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    Central Oklahoma's Watson wins title, earns OW honors

    Chris Watson capped an unblemished season with a 7-2 victory over Lake Erie's Matt Vandermeer to capture the 165-pound national title and earn Outstanding Wrestler honors here Saturday night at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships.

    The Central Oklahoma senior wrapped up a 42-0 campaign -- just the second full-season perfect record in school history -- and gave the Bronchos an 18th-place finish in the team race by scoring 20 points himself in the two-day event at Chaifanx Arena.

    Watson's takedown with 26 seconds left in the opening period gave him a 2-0 lead in the finals, but Vandermeer cut that to 2-1 on an escape 20 seconds into the second stanza and that was the score entering the third period.

    Watson chose neutral for the final two minutes and sandwiched two takedowns around a Vandermeer escape while adding a riding time point to close out his final victory.

    "I'm just so proud of Chris for finishing off a great career and an unbelievable senior season with what he deserved," head coach David James. "He worked incredibly hard this year and stayed focused on the task at hand."

    Watson moved into the finals with a 7-1 victory over third-rated Gabe Fogarty of St. Cloud State in Saturday morning's semifinals.

    That match was scoreless after the opening period, with Watson breaking the deadlock on a reverse midway through the second stanza. He controlled Fogarty the rest of the period, added a takedown early in the third to make it 4-0 and followed an escape with another takedown before tacking on a riding time point.

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