Bockman Finishes 1-1 to Advance to NCAA Day 2

KANSAS CITY – Utah Valley's 197-pounder Evan Bockman finished 1-1 on the opening day of the 2024 NCAA Championships. He won his first-round matchup before taking his first loss of the tournament in the evening session.

Bockman advanced to the second round with a tiebreaker 2-2 victory over Campbell's No. 13 Levi Hopkins. After the two fought through a scoreless first period, UVU's Bockman broke through with an escape to take a 1-0 lead.

In the battle of Alaskans, Hopkins tied the bout with an escape with 1:31 left in the third period, as neither would score the rest of the way. After a scoreless overtime period, it was Bockman who secured an escape in the second overtime to go up 2-1.

A last-minute escape in the third overtime tied the match at 2-2 before the match was decided by riding time, which favored Bockman to give him a 3-2 decision.

In the second round, he faced Lehigh's No. 4 Michael Beard.He earned All-American honors in 2021 at Penn State after placing seventh at Nationals and entered tonight's match 26-1.

Beard struck early, going up 3-0 on a takedown about 30 seconds into the match. Bockman got on the board towards the end of the opening period when he was awarded a point for stalling.

In the second period, Beard kept the pressure on by adding a pair of takedowns while outscoring Bockman 7-1 to go up 10-2, and he pulled away in the third period to secure a 12-2 major decision.

Bockman will face UNI's No. 19 Wyatt Voelker (UNI) in an elimination match. It will mark the third meeting between the two Big 12 foes. Bockman got the best of Voelker in a dual this past January, but Voelker came out on top in Tulsa at the Big 12 Championship.

The winner will advance to meet either Maryland's No. 11 Jaxon Smith or Cornell's No. 5 Jacob Cardenas later in Friday's morning session.

Session III coverage will begin at 10:00 a.m. MT tomorrow on ESPNU with Matcast and individual mats on ESPN+. The evening session begins at 6:00 p.m. MT and will air on ESPN with expanded coverage on ESPN+.