CLEVELAND -- Nick Suriano began his pursuit of a national title in dominating fashion.
The Rutgers 125-pounder posted a 17-0 technical fall over Rider's J.R. Wert 4:44 into their first-round bout at the 2018 NCAA Championships on Thursday morning.
Suriano is the second of six Rutgers wrestlers to step on the mat Thursday at Quicken Loans Arena. Senior 149-pounder Eleazar DeLuca lost, 5-3, to Minnesota's Steve Bleise in a pigtail that ended up being the first completed bout of the tournament.
DeLuca was able to stay off his back after being decked by Bleise in the 7th/8th bout at the Big Ten Championships, but he wasn't able to do enough to reverse the result.