Over the long course of the 2006-2007 college wrestling season, most fans assumed that Minnesota had a green light leading to the team title at the 2007 NCAA Division I Championships.
However, at the end of Day 2, it looks like the Golden Gophers' title hopes may have been blown off course by the Iowa State Cyclones.
On Friday night, after the completion of Session Four, the team led by first-year head coach Cael Sanderson led the team race with 83.5 points, with Minnesota in hot pursuit with 80 points. In third place was Missouri, with 69.5, followed by Oklahoma State -- the team title winners for the past four years -- with 62.5 points. Right on the Cowboys' bumper is Northwestern, with 62 points for fifth place. Rounding out the top ten teams: host school Michigan has 55.5 points … Penn State takes seventh with 50 … Iowa has 48.5 … Hofstra is in ninth place with 48 … and Ohio State has 36.5
The road ahead to the team title looks to be slightly smoother for Iowa State than it does for Minnesota. The Cyclones have three wrestlers in the finals -- Trent Paulson, Jake Varner and Kurt Backes -- and one still alive in the consolation brackets, while the Gophers have just one finalist -- Cole Konrad -- and four in contention in the conseys.
Right now, it looks likely that the winning team will be one located on I-35. The question is… will it be the school in the Twin Cities, or the one in Ames?
Session 3: Quarterfinals
By the time the championship matches were concluded about 2 p.m., it was interesting to see how many wrestlers had made it into the semifinals for each team. Minnesota -- which led the team standings at the end of the first day of competition -- had four Golden Gophers made it into the semifinals round (Jayson Ness, Dustin Schlatter, Roger Kish, and Cole Konrad). Iowa State also had four semifinalists: the Paulson twins, Jake Varner, and Kurt Backes … as did 2006 team champs Oklahoma State (Coleman Scott, Nathan Morgan, Johny Hendricks, and Brandon Mason.) Hofstra had three Pride wrestlers in the semis: Mike Patrovich, James Stouse, and Chris Weidman. Iowa had two (Eric Luedke and Mark Perry), and Missouri had one -- Ben Askren.
125: Top-seeded Sam Hazewinkel of Oklahoma got a 16-4 major decision over No. 9 Obe Blanc of Lock Haven, and Nebraska's No. 6 Paul Donohoe upset No. 3 Tanner Gardner of Stanford 8-3. There were a couple of shut-outs: No. 2 Troy Nickerson of Cornell beat Indiana's No. 7 Angel Escobel 2-0, while Minnesota's No. 4 Jayson Ness got a 3-0 victory over Iowa's No. 5 Charlie Falck.
133: Two more shut-outs in this weight class: Michigan State's No. 1 Nick Simmons got a 3-0 win over No. 9 Jimmy Kennedy of Illinois, while No. 2 Matt Valenti of Penn held Minnesota's No. 7 Mack Reiter a 4-0 loss. Oklahoma State's Coleman Scott, seeded fourth, got a 6-4 SV win over Tennessee-Chattanooga's No. 5 Matt Keller; No. 5 Darryl Vasquez of Cal Poly beat unseeded Penn State wrestler Jake Strayer 8-3.
141: In one of the bigger upsets of the third session, unseeded Don Fisch of Rider got a decisive 9-4 victory over Minnesota's No. 4 Manny Rivera. Another major match: Top-seeded Ryan Lang of Northwestern pinned unseeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State at 2:29. UC Davis' No. 2 Derek Moore beat Tennessee-Chattanooga's unseeded Michael Keefe, while third-seeded Nathan Morgan of Oklahoma State defeated Hofstra's No. 11 Charles Griffin 6-4.
149: Top-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota got a 6-3 win over unseeded Wisconsin Badger 6-3, while hometown hero Josh Churella, seeded third for Michigan, beat No. 6 J.P. O'Connor of Harvard 8-5. Edinboro's No. 5 Gregor Gillespie topped fourth-seeded Jordan Leen of Cornell 6-2, and Ohio State's No. 10 Lance Palmer edged unseeded Matt Coughlin of Indiana 2-1.
157: Two closely contested bouts ended in upsets in this weight class: No. 7 Craig Henning of Wisconsin, who got a 3-2 victory over Arizona State's second-seeded Brian Stith while No. 5 Mike Poeta of Illinois edged No. 4 C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota 5-4. Iowa State's top-seeded Trent Paulson edged unseeded Josh Zupaniak of Cornell 3-2, while Hofstra's No. 3 James Strouse topped No. 11 Matt Kocher of Pittsburgh 5-3.
165: The surprise of this class: Hofstra's No. 6 Mike Patrovich edged No. 3 Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan by the score of 3-2. In a Big 12 battle, number-one seed Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State got a 10-2 victory over No. 9 Matt Pell of Missouri, while Iowa State's No. 4 Travis Paulson got a 5-1 win over No. 5 Nick Baima of Northern Iowa. Second-seeded Mark Perry of Iowa defeated Edinboro's No. 7 Deonte Penn, 6-5.
174: Not too much of a surprise here: Top-seeded Missouri Tiger Ben Askren pinned Columbia's No. 9 Matt Palmer at 4:42. Second-seeded Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh topped Pennsylvania's Matt Herrington, 9-5. There were two shut-outs: No. 5 Eric Luedke of Iowa got a 5-0 win over American University's unseeded Rudy Rueda, and Oklahoma State's unseeded Brandon Mason defeated No. 11 Jeremy Larson of Oregon State, 6-0.
184: The top two seeds seemed to be on a collision course: Northwestern's No. 1 Jake Herbert scored at will on No. 9 Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan, 11-1, while No. 2 Roger Kish of Minnesota got a 9-5 victory over Edinboro's No. 7 Alex Clemsen. Iowa State's Jake Varner, ranked sixth, pinned unseeded Josh Arnone of Cornell at 1:54. Another home crowd favorite, No. 4 Tyrel Todd of Michigan, came out on top of Missouri's No. 5 Raymond Jordan by the score of 7-4.
197: A pin and a couple close matches highlight this weight class. American University's second-seeded Josh Glenn put Nebraska No. 7 Craig Brester's shoulders to the mat at 6:36. In an upset, No. 11 Chris Weidman of Hofstra surprised third-ranked Mike Tamillow of Northwestern with a 9-8 decision, while No. 9 Kurt Backes of Iowa State edged unseeded Nick Roy of Michigan, 4-3. Penn State's fourth seed Phil Davis got a 6-3 win over Cornell's No. 5 Jerry Rinaldi.
Hwt: Defending champ Cole Konrad continued on a tear for Minnesota with a commanding 16-4 victory over No. 9 Mike Spaid of Bloomsburg, while Penn State second seed Aaron Anspach edged out Sacred Heart's Payam Zarrinpour, 5-4. The two Dustins still in title contention in the weight class didn't fare so well. In a slight upset, No. 5 Ty Watterson of Oregon State topped Northwestern's fourth-ranked Dustin Fox, 3-1, and No. 3 Bubba Gritter of Central Michigan defeated West Virginia's unseeded Dustin Rogers by the same score.
Session 4: Semifinals
On Friday evening, the drive toward ten individual champions which had started with 330 wrestlers on Thursday morning had been whittled down to 40 athletes. Here's what happened in the two matches in each weight class to determine who would face off in the finals Saturday evening.
125: For the finals, it will be two Big 12 rivals: Oklahoma senior Sam Hazewinkel -- a three-time third placer -- taking on Paul Donohoe from Nebraska. Hazewinkel dominated Minnesota freshman Jayson Ness 10-0 … while the sixth-seeded Cornhusker edged out Cornell's second-seeded -- 2006 runner-up -- Troy Nickerson, 2-1.
When asked in an interview after the semifinals about how his past NCAA experience may help him in the 2007 finals, Hazewinkel replied, "(It'll help me) to always be offensive; when I start being defensive, I do my worst… in this tournament, the guy who makes the least mistakes wins."
Donohoe said of his finals rival, "Sam is a great competitor. Last year I wrestled him in the quarterfinals and he beat me, 5-0. But the match was really close and he scored two points at the very end."
133: The title match will feature Matt Valenti vs. Coleman Scott. Valenti, the University of Pennsylvania senior, defending champ and top seed, won his match with a 4-2 victory over sixth-seeded Darryl Vasquez of Cal Poly. Oklahoma State junior Scott, seeded fourth, upset top-seeded Nick Simmons of Michigan State, 4-3, in the semifinals.
When asked if his experience in last year's finals would help this year, Valenti replied, "It will definitely help in some sense. But at the same time, it's a different match… The only thing I'm going to take from that is that I want to do better this year than I did last year."
"I've seen him once," said Scott of his finals opponent. "At the beginning of the year I wasn't wrestling my best and he ended up beating me by a couple points. I'm going to be ready here tomorrow night and just go out and wrestle like I know how, don't hold anything back, nothing to lose."
141: In a battle between number one and number two seeds, Ryan Lang will tangle with Derek Moore in the finals. The top-seeded Northwestern Wildcat ended unseeded Don Fisch's Cinderella story, edging the Rider wrestler 3-2. Second-seeded Moore of UC Davis got a 6-2 victory over Oklahoma State's No. 3 Nathan Morgan.
Here's what Lang said of Moore: "He's good on top, he is real long and strong. It's going to be a hard match."
"My career has come to this tournament, now undefeated in the national finals," said Moore. "I still don't believe it. It hasn't hit me yet."
149: In the title match, it'll be Josh Churella vs. Gregor Gillespie. In a Big Ten semifinals match-up, Churella, the third seeded man from Michigan, defeated No. 10 Lance Palmer, the Ohio State true freshman, by the score of 5-2. Representing Edinboro will be the fifth-seeded Gillespie, who knocked off the defending champ, top-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota, 3-2.
157: The two wrestlers seeking the title here held their semifinals opponents scoreless. Iowa State senior Trent Paulson, the top seed, shut out Illinois' No. 5 Mike Poeta, 4-0 … while Craig Henning, the Wisconsin junior seeded seventh in the tournament, eeked out a 1-0 win over third-seeded James Strouse of Hofstra.
