Kent State’s Ian Miller was denied an official victory on Friday due to a scoring error in Friday morning’s quarterfinal round of the NCAA Wrestling Championships.

No. 7 seed Miller (157) maintained a 4-3 lead heading into the third period of his quarterfinal match against Cornell’s No. 2 seed Brian Realbuto. Realbuto completed two quick takedowns in the final seconds of the third period, tying the score at 9 and sending the match into overtime. Miller completed a one-point escape in the third according to the referee’s hand signals, but it was never added to his score. The mistake was not noticed until after overtime with Realbuto winning 11-9.

Miller completed three takedowns, a reversal, an escape and earned a riding time point which would have given him 10 points in regulation. Tournament officials ruled in favor of Realbuto.

The NCAA chairman of the Division l Wrestling Committee, Matt Whisenant, released an official statement clarifying the final decision of the match.

“The NCAA Division I Wrestling Committee met to discuss the scoring error in the match between Brian Realbuto (Cornell) and Ian Miller (Kent State), and our determination was that there is a protocol in place for coaches to challenge errors in a match via the coach’s challenge (Rule 3.21.2 b). Kent State had challenges remaining and did not raise the challenge flag to declare an error in the match, therefore the resulting Cornell victory stands,” according to the statement. 

Coach Jim Andrassy said he is disappointed and does not understand how the officials could have missed the signal.

“The committee met and the score was wrong. It never should’ve went into overtime, and it should’ve been over,” Andrassy said in a video interview with Flowrestling.com. “At that point, after the match was over, we went over to the table and we asked them to watch the match over again. They did. They came back and confirmed they screwed up. The score was wrong. Then a group met in the back room and they made a decision that they were going to keep it the way it is because it affects too many things at this point.”

Miller will face the winner of Drexel’s Noel Blanco vs. Oregon State’s Alex Elder in Friday night’s round.

Contact Zac Sommer at [email protected].