CLEVELAND — The chase for history is still on for Isaiah Martinez.
The Illinois wrestler advanced to Friday night’s semifinals at the NCAA Championships after his 9-1 win at 165 pounds against Chance Marsteller of Lock Haven on Friday morning in the quarterfinals a at Quicken Loans Arena.
Martinez scored a takedown in the first period against Marsteller to take a 2-0 lead before Marsteller trimmed it to 2-1. But Martinez added another takedown halfway through the first period to increase his lead to 4-1 and cruised from there.
Martinez improved to 17-0 on the season and a day after he defeated Cornell’s Jonathan Chavez and Zachary Carson of Eastern Michigan during his first two matches on Thursday, the two-time national champion will wrestle again tonight in the semifinals against either Iowa’s Alex Marinelli or Chad Walsh of Rider.