The 2012 NCAA Wrestling Championships got off to a solid start for the Minnesota Golden Gophers on the opening day in St. Louis, but the challenges will continue on Friday. The quarterfinals are scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. CST and, in a fun turn of events, the matches will be broadcast on actual television as ESPNU has decided to pick up the event.
The Golden Gophers are in second place in the team standings after the first day of action (recap of the results here) with 33 points, trailing the Penn St. Nittany Lions' 38 points. Minnesota has a pretty solid lead on the third place team, however, as Cornell scored 27.5 points in the first day of action.
Minnesota will have an excellent chance to pick up quite a few more points on Friday, too, considering they advanced eight of their nine wrestlers through to the quarterfinals -- the most of any school at the tournament.
The Gophers sent nine wrestlers to the national tournament and, after two rounds, eight of them remain. Zach Sanders, Chris Dardanes, Nick Dardanes, Dylan Ness, Logan Storley, Kevin Steinhaus, Sonny Yohn and and Tony Nelson all were able to pick up victories in their first two matches.
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