We are now entering the second round of the U.S. Wrestling Foundation's greatest Division I wrestler of the modern era virtual tournament.

The first round of the 64 man bracket of the greatest Division I college wrestlers of the last 50 years has been completed. See the results at the bottom of the page. Each week for six weeks we will have a round of voting.

The collective will of the wrestling community can help move our sport forward. Thanks in advance for your interest and support.

Here are the results from the first round:

Cael Sanderson dec. Jimmy Jackson (96-4)
Ben Askren dec. Carlton Haselrig (62-38)
Jake Varner dec. Chris Campbell (70-30)
Joe Williams dec. Mark Perry (77-23)
Mark Churella dec. Rod Kilgore (89-11)
Kerry McCoy dec. Kole Konrad (54-46)
Wade Schalles dec. Ricky Stewart (67-33)
Pat Smith dec. Johnny Hendricks (92-8)
Tom Brands dec. TJ Jaworsky (84-16)
Pat Santoro dec. Mike Frick (70-30)
Jordan Burroughs dec. Markus Mollica (91-9)
Stephen Abas dec. Ricky Bonomo (73-27)
Greg Johnson dec. Gene Mills (50.3-49.8)
Darryl Burely dec. Dwayne Keller (70-30)
Terry Brands dec. Travis Lee (84-16)
Dan Gable dec. Teyon Ware (96-4)
Lee Kemp dec. Tim Krieger (93-7)
Nate Carr dec. Mark Branch (76-24)
Mark Ironside dec. Randy Lewis (57-43)
Cary Kolat dec. Eric Guerrero (52-48)
Mike Caruso dec. Jarrett Hubbard (82-18)
John Smith dec. Rick Sanders (88-12)
Greg Jones dec. Donny Pritzlaff (77-23)
Mark Schultz dec. Steve Mocco (81-19)
Ed Banach dec. Jake Rosholt (79-21)
Jake Herbert dec. Mike Sheets (79-21)
Stephen Neal dec. Tommy Rowlands (79-21)
Lincoln McIravy dec. Andre Metzger (84-16)
Jim Zalesky dec. Ryan Bertin (92-8)
Barry Davis dec. Pat Milkovich (76-24)
Brent Metcalf dec. Eric Juergens (68-32)
Yojiro Uetake dec. Johnny Thompson (86-14)

A few comments about the selection and seeding process:

• A selection committee considered every wrestler who had won at least two D1 Championships beginning with 1963. It was decided that the great wrestlers before that year would be difficult for many fans to assess. No currently active wrestlers were included.

• All 4x and 3x champs were automatically included. That left 92 2x champs for 41 spots. We had to eliminate 51 2x champs, a who’s who of great wrestlers. The committee had such a difficult time that we had twenty wrestlers on the bubble so we decided to have a pigtail round. Because of time constraints, the committee conducted the pigtail round so we could begin the first round in a timely manner. The pigtail matches and winners are on the next page.

• An important point in the selection process is that only college credentials were considered. Many of our greatest wrestlers’ credentials and reputations are at least partially based on their World and Olympic results, which is as it should be. But for this contest we used only college results. That will leave out some all-time great wrestlers. But of course you are free to vote for whomever you want, for any reason you want!

• We plan to have a second tournament this spring or summer using international (World and Olympic) credentials. Many of the athletes that are not in this tournament will be in that one. And you can easily guess who many of them will be.

• With regard to seeding, we seeded only 4x or 3x champs. With the exception of Dan Gable. For those who are wondering why an exception was made in that case, we would recount the story of the reporter who asked jazz great Louis Armstrong “What is jazz?” His response: “Lady, if you gotta ask, you’ll never know.”

• We know many passionate fans will disagree with who did and didn’t make the tournament and who was seeded. We embrace that passion and hope you will remember this is supposed to be fun and generate interest in the mission of the US Wrestling Foundation. Please consider joining the Silent Army of wrestlers and becoming a member of the Foundation, with the link on our home page. Your $35 membership will be used to provide seed funding for new D2, D3 and NAIA programs.

To vote on Round Two, visit:
http://uswrestlingfoundation.com