Iowa State Prepped for NCAA Championships

ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Iowa State (1-12, 1-6 Big 12) will begin competition at the 2017 NCAA Championships on Thursday morning. Redshirt seniors Earl Hall and Lelund Weatherspoon, as well as redshirt sophomore Marcus Harrington will represent the Cardinal and Gold at the national championships.

At 133 pounds, Hall is tabbed as the No. 13 seed. Weatherspoon is seeded No. 14 at 174 pounds. Harrington, who is making his first appearance at the NCAA Championships, is unseeded at 197 pounds.

The first session from the Scottrade Center is set to begin at 11 a.m tomorrow morning. Session two will start at 6 p.m. tomorrow night.

Where: Scottrade Center - St. Louis, Mo.
When: Thursday, March 16 - Saturday, March 18
Broadcast: ESPNU and ESPN3 will bring you coverage from every match on every mat. All primetime sessions, the semifinals and the finals will be broadcast on ESPN.
Live Stats: Live results from the NCAA Championships will be available at Trackwrestling.com and NCAA.com.
Social Media: Be sure to follow @CycloneWR on Twitter for live updates from the NCAA Championships.

First Round Matchups
133: No. 13 Earl Hall v. Pat D'Arcy (PRIN)
174: No. 14 Lelund Weatherspoon v. Peter Galli (STAN)
197: Marcus Harrington v. No. 6 Preston Weigel (OSU)

Tournament Schedule
Session one: Thursday, March 16 at 11 a.m. CT (ESPNU/ESPN3)
Session two: Thursday, March 16 at 6 p.m. CT (ESPN/ESPN3)
Session three: Friday, March 17 at 10 a.m. CT (ESPNU/ESPN3)
Session four: Friday, March 17 at 7 p.m. CT (ESPN/ESPN3)
Session five: Saturday, March 18 at 10 a.m. CT (ESPNU/ESPN3)
Session six: Saturday, March 18 at 7 p.m. CT (ESPN)

Cyclone Notebook
- Iowa State is sending three wrestlers to the NCAA Championships in St. Louis, Mo. Earl Hall, Lelund Weatherspoon and Marcus Harrington will all take to the floor at the Scottrade Center in search of a national championship.
- Hall comes in seeded No. 13 at 133 pounds. He'll face Princeton's Pat D'Arcy in the first round. Weatherspoon is pegged No. 14. His first round opponent is Peter Galli of Stanford. Harrington will be unseeded and is set to square up with Oklahoma State's No. 6 Preseon Weigel in round one.
- Hall and Weatherspoon are each making their fourth appearance at the national championships while Harrington is making his first trip to the NCAAs.
- The NCAA announced the field and at-large qualifiers for the tournament on March 7. Hall and Weatherspoon each earned an at-large spot at their respective weights.
- With Harrington going to St. Louis, the Cyclones have sent their 197-pounder to the NCAA Championships 10 out of the last 11 years, including five-straight. 6. After finishing fifth at the Big 12 Championship, Harrington earned one of the five automatic qualifying bids that the Big 12 held at 197 pounds. The Waterloo, Iowa, native came into the tournament seeded eighth.
- The Cyclones' senior leaders will be looking to build on last year's championships. Hall and Weatherspoon each earned All-America honors. Hall took 7th at 133 pounds while Weatherspoon finished sixth at 174 pounds.
- Weatherspoon was the only unseeded wrestler to reach the semifinals at the 2016 NCAA Championships. His run to the 174-pound final four was sprung by an upset victory over Cornell's Brian Realbuto in the opening round.
- An All-America finish for Earl Hall would make him Iowa State's 57th wrestler to earn All-America status three or more times.
- This season, Hall has compiled a 22-10 record and an 8-3 mark in duals. He finished runner-up at the Cyclone Open, fourth at the Midlands Championships and fifth at the Big 12 Championship.
- Weatherspoon has a record of 22-11 and has wrestled one of the toughest schedules in the country. In 12 of his matches he's faced an opponent ranked in the top-20. He won the Cyclone Open, finished runner-up at the Midland's Championships, and took fourth place at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and Big 12 Championship.
- Marcus Harrington caught lighting in a bottle in Tulsa. The eighth-seeded wrestler knocked off two wrestlers seeded higher than him to steal a spot at 197 pounds. He holds a 9-11 record and was 3-4 in dual competition.
- Both Hall and Weatherspoon finished in the top-20 in their weight classes for the regular season. Hall finished the year at 13, 14, 15 in the Intermat, Flo and OpenMat polls, while Weatherspoon finished at 16, 15, 15, respectively.

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Players Mentioned

Earl Hall

Marcus Harrington

Lelund Weatherspoon

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