INDIANAPOLIS – Keegan Gehlhausen won both of his matches on day one of the Division II Men's Wrestling Championships, advancing to the semifinals of the 184-pound bracket and clinching the first All-American honors of the redshirt junior's career. 

The other two Chadron State national qualifiers, 149-pounder Torry Early and 285-pounder Cody Pinkerton, each lost both their matches on day one. The result ends the season for both wrestlers and brings the career of Early, a graduate student, to a close.  

Gehlhausen, the No. 3 seed at 184 pounds, rolled to a pair of major decision victories, winning 17-5 and 15-1, to become the 50^th All-American in Chadron State men's wrestling history and the program's first since 2023. 

In the first round, Gehlhausen faced off against St. Cloud State's Bryce Fitzpatrick, who placed eighth at nationals last season. Gehlhausen earned two takedowns while Fitzpatrick countered with two escapes to give the Chadron wrestler a 6-2 lead after the first period. After two periods, the lead grew to 13-4 before Gehlhausen added one more takedown in the third plus the riding time point to win 17-5. 

In the quarterfinal, Gehlhausen faced Fairmont State's Austin Gibson, who had upended No. 6 seed Garrett Wells in the previous round. Gehlhausen wasted no time, taking down Gibson 30 seconds into the match and leading 6-1 after a period. Gehlhausen chose bottom in the second period and immediately escaped before scoring another takedown in each of the final two periods to eventually win 15-1. 

Gehlhausen has already won more matches than he did two years ago at nationals, when he qualified as a redshirt freshman and went 1-2. Both Early and Pinkerton were competing in their first NCAA national tournaments.

Despite ultimately going 0-2, Torry Early participated in a pair of instant classic matches. Early faced No. 3-seeded Kenny Kiser in the first round and trailed 2-0 before scoring a two-point reversal with just seconds to go. Early almost had a near-fall as time expired in regulation, and Chadron State challenged the call, but no near-fall was confirmed and the match went to overtime, where Kiser was able to pin Early at 7:01.

Early then faced Belmont Abbey's John Carayiannis in the first consolation round, and that match was the exact opposite of Early and Kiser's defensive struggle. Early led 5-0 and 8-2, but Carayiannis battled back to make it 8-7 with 1:29 to go. After stalling calls on both wrestlers made it 9-8, the match resumed its frenetic nature when Carayiannis got a takedown to pull ahead 11-9. Early escaped to pull within a point, and the two wrestlers ended the match in a scramble on the ground, but no further points were awarded and Carayiannis emerged with a win. 

Pinkerton lost both of his matches by fall. The first came against No. 4 seed Dorian Crosby of Gannon, which happened at 5:55 into the match. Pinkerton had a consolation match against UIndy's Cale Gray, a fourth-place finisher from 2022-23, and was pinned by the Greyhounds wrestler in 3:49.

Gehlahausen will advance to the placement rounds tomorrow. The Pinedale, Wyoming native is two consecutive wins away from a national title and can finish no worse than sixth place. 

His semifinal opponent will be undefeated Matt Weinberg of Kutztown, seeded No. 2 with a perfect 30-0 record. Weinberg is a three-time All-American, including the honor he has already clinched this season, and had a national runner-up finish last year.

The other semifinal at 184 features top seed Ty McGeary of West Liberty, who is 31-1 and undefeated at the Division II level while in search of his third consecutive national championship, and No. 4 seed Cade Mueller of Augustana. McGeary defeated Gehlhausen in the quarterfinals at nationals two years ago and topped Weinberg in the final last year.

Tomorrow's action will begin at 10 a.m. local (8 a.m. MT). If Gehlhausen wins his first match against Weinberg, he will advance immediately to the national championship finals on Saturday night, beginning at 7 p.m. local (5 p.m. MT). If Gehlhausen loses, he will wrestle again in the morning session in the consolation bracket for the right to go to either the third or fifth-place match.