ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- Junior 141-pounder Colton Rex tore through his first two matches, Friday, advancing to the quarterfinal round at the York College-hosted New Standard Corporation Invitational.

Rex is one of seven E-town wrestlers moving through to Saturday's matches, but the only one still in contention for a weight class title.

The Slatington, Pennsylvania product didn't need much time to move through a pair of bouts. Rex opened with a 16-1 technical fall over Johns Hopkins' Connor Mauriello in 2:40. He collected a takedown in the opening minute and quickly rounded up 14 back points to end the match.

Just over a minute into his second round match, Rex put Johnson & Wales' Gabe McDaniel on his back and proceeded to get the pin at 1:53. Rex, who saw his record improve to 12-6 on the season, will face Baldwin Wallace's Charles Nash in the quarters Saturday morning.

Six additional Jays are looking to continue their battles back through unforgiving consolation brackets in a field that features seven of the top 25 nationally-ranked teams by the National Wrestling Coaches Association (NWCA).

Josh Paisley rebounded from an opening round loss at 141 to earn a 17-2 tech fall against York's David Harris-Norton in 2:42. He also benefited from a forfeit by McDaniel to reach a third round consi against d3wrestle contender Tanner McHugh of Baldwin Wallace.

Freshman Nick Gonzalez earned bonus points in each of his wins on Friday. Gonzalez got off to a great start with a 4:16 fall against Cortland's CJ Labate before coming up short in round two against Roger Williams' Jack Kelly (TF, 20-5 (3:44)). He stayed alive with a 10-2 major decision over Averett's Ryan Morton in a second round consolation.

E-town's 157-pound entry, Kyle Bythell, won a pair of consolation matches over Delaware Valley's Dan Colon (Dec., 10-5) and Hopkins' Bradlee LaMontagne (TF, 19-3 (7:00)), while 174-pounder Tyler Mentzer pinned York's Jordan Sciamanna (4:09) to reach the third round of his consolation bracket.

Nikolay Savin registered an opening round pin of The College of New Jersey's Matt Cornely (2:09) at 197, before suffering the same fate against York's Cam Farrow in round two (3:33). Savin got the best of rookie teammate Quinn Hogue with a 1:24 fall and goes up against Ithaca's Dalton Elias on Saturday morning.

Heavyweight Max Rhoden received a first round bye, but fell to nationally-ranked No. 5 Jake O'Brien of Ithaca 18-3 (3:37) in the second. The junior came back to pin O'Brien's teammate Bailey Paster in 4:56 of a second round consi.

Elizabethtown sits in 12th-place out of 16 teams with 23 points. Nationally-ranked No. 4 Johnson & Wales (R.I.) leads No. 3 Ithaca 42-38 at the conclusion of Friday's action. No. 10 Baldwin Wallace (36 points), No. 14 Roger Williams (33) and Johns Hopkins are the rest of the top five.

Wrestling continues Saturday beginning at 9:30 a.m.