PHILADELPHIA, PA • In one of the most anticipated national championship matches slated out of the ten title bouts, Lucas Byrd of Illinois, the number-one seed at 133 pounds, was looking for his 100th career win and a national championship—and not in that order. To do so, he would have to defeat Iowa’s Drake Ayala, last year’s national runner-up, and the only opponent to defeat Byrd this season.
In their B1G dual in Iowa City, it was Ayala who defeated Byrd, 4-2, and in the title match at the B1G Championships, it was Byrd winning by fall after catching Ayala in a cow-catcher. Now, it was time for the rubber match, and Byrd was more than ready having the confidence that he can do what he had already done two weeks earlier.