"It's been my goal even when I was a little kid," said Paulson. "I always wanted to be a national champion. To make it to the finals is a dream come true. I have just one more match."
165: Hendricks vs. Perry in the finals -- need we say more? These two have a considerable history, having battled each other seemingly countless times, with Johny Hendricks always coming out on top. The defending champ and top seed from Oklahoma State edged out Big 12 rival Travis Paulson, the fourth seed from Iowa State, 2-1. Iowa's Mark Perry, seeded second, was taken into overtime by Mike Patrovich… but the Hawkeye got win, 6-4, TB.
When asked about his ongoing rivalry with Perry, Hendricks replied, "When we step on the mat, he don't like me and I don't like him. That's just the way it is. Off the mat, I try to be nice to everybody. I try to be, you know, the person that I am off the mat. I want to be that way. And I'll be nice to him until I step on the mat. But as soon as I step on the mat, we're enemies. That's just the way it has to be."
"I'm going out to accomplish a goal I've had since I was six," said Perry in his interview after the semifinals. "I've lost to (Hendricks) I don't know how many times. I'm going to say, five, six, seven, eight, in my whole life and I've never beaten him… I'm not scared of him one bit. I'm not intimidated by him, and I'm going out to win. I don't care how many times he's beaten me. This is probably the last time I'll probably get a shot at it, so this is the one that means the most to me."
174: Does the Panther have a prayer against the Tiger? The defending champ and top-seeded Ben Askren of the Missouri Tigers is wrapping up a stellar collegiate career. Will he continue his win streak… or will the second-seeded Pitt Panther Keith Gavin rewrite history? Askren got an 8-3 win over Eric Luedke, the fifth-ranked Iowa Hawkeye… while Gavin edged out Oklahoma State's Brandon Mason, 4-3.
Here's what the challenger Gavin said of the champ Askren: "The first two times I wrestled him, I changed my style because I bought into the hype thinking he was superior to everyone. I changed it, according to what I think would beat him and it didn't work, so obviously I'm just going to do what I need to do."
"He's going to wrestle," said the undefeated senior from Missouri. "You know what, he might get pinned like he did twice earlier this year, but he's going to give it a swinging chance. He might get me on my back, who knows, at least he's going to try. I know he's going to try."
184: So much for the much-anticipated rematch of the 2007 Big Ten 184 finals. Instead, everything's Jake for the 184 finals… which is bad news for Roger Kish. The muscular Minnesotan, seeded second, lost in the semifinals to redshirt freshman Jake Varner of Iowa State (the sixth seed), 4-2 SV 1 … while top-seeded Jake Herbert, a junior from Northwestern, got a 13-4 major decision over Michigan's Todd Tyrel.
"I know he's tough," said Varner of Herbert. "I haven't faced him in college yet. I wrestled him in freestyle right before my freshman year at Ohio State. He beat me once and I beat him twice. But he's tough. It's going to be a tough match."
When asked about his "history" with the Cyclone freshman, Herbert replied, "Some people will let that get to them, but Jake looks like he's got it all together. He is a good kid. He works hard. He's got a great coach. It's just another wrestling match. If you can block everything out, it doesn't matter."
197: It'll be a battle of the No. two and nine seeded seniors in the finals. Second-seeded Josh Glenn of American University got his second fall in a row, pinning Hofstra's Chris Weidman, the No. 11 seed, at 4:27. Iowa State's ninth-seeded Kurt Backes got the 5-4 upset victory over Penn State's No. 4 Phil Davis, who was runner-up in this weight class at the 2006 NCAAs.
Backes and Glenn wrestled each other at the 2006 Midlands. Here's the Cyclone senior's assessment of his finals rival: "He's a tough wrestler. He's pretty funky. I've faced many people like him. I'm excited for it."
"It's going to be a fun match," said Glenn of his Iowa State opponent. "He is the only person I've lost to this year, so I'm looking at having another shot and it's going to be a great match."
Hwt: This will be a rematch of the 2007 Big Ten heavyweight title bout of just two weeks ago. Cole Konrad, the defending NCAA and Big Ten champ and top-seeded big man from Minnesota, squeaked by with a 2-1 win over Oregon State's Ty Watterson, seeded fourth… while second-seeded Aaron Anspach from Penn State beat Central Michigan's No. 3 Bubba Gritter, 5-3.
Referring to his loss two weeks ago at the Big Ten finals to Konrad, Anspach said, "Obviously I'm not going to do what I did last time. That didn't work too well. I'm going to wrestle a smart match with him. He's obviously a great wrestler, and I'm just going to try to give it my all."
"It's going to be a battle," according to the two-time NCAA heavyweight champ. "I don't care what it was last time. It's a national final. They'll be going all out."
The relentless pursuit of perfection …
Interestingly, of the twenty finalists, seven of them bring undefeated records to the finals at the Palace of Auburn Hills: Sam Hazewinkel, Ryan Lang, Derek Moore, Johny Hendricks, Ben Askren, Jake Herbert, and Cole Konrad. The question is: After Saturday night, who will motor out of Motown still perfect?
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