Senior Colin McCracken was able to secure a victory in his first matchup at the NCAA Championships.

McCracken took down Northwestern Jack Jessen in the 184-pound prelims.

McCracken was able to battle back-and-forth and rally to a 7-5 victory, sending him to a match with the top-seeded wrestler, Myles Amine from Michigan.

After two periods, Jessen was leading 4-3 with a pair of takedowns. McCracken was able to keep it at a one-point deficit with three escapes.

McCracken would rally from a 5-3 deficit in the final 30 seconds in regulation and tied it with a takedown with 17 seconds remaining. He secured the victory with a two-point near fall with seconds remaining to claim the 7-5 win.

McCracken would go on to fall in his next match to Amine and lost his consultation match, ultimately ending his day.

Senior Kody Komara wasn’t able to have the same success as McCracken as he lost his first match of the day to fifth-ranked Kyle Parco of Arizona State.

Komara continued to battle and show resilience by getting three escapes against the former All-American wrestler. 

Parco proved why he was seeded so high by overwhelming Komara and ultimately coming away with a victory.

Komara followed it up with a hard-fought 4-0 defeat to the 12-seed Mike VanBrill of Rutgers. Komara wasn’t able to get a score on the board and wasn’t able to secure an escape the whole third period.

It proved to be very successful season for the two seniors, and lots of building points for the Flashes to use going into the 2022 wrestling season.

Looking forward to the upcoming season, Kent State will get back to the maximum 9.9 scholarships.

“Once we get back to 9.9 scholarships next year we will be able to compete with some of the best teams in the Mid-American Conference,” coach Jim Andrassy said. “It definitely makes a huge difference when you can recruit three to five more athletes.”

Kent State had their wrestling scholarships redacted due to the pandemic and was only given 5.5 this past recruiting season.

“We had some good matches this year, and I look forward to next season with returning starters and new recruits,” Andrassy said. “McCracken and Komara both had successful senior seasons and represented Kent State wrestling well.”

The Flashes look to regroup and compete for the MAC next year with returning starters and new recruits that can give them a boost.

Noah Keeney is a reporter. Contact him at [email protected].