"We can hold our chin up," said head coach John Smith. "We're better than when we got out here and our guys wrestled some of their best matches of the year. We felt that if we didn't score at three weight classes it was going to be tough for us to win."
I was a little disappointed in our performance in the semifinals, but was pleased with the way our guys came back and finished."
Scott cruised through the 133-pound bracket, picking up a major decision and technical fall in his first two matches. Following workmanlike wins over Ryan Dunn of Oregon (13-6) and Mike Grey of Cornell (8-2), Scott set the stage to repeat as the 133-pound champion. In the finals against Joey Baker of Navy, Scott used a first period takedown to open up the scoring and later pushed his lead to 5-1 after a takedown early in the third period. Baker got a late takedown to pull with two points, but Scott closed out his 14th win of the season with a 6-4 victory.
Morgan had little trouble reaching the finals as well, picking up a fall and technical fall among his four wins en route to the finals. In the finals against second-seeded Adam Frey of Cornell, Morgan fought through a scoreless first period and then broke the match open in the second period with a reverse and takedown, giving himself a 4-1 lead heading into the final period. Morgan got a third period takedown for good measure and finished off his tournament run with a 6-3 victory.
Heavyweight Jared Rosholt had arguably the most impressive run through the tournament of anyone in the field. Despite being ranked seventh nationally entering the tournament, Rosholt was not awarded one of the top four seeds. After picking up falls in his first two matches, Rosholt dominated in a 9-0 major decision over fourth-seeded Zach Hammond of Cornell. Rosholt followed up his quarterfinal performance by upsetting top-seeded and No. 2 ranked Bubba Gritter of Central Michigan 4-2. Rosholt dropped a hard-fought contest in the finals against Ed Prendergast of Navy, nearly scoring a go-ahead takedown with the match tied 2-2 in the third period, before falling victim to a takedown and three-point nearfall to drop the match 7-3.
Newly McSpadden had the longest day of any Cowboy, finishing the day with eight matches under his belt to go with his third place finish. After losing a nail-biter to eventual runner-up Chase Pami, McSpadden reeled of six consecutive wