Iowa’s Spencer Lee won a third NCAA Wrestling title at 125 pounds Saturday night, defeating Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney 7-0 in the final.

No. 1 seed Lee (12-0), a senior, finished undefeated with No. 3 Courtney (15-1), a redshirt junior from Goodyear, suffering his first loss.

Lee also won national titles at 125 in 2018 and 2019. The 2020 NCAA meet was not held due to the coronavirus pandemic, but Lee won the Hodge Trophy awarded to the nation’s best wrestler.

Lee dominated his four matches leading to the final, winning 16-1, 15-5, 10-2 and 11-0.

Courtney made it through the first period scoreless against Lee, who went up 4-0 in the second with an escape, takedown near the edge and penalty point. He added another takedown in the third and a point for riding time.

Courtney was one of five ASU All-America finishers at the three-day meet in St. Louis. He is a two-time Pac-12 champion who missed out last year on a chance to wrestle at nationals.

“We had huge performances by our five All-Americans,” ASU coach Zeke Jones said. “Brandon Courtney was outstanding the last three days. He surely can compete on the biggest stage of the country and perhaps the world.”

ASU finished fourth with 74 points behind Iowa (129), Penn State (113.5) and Oklahoma State (99.5), earning a team trophy. It is the highest place for the Sun Devils since 1995 when they also were fourth and an improvement from 12th in 2019.

“It was an historic weekend for the program,” Jones said. “To bring home an NCAA trophy back to Tempe was part of the vision we had when we started. When Ray, President (Michael) Crow, Don Bocchi and Art Martori envisioned a program that could compete at the highest level again. When they decided to elevate the program, shortly after our wrestling community rallied around us. That gave us the opportunity to bring in the best athletes in America that wanted to be great and now we are there.”

Cohlton Schultz (heavyweight) and Jacori Teemer (157) placed fourth, Michael McGee (133) sixth and Anthony Valencia (165) eighth. Valencia suffered a leg injury in the quarterfinals then wrestled twice more Friday before forfeiting Saturday.

Northwestern’s Ryan Deakin edged Teemer 1-0 in the 157 third-place match. Iowa’s Tony Cassioppi won for the second time in the tournament over Schultz, 5-0, for third at heavyweight.

Penn State junior Roman Bravo-Young of Tucson won his first NCAA title at 133 pounds, edging Oklahoma State’s Daton Fix 4-2 in overtime in the final.

ASU’s Brandon Courtney advances to NCAA Wrestling 125-pound final

Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney won again Friday night at the NCAA Wrestling Championships, advancing to the 125-pound final.

No. 3-seeded Courtney, a redshirt junior from Goodyear, won a 2-1 tiebreaker over Utah Valley’s Taylor LaMont in the semifinals in St. Louis.

In Saturday’s final, Courtney will face No. 1 seed Spencer Lee of Iowa. Both are undefeated this season with Lee pummeling four opponents en route to the final.

ASU’s Michael McGee (133), Jacori Teemer (157) and Cohlton Schultz (heavyweight) remain in contention for third place after winning consolation fourth-round matches Friday.

McGee and Teemer won three consolation matches each Friday.

No. 2 seed Anthony Valencia came back from a leg injury suffered in the afternoon quarterfinals to beat West Virginia’s Peyton Hall 13-4 in his first wrestleback before losing 16-1 to Missouri’s Keegan O’Toole.

No. 3 seed Schultz pinned Stanford’s Nathan Traxler in 44 seconds after falling into the consolation bracket then won 14-8 over Penn State’s Greg Kerkvliet.

At 197 pounds, Kordell Norfleet suffered a second straight loss Friday, losing 9-1 in consolations to Missouri’s Rocky Elam.

ASU dropped from sixth to eighth place in team standings during the day session Friday only to climb back to fourth after the night session. 

Iowa leads with 109 points followed by Penn State (94.5), Oklahoma State (86.5), ASU (67) and Michigan (58.5). The top four teams earn NCAA trophies.

ASU’s Brandon Courtney reaches NCAA Wrestling semifinals

Arizona State’s Brandon Courtney advanced to the NCAA Wrestling Championships semifinals Friday while three other Sun Devils lost in the quarterfinals.

Courtney, seeded No. 3 at 125 pounds, won 4-2 over North Carolina State’s Jakob Camacho in St. Louis. He will face No. 7 Taylor LaMont of Utah Valley in the semifinals Friday night. LaMont won 7-4 over No. 2 seed Sam Latona of Virginia Tech in the quarters. 

ASU’s Anthony Valencia (165 pounds), Kordell Norfleet (197) and Cohlton Schultz (heavyweight) all suffered their first loss of the season.

No. 2 seed Valencia was leading 4-2 over Ohio State’s Ethan Smith when he suffered a leg injury in the second period. He continued in the match after an injury timeout but was ineffective, losing 13-4.

No. 3 seed Norfleet fell 4-1 to Pitt’s Nino Bonaccorsi and No. 4 Schultz lost 4-1 to Iowa’s Tony Cassioppi.

ASU dropped from sixth after day 1 to eighth in team standings, now with 31.5 points going into Friday night.

Four ASU wrestlers advance to NCAA Championships quarterfinals

Arizona State’s top four wrestlers won twice each Thursday at the NCAA Championships in St. Louis.

Brandon Courtney (125 pounds), Anthony Valencia (165), Kordell Norfleet (197) and Cohlton Schultz (heavyweight) advanced to the quarterfinals Friday. All remain undefeated for the season.

No. 2-seeded Valencia had a close call in the second round, going into overtime against Northern Illinois’ Izzak Olejnik (No. 18 seed) before a sudden victory takedown.

No. 3 seed Courtney also had a close second-round match, winning 9-7 over Wisconsin’s Eric Barnett (No. 19). 

No. 3 seed Norfleet pulled away from Purdue’s Thomas Penola (No. 19) for an 8-4 second-round win.

No. 4 Schultz was up 4-0 over Wyoming’s Brian Andrews after the first period of their second-round match before winning by disqualification.

ASU’s Michael McGee (133), Jacori Teemer (157) and Trey Munoz (174) lost in the second round while Cory Crooks (149) fell in the first round. All still are competing in consolation with Crooks winning his first wrestleback.

The Sun Devils are in sixth after day 1 with 19.5 points. Favored Iowa leads with 33.5 followed by Penn State (28), Missouri (23.5), North Carolina State (21) and Oklahoma State (20). Minnesota (16.5) and Michigan (16) are behind ASU.

ASU NCAA quarterfinal pairings

125 pounds: Brandon Courtney vs. Jakob Camacho (North Carolina State)

165: Anthony Valencia vs. Ethan Smith (Ohio State)

197: Kordell Norfleet vs. Nino Bonaccorsi (Pitt)

Heavyweight: Cohlton Schultz vs. Tony Cassioppi (Iowa)

More: Arizona State wrestling seeking top-four trophy finish at NCAA Championships

More: ASU wrestlers break Pac-12 competition and championship trophy

More: Sunkist Kids’ Zahid Valencia, Surino win gold, silver medals for U.S. wrestling

Reach the reporter at [email protected] or 602-444-8053. Follow him on Twitter @jeffmetcalfe.

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