The Buckeyes never have had three finalists in the NCAA championships. In 1993, the Scarlet and Gray advanced two wrestlers to the finals in 1993 national champion and two-time All-American Rex Holman and two-time national champion and three-time All-American Kevin Randleman. Ohio State and Iowa were the only programs in the 2008 edition of the championships to qualify three finalists.
Jaggers, a redshirt-junior, became the first 2008 champion for the Buckeyes, defeating No. 1-seed Chad Mendes of Cal Poly, 5-2, at 141 pounds. After a scoreless first period, Jaggers scored an escape early in the second to take a slim 1-0 lead. However, Mendes responded with an escape of his own in the final period to tie the score at 1-1, but Jaggers countered with a takedown with 45 seconds left and followed with a two-point nearfall at the 37-second mark to go up 5-1. Jaggers was forced to take an injury timeout with just 16 seconds remaining after suffering a leg injury and despite giving up an escape to Mendes, held on for the victory.
At 184 pounds, Pucillo, redshirt-sophomore, clinched the second-place team finish for the Buckeyes when he downed No. 1-seed Jake Varner of Iowa State on a tiebreaking riding time advantage of six seconds. In the two wrestlers' first-ever collegiate meeting, they went scoreless after the first period. After taking the down position, Pucillo scored an escape early in the second stanza, but Varner, who was the 2007 runner-up, evened the score on an escape of his own in the third period. With the score knotted at one apiece, Pucillo and Varner went into two sudden victories and tiebreaking sessions before Pucillo won on the riding time.
In his third matchup against Northwestern's No. 1-seed Dustin Fox, Bergman dropped a heartbreaking 4-2 decision in the final. All three of Bergman's losses this season have come from Fox. With the scored tied, 1-1, at the end of the third period, the match was forced into overtime. Neither wrestler could score in the sudden victory period, but each grappler tacked on an escape in both 30-second tiebreakers. It was in the second sudden victory Fox scored a takedown to win his second-consecutive national championship.
At 149 pounds, Lance Palmer became a two-time All-American Saturday. In the seventh-place matchup, Palmer dropped a 3-2 decision to No.2-seed Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota.
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