Lipari gave up the first takedown, but stormed back with an aggressive attack, evening the score at 5 – 5 in the third period.

With ten seconds remaining, Lipari landed a takedown that gave him the 7 – 5 victory, and moved him into the winners bracket, to take on No. 1 Yianni Diakomihalis of Cornell. Despite a valiant effort, Lipari dropped at 10 – 5 decision to the returning national champion.

Nick Suriano came out with guns blazing in his first match, defeating Dylan Duncan with a 12-3 major decision, setting up a pre-quarter match with Virginia Tech’s Korbin Myers in what is a loaded 133-pound bracket. With a win over Myers tonight, Suriano will be one win away from being a two-time All-American.

In a dual meet rematch, Anthony Ashnault squared off with Malik Amine of Michigan to kick off his final national tournament. Ashnault wasted no time getting Amine’s legs, and went to work on top in patented Ashnault fashion.

Thanks to a tough ride, a couple of tilts, and ruthless leg attacks, Ashnault wracked up ten points en route to his 10 – 2 major decision over Amine. The win gives Ashnault a pre-quarter matchup with Davion Jeffries of Oklahoma.

John Van Brill may have been the most impressive Scarlet Knight of the afternoon session, in a rematch of a CKLV Open match against BC LaPrade. For those that may not remember, Van Brill used a five point throw to overcome a deficit against LaPrade.

Van Brill gave up the first score of the match, when LaPrade scored a first period takedown. In the second period, however, it was all Van Brill the rest of the way.

Van Brill scored two sets of back points to build a commanding 7 – 2 lead to finish off the second period. He then chose defense to start the third, and quickly escaped. Following, John Van Brill iced the opening round match with a takedown, to win via major decision by a score of 10 – 2. Van Brill will see No. 1 seeded Jason Nolf this evening.

Joe Grello and Nick Gravina fell in hard fought battles in their opening round matchups. Grello dropped a decision to Myles Amine of Michigan. Gravina lost a one-point decision to Cash Wilcke, in what was a somewhat controversial match.

Late in the third period, Gravina and Wilcke scrambled out of bounds from the neutral position. As the two were in their exchange, Gravina hooked Wilcke’s leg while on the edge of the circle. No takedown was awarded, but a challenge brick was thrown from Rutgers’ head coach Scott Goodale.

After a brief review, the officials ruled it was not a takedown. Gravina made several shot attempts in the remaining 24 seconds, but came up short.

Grello and Gravina, along with Lipari, will wrestle tonight as well in the wrestlebacks. They must win four in a row to find the podium. Action will resume at 7:00 PM tonight, on ESPN.

Also, TKR subscribers can get live, in-match updates on our NCAA live thread here!