Becker and Escobedo each advanced to their respective championship matches by knocking off their first four opponents. Matt Coughlin (149), Max Dean (165) and Marc Bennett also placed at the tournament, with Coughlin taking third place. Bennett finished fifth, while Dean finished sixth.
Escobedo beat a pair of ranked wrestlers to move to the 125-pound finals. After winning his first two matches, the Griffith, Ind., native topped 19th-ranked Patrick Castillo of Northern Illinois in a 6-4 decision. He then faced fourth-ranked Tanner Gardner of Stanford by beating the junior 4-1 in double overtime. He faced 11th-ranked Paul Donahoe in the finals but was topped 2-0 for just his second defeat of the season.
Becker topped a trio of opponents to face Wisconsin's Craig Henning, ranked third in the country, in the semifinal. Becker took a 4-2 decision over Henning to earn a spot in the title bout against second-ranked Brian Stith of Arizona State, but Stith took a hard-fought, 2-1 decision to grab the title. The two-time All-American is now 14-2 on the year at 157.
Coughlin won his first three matches, including one of the bigger upsets at the tourney, taking a 2-1 overtime decision over Wisconsin's Tyler Turner, the fourth-ranked wrestler in the country at his class. Coughlin was stopped short of the championship bout by Harvard's J.P. O'Connor, but rebounded with a 4-2 overtime victory over Eastern Michigan's Jermaine Thompson to earn a spot in the third-place match. There he faced Chattanooga's 10th-ranked Aaron Martin, and pinned the senior 49 seconds into overtime.
Bennett, who entered the tournament 10-0 on the season, was defeated in his first match, falling 5-4 to Cal Poly's Yuri Kalika. After that, Bennett won six straight matches to face seventh-ranked Joe Rovelli of Hofstra, but Rovelli ended Bennett's string with a 7-6 decision. Bennett moved to the fifth-place match against Raymond Jordan of Missouri, taking a 4-3 decision to improve to 17-2 on the year.
After winning his first three matches, Dean faced seventh-ranked Matt Pell of Missouri with a trip to the championship match on the line. Pell took a 9-6 decision to send Dean to the wrestleback bracket. Dean faced Zach Shanaman for a spot in the third-place bout, but was bested 3-1 in overtime. The Westchester, Ohio, native moved on to a match for fifth place, where he faced Arizona State's Patrick Pitsch, but Pitsch took sixth with a 6-4 decision.
True freshman Nathan Everhart (197) had a solid debut for the Hoosiers, winning his first match by a 9-1 major decision. He followed that by facing the fourth-ranked wrestler in the nation, Max Askren, but Askren escaped with a 5-4 decision. Everhart won his first match in the wrestleback, but was topped 4-2 by Buffalo's Ricky Scott to end his run at a place.
Maurice Gunn (HWT) opened his weekend with a 5-3 decision over Wisconsin's Jordan Hein in the opening round. In round two, though, Gunn met up with sixth-seeded Zack Hammond, who took a 3-1 decision. Gunn pinned his first opponent, George Mason's Ryan Kittrick, in 33 seconds, but ended his day 2-2 after a 6-3 loss to The Citadel's John Buck.
At 133 pounds, Andrae Hernandez received a first-round bye and followed that up by pinning Eli Huizar of Dickinson State in the second round. Unfortunately, Hernandez followed that with a 7-3 loss in the round of 16 to Pitt's Drew Headlee and a 5-3 loss in the wrestleback to Marques Bravo of Western State.
Trevor Perry (174) opened his tournament with a 5-4, opening-round win over Buffalo's Nate Rock. However, Perry was defeated in his next two matches, 10-2 to Nick Hernandez of Cal Poly and 8-3 to Dan Hospodka of Nebraska-Kearney, to end his run.
After a first round bye, Nick Walpole (141) drew a tough assignment, going up against seventh-ranked Dominick Moyer of Nebraska, who topped the true freshman with an 8-0 major decision. Walpole moved on to the wrestleback, where he faced Derek Francavilla of Columbia University. Walpole kept the match close, but was topped by a 5-3 score.
Indiana (5-0-0) is in action next on Sunday, Dec. 17, when it travels to Park Forrest, Ill., for the FITE Duals.
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