Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.comThis year's finals may not have had some of the over-the-top drama of the 2009 NCAAs, but, for the most part, the actual championship matches were exciting, with more action than is sometimes the case when wrestlers compete not to lose. Here are the recaps for the 2010 finals:
125: No. 2 Matt McDonough (Iowa) vs. No. 5 Andrew Long (Iowa State)
McDonough brought a 36-1 record to the finals; Long was 27-5 this year. Both wrestlers are freshmen -- the first time two first-year matmen have faced each other in an NCAA final in 30 years. Both are native Iowans; Long is from Creston, while McDonough a product of Marion. The two have wrestled each other three times this season, with McDonough winning all three.
There was no scoring in the first period. Long scored an escape at the beginning of the second; McDonough responded with a takedown at 1:05 to go up 2-1. At the start of the third, the Hawkeye choose down. Long cut McDonough, making the score 3-1. McDonough was warned for stalling with less than a half-minute to go ... but McDonough held onto the lead, defeating Long 3-1, making their record 4-0 for the Hawkeye. McDonough is Iowa's first freshman NCAA champ since Lincoln McIlravy in 1993.
Asked about winning the title, the first-year Hawkeye responded, "For starters, it's not done. I've got three more years. You can't end on one championship, or one match. It's what I've worked for all season. It's a relieving thing, but I'm already looking ahead and ready to keep training and bettering myself. It was a great week."
133: No. 1 Jayson Ness (Minnesota) vs. No. 2 Daniel Dennis (Iowa)
Both wrestlers are from the Big Ten, and both are redshirt seniors. Ness is 32-0 this year, while Dennis is 22-3 ... with two of those losses to his Gopher rival. In fact, these two last met on the mat just two weeks ago, at the 2010 Big Ten conference championships, with Ness winning the title.
Jayson Ness was named Most Outstanding Wrestler (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)In the post-match interview, Ness was asked about the final ten seconds. "I was just thinking about getting a takedown to tie it up," the Gopher champ responded. "I came after him as hard as I could. Good things happen when you wrestle for a full seven minutes."
141: No. 1 Kyle Dake (Cornell) vs. No. 6 Montell Marion (Iowa)
Dake is a true freshman, with 33 wins, 2 losses; his father Doug was an All-American at Kent State, placing seventh at 177 pounds at the 1985 NCAAs. Marion is a redshirt sophomore with a 27-5 record this season.
Dake started the scoring with a takedown with 44 seconds left in the first. Marion scored an escape with about ten seconds to go in the first period. In the second, the Hawkeye chose down. Dake got two nearfall points. The Big Red freshman, leading 4-1, started the third period in the down position, and scored an escape. Marion got a takedown to make the score 5-3; Dake answered with an escape. With riding time, Dake won the 141 title, 7-3, becoming the first true freshman to win an NCAA championship since Dustin Schlatter in 2005.
"He is a great wrestler," Dake said of his opponent, Montell Marion. "He's an Iowa wrestler, so you know they're going to go hard. It was expected for him to go as hard as he could and I just had to match it. If you watched the first 30 seconds, we were just basically punching each other in the face and we didn't care. We were just wrestling. That's how they go and that's how I matched it."
When asked if he gets tired of being labeled a freshman, Dake responded, "Yes. Just because people think it's such a big deal that I'm a freshman, and it probably is to the common folk. To me, I'm just another wrestler going out there to wrestle someone else."
149: No. 1 Lance Palmer (Ohio State) vs. No. 2 Brent Metcalf (Iowa)
Palmer is a senior, with a 31-2 record; Metcalf is a redshirt senior, with 35 wins and just one loss ... to his Buckeye rival, two weeks ago, in the 149 finals of the Big Tens. It was the first time Metcalf had lost to Palmer in a total of five college matches.
Brent Metcalf hoists the team championship trophy (Photo/John Sachs, Tech-Fall.com)In the post-finals press conference, Metcalf was asked to compare and contrast the feelings between this year and last year: "It feels good, feels like I'm redeeming myself from last year a little bit, just because this is the national tournament. You can't get last year back, but you can feel better about it because you finished it off the way you did."
Asked about his future in wrestling, and the Michigan native said, "It's not over yet. There are multiple world and Olympic championships ahead to aim for. How many (Olympic) gold medals did Tom Brands win? One. How many did Dan Gable win? One. Now I've got to win two."
157: No. 1 J.P. O'Connor (Harvard) vs. No. 7 Chase Pami (Cal Poly)
These two wrestlers have faced each other before. Pami, a redshirt senior who's 29-6 this year, knocked O'Connor out of All-American contention at the 2009 NCAAs. The Harvard senior (who's 34-0) got some revenge Pami at this season's Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational.
Pami launched the scoring with a single leg; O'Connor countered, gained control and grabbed a 3-2 lead at the end of the first. In the second, the Harvard man got a reversal, making the score 5-2. After some blood time for Pami, the Mustang scored an escape. In the third, with the score 5-3, Pami chose down, got an escape. Despite some end-of-bout scrambling, that was the extent of the scoring With riding time, O'Connor wins 6-4 over Pami at 157 ... becoming only the third Harvard wrestler to win an NCAA title. (John Harkness won the 175-pound crown in 1938, Jesse Jantzen, the 149 championship in 2004.)
O'Connor addressed the legacy of becoming a Harvard national champ: "I was just trying to follow in the footsteps of former Harvard national champions, John Harkness and Jesse Jantzen, while creating my own path. I looked up to Jesse; as great of a wrestler as he is he is even a better person. I consider it to be an honor to be mentioned in the same sentence with him."
The Crimson champ also talked about how he meets the challenges of wrestling at an academically rigorous school such as Harvard: "Hard work and discipline as well as time management. It's amazing what you can do. I've been blessed physically and mentally. Wrestling has taught me so much and it has molded me into the person that I am today."
165: No. 1 Andrew Howe (Wisconsin) vs. No. 6 Dan Vallimont (Penn State)
Howe, a sophomore, has a perfect 36-0 record; Vallimont is a redshirt senior with a 31-7 record. These two Big Ten wrestlers have faced each other twice this season, with Howe winning both matches.
Howe scored first with a takedown; that's the extent of the scoring in the first period, but he had already accumulated nearly two minutes of riding time. The Badger started the second period down. Howe got a very quick escape, followed seconds later by a takedown, taking a 5-0 lead. Vallimont answered with an escape; Howe countered that with another takedown and he went up 7-1 going into the third. In the final stanza, Vallimont got a takedown, while Howe scored an escape. With riding time, Howe wins the match 9-3, and the 165-pound title.
"I wasn't going to let this one get away from me. I've been telling myself that for a whole year now," Howe said, referring to last year's finals where he fell to Edinboro's Jarrod King. "I've been thinking about that loss every single day for that entire year and I didn't want to go another year thinking the same thing."
174: No. 1 Mack Lewnes (Cornell) vs. No. 2 Jay Borshel (Iowa)
One of these two wrestlers would leave Omaha with his first loss of the season. Lewnes, a junior, has a 40-0 record ... while the redshirt junior Borschel is 36-0 this season.
Borschel got a takedown about one minute into the first period -- the extent of scoring in the opening round. Lewnes selected down to start the second, scored an escape in the first 30 seconds. No other scoring. In the third, Borschel chose down, got an escape to make score 3-1 for the Hawkeye ... with 2:20 of riding time. Borschel scored a takedown, then was dinged for stalling on top. One point Lewnes with :32 to go, making the score 5-2. With riding time, Jay Borschel defeats Mack Lewnes 6-2, and wins the 174 title.
In the press conference after winning the title, Borschel mentioned that he and Matt McDonough both came out of the Linn-Mar High School wrestling program. "It says a lot about the coaching staff there. They instilled a lot of hard work and determination, a never-give-up attitude. That's what they're all about -- tough wrestling. The head coach came out of Iowa, he was an all-American, wrestled under (Dan) Gable, so he knows all about that. He was able to put that into (McDonough and I)."
184: No. 1 Kirk Smith (Boise State) vs. No. 6 Max Askren (Missouri)
Smith is a junior with a perfect 29-0 record. Askren is a senior with 19 wins, 2 losses.
Askren scored the first takedown, then got two nearfall points in the first. The Missouri Tiger then put three more nearfall points on the board; Smith could only answer with an escape. Askren led 7-1. In the second, Askren chose down, quickly scoring an escape ... the only scoring in the second. Smith took neutral to start the third, and got a double-leg to cut the lead to 8-3. Askren scored an escape. With riding time, Max Askren gets a 10-3 victory over Kirk Smith ... joining Mark Ellis (last year's heavyweight champ) and older brother Ben Askren as the third-ever Missouri NCAA champ.
Asked about winning the 184 crown, Askren responded, "It feels great. I'm just happy I was able to do what everybody around me thought I could do. I know my technique was always up to par to be a national champion and in the finals it finally came out. I was the one hiding my ability. I was afraid of what I was capable of doing or not doing. The pressure was trying and holding oneself back. At some point, I had to do it."
The Tiger wrestler also talked about some of the struggles he had experienced this year. "The passion went away," said Askren. "There were moments during practice and matches when it was there but it didn't sustain itself. This season with the help of my coaches, brother, friends and family, I got back to doing things how I like."
197: No. 1 Jake Varner (Iowa State) vs. No. 2 Craig Brester (Nebraska)
These two Big 12 wrestlers have faced each other numerous times, most notably, the 2009 NCAA finals, and the 2010 Big 12 conference finals. Varner won both bouts.
There was no scoring in the first period. For the second, Varner started down, and escaped ... which was the extent of scoring in that period. In the third, Brester chose down, got the escape, and tied the score. Varner got a reversal with about a minute left; Brester scored another escape, making the score 3-2 for the Cyclone. The Cornhusker tried for a takedown, but Varner countered with a takedown of his own in the final seconds. In the final match between these two conference rivals, Jake Varner bested Craig Brester, 5-2 ... winning his second consecutive NCAA title. Varner is one of a limited number of wrestlers to have been a four-time NCAA finalist.
"Craig's a tough guy," said Varner of his collegiate rival from Nebraska. "We've wrestled a lot. I guess that's why not a lot happens. We know each other pretty well, but I just kept to my gameplan. I would have like to score in that first period, but it didn't happen. I got away as soon as I could like I wanted to and I scored that front headlock, and that was a big, key point in the match. That last takedown, I knew he had to come after me and I was ready for it, and I ended up with that last takedown."
285: No. 1 David Zabriskie (Iowa State) vs. No. 2 Jared Rosholt (Oklahoma State)
Immediately after the Varner-Brester bout, the second battle of the Big 12 big men, featuring Zabriskie, a senior with 25 wins, 2 losses ... while Rosholt, a redshirt senior, is 34-2 this year. This was a rematch of the conference title bout, which the Cyclone won.
No score in the first three minutes. To start the second, Zabriskie offered the choice to Rosholt, who escaped in 19 seconds. The Cyclone countered with a takedown on the edge of the mat. The Cowboy scored a second escape, knotting the score at the end of the second. In the third, Zabriskie chose down, came out from under, making the score 3-2. That was it for the scoring ... so David Zabriskie got the 3-2 win over Jared Rosholt, and becomes the second Iowa State heavyweight champ (the other being the late, great Chris Taylor in 1972 and 1973).
"When Coach Jackson came to Iowa State, I was absolutely thrilled. There was no other coach I wanted to come in," said Zabriskie. "But for this title, I need to thank all the coaches I've had. Every coach has had a pretty big chunk of what has made me into an NCAA champion, and I need to thank them all -- coach (Kevin) Jackson, Cael (Sanderson), (Tim) Hartung, (Casey) Cunningham, (Bobby) Douglas and (Chris) Bono."
Final Team Standings:
1. Iowa 134.5
2. Cornell 90
3. Iowa State 75
4. Wisconsin 70.5
5. Oklahoma 69
6. Oklahoma State 65
7. Minnesota 63
8. Ohio State 62
9. Penn State 49
10. Missouri 48
All-Americans:
125:
First Place: Matt McDonough (Iowa) dec. Andrew Long (Iowa State), 3-1
Third Place: Angel Escobedo (Indiana) dec. Troy Nickerson (Cornell), 2-0
Fifth Place: Zach Sanders (Minnesota) dec. Cashe Quiroga (Purdue), 6-2
Seventh Place: Anthony Robles (Arizona State) dec. Nikko Triggas (Ohio State), 9-3
133:
First Place: Jayson Ness (Minnesota) dec. Daniel Dennis (Iowa), 6-4
Third Place: Franklin Gomez (Michigan State) maj. dec. Jordan Oliver (Oklahoma State), 8-0
Fifth Place: Tyler Graff (Wisconsin) dec. Dan Mitcheff (Kent State), 5-3
Seventh Place: Borislav Novachkov (Cal Poly) pinned Steve Bell (Maryland), 4:26
141:
First Place: Kyle Dake (Cornell) dec. Montell Marion (Iowa), 7-3
Third Place: Reece Humphrey (Ohio State) dec. Zack Bailey (Oklahoma), 3-2
Fifth Place: Tyler Nauman (Pitt) dec. Germane Lindsey (Ohio), 3-2
Seventh Place: Mike Thorn (Minnesota) pinned Christopher Diaz (Virginia Tech), :56
149:
First Place: Brent Metcalf (Iowa) dec. Lance Palmer (Ohio State), 3-2
Third Place: Kyle Terry (Oklahoma) dec. Kyle Ruschell (Wisconsin), 5-4
Fifth Place: Frank Molinaro (Penn State) maj. dec. Torsten Gillespie (Edinboro), 10-1
Seventh Place: Kevin LeValley (Bucknell) dec. Kyle Borshoff (American), 5-0
157:
First Place: J.P. O'Connor (Harvard) dec. Chase Pami (Cal Poly), 3-2
Third Place: Adam Hall (Boise State) maj. dec. Justin Lister (Binghamton), 8-0
Fifth Place: Steve Fittery (American) maj. dec. Cyler Sanderson (Penn State), 15-6
Seventh Place: Justin Gaethje (Northern Colorado) dec. Steve Brown (Central Michigan), 12-7
165:
First Place: Andrew Howe (Wisconsin) dec. Dan Vallimont (Penn State), 9-3
Third Place: Jarrod King (Edinboro) dec. Nick Amuchastegui (Stanford), 3-2
Fifth Place: Tyler Caldwell (Oklahoma) dec. Andrew Rendos (Bucknell), 6-3
Seventh Place: Ryan Morningstar (Iowa) dec. Chris Brown (Old Dominion), 3-2
174:
First Place: Jay Borschel (Iowa) dec. Mack Lewnes (Cornell), 6-2
Third Place: Chris Henrich (Virginia) maj. dec. Stephen Dwyer (Nebraska), 10-1
Fifth Place: Jordan Blanton (Illinois) dec. Ben Bennett (Central Michigan), 3-2
Seventh Place: Scott Giffin (Penn) dec. Jarion Beets (Northern Iowa), default
184:
First Place: Max Askren (Missouri) dec. Kirk Smith (Boise State), 10-3
Third Place: Mike Cannon (American) dec. Joe LeBlanc (Wyoming), 7-2
Fifth Place: John Dergo (Illinois) dec. Clayton Foster (Oklahoma State), 10-4
Seventh Place: Dustin Kilgore (Kent State) dec. Phil Keddy (Iowa), 9-4
197:
First Place: Jake Varner (Iowa State) dec. Craig Brester (Nebraska), 5-2
Third Place: Cam Simaz (Cornell) dec. Hudson Taylor (Maryland), 4-2 OT
Fifth Place: Eric Lapotsky (Oklahoma) dec. Trevor Brandvold (Wisconsin), 7-0
Seventh Place: Alan Gelogaev (Oklahoma State) dec. Sonny Yohn (Minnesota), 12-7
285:
David Zabriskie (Iowa State) dec. Jared Rosholt (Oklahoma State), 3-2
Third Place: Zach Rey (Lehigh) dec. Konrad Dudziak (Duke), 4-2
Fifth Place: Mitch Monteiro (Cal State Bakersfield) dec. Mark Ellis (Missouri), 3-1
Seventh Place: Dan Erekson (Iowa) dec. Jarrod Trice (Central Michigan), 8-2
Other awards:
NWCA Bill Koll Outstanding Wrestling Award: Minnesota's Jayson Ness
NWCA Coach of the Year: Wisconsin's Barry Davis
Gorriaran Award (most pins in the least amount of time): Virginia's Brent Jones ... 2 in 1:13.
Related Content:
Final Standings
Final Brackets
All-Americans
Auio Interviews
Day 1 Recap
Day 2 Recap
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