PITTSBURGH, Pa. – In front of 18,100 fans, redshirt junior Larry Early earned All-American honors at the NCAA Championships as he defeated Justin Thomas of Oklahoma by a 6-5 decision on Friday night. Tomorrow morning, Early will wrestle for seventh place.
Early is Old Dominion’s first All-American since 2017.
McGee opened his day by defeating Cole Verner of Wyoming 6-5 and then routing Iowa State's Alex Mackall by an 8-2 decision. In the evening session, McGee had to win in order to become an All-American. In the blood round, McGee dropped a 7-1 decision to Pat Glory of Princeton to drop out of the tournament. The sophomore finished his season with a 31-6 mark and earned his second straight MAC title at 125 pounds.
Sa'Derian Perry fell in his opening round of consolations to Matt Findlay of Utah Valley. The 2018 All-American went 24-10 in his redshirt junior season at 141 pounds.
Highlighting the evening, Early opened Friday with a 5-2 loss to No. 2 Tyler Berger of Nebraska in the quarterfinals. Berger is a 2019 NCAA Finalist at 157 pounds. Early went on to edge Thomas to earn the highly touted honor of All-American. After the blood round, Early went on to drop his next consolation bout to No. 3 Ryan Deakin of Northwestern. He will now wrestle Christian Pagdilao of Arizona State for seventh place tomorrow morning.
Day Three Matchup
Seventh Place: #7 Larry Early vs. #9 Christian Pagdilao (ASU)
Day Two Results
Michael McGee
125: #12 Michael McGee dec. over #22 Cole Verner (Wyo.), 6-5
125: #12 Michael McGee dec. over #19 Alex Mackall (ISU), 8-2
125: #7 Pat Glory (Princeton) dec. over #12 Michael McGee, 7-1
Sa’Derian Perry
141: #20 Matt Findlay (UVU) dec. over #19 Sa’Derian Perry, 6-3
Larry Early
157: #2 Tyler Berger (Neb.) dec. over #7 Larry Early, 5-2
157: #7 Larry Early dec. over #21 Justin Thomas (OU), 6-5
157: #3 Ryan Deakin (Northwestern) dec. over #7 Larry Early, 5-0