The tension ran high in his 11-minute 1-0 win in the semifinals, but that was nothing compared to the drama that unfolded tonight. In a rematch of the Big Ten championship, Ness was matched up with Daniel Dennis of rival Iowa. Despite several close calls, Ness had only an escape to his credit and trailed 1-4 after Dennis scored his second takedown with just 1:20 to go in the third period.
Ness was able to escape but still trailed two and needed to score. As the clock ticked down, past a minute, past 30 second and past 15 seconds he was still behind. Then, with just five seconds left in his career, Ness shot and landed the biggest takedown yet. Once he had Dennis on his back, he got the near fall call and the clock hit zeros.
"I was just thinking about getting a takedown to tie it up," Ness said of the final 10 seconds. "I came after him as hard as I could. Good things happen when you wrestle hard for a full seven minutes."
On a night where the Gophers had already named three All-Americans, Ness was the main attraction. Yesterday he became the just the sixth four-time All-American in the 100-year history of Minnesota wrestling. He has wrestled in the national semifinals all four years of his career and his win Friday night made him just the 11th two-time NCAA finalist in Minnesota history.
All season long, Ness has been open, that the ultimate goal was to finish as a champion at the NCAA Championship meet, here in Omaha. Once the goal was complete the usually reserved Ness, jumped off the stage and into the stands for an embrace with his father worthy of four-years of waiting.
"It's definitley up there," he said when asked to rank this win. "I don't have a top list but it's up there. I usually don't show much emotion, but this was an exciting one for me."
He is now the 14th national champion in program history and joins Brock Lesnar (2000) and Marty Morgan (1991) as the only Gophers to end their career with their first national championship. He also breaks a three-year drought of NCAA Champions for the Golden Gophers, as the first to win a NCAA title since Cole Konrad in 2007.
Ness' career seemed destined for success from the start. After an impressive redshirt season, he was the Big Ten's best freshman in 2007, winning the 125-pound title on his way to earning Freshman of the year honors. At his first NCAA Tournament he placed fifth to be named All-American, helping the Gophers to the team title.
From there he went on to win 36 straight matches, one of the best stretches in school history, and one he nearly matched this year with 33, until he literally just ran out of matches to wrestle. This season he beat everyone on the schedule, winning 19-matches by pin. He faced 10 ranked opponents and beat them all, including three this weekend.
He has placed fifth, second, third and now first at the National tournament, placing him along side Konrad as the only two in Minnesota history to average better than a third place finish over four years and NCAA Championships.
The 2010 edition of Golden Gopher wrestling returned to their usual spot among the top ten nationally. They finished in seventh place with 63 points, just six points out of the top five. Iowa closed out their championship with 134.5 points, ahead of second place Cornell with 90.0. Iowa State finished in third with 75, with Wisconsin in fourth at 70.5. With 69.0 points, Oklahoma rounded out the top-five. This season marks the 13th time in the last 14 years that the Gophers have finished in the top-10, with last season as the only aberration.
Minnesota will bid farewell to Ness and fellow seniors Matt Everson (Mitchell, S.D.), Nate Matousek (Glencoe, Minn.) and Dustin Schlatter (Masillion, Ohio) this season, but will look to returning All-Americans Zach Sanders (Wabasha, Minn.), Mike Thorn (St. Michael, Minn.) and Sonny Yohn (Alamosa, Colo.) as they lead the Gophers into 2011.
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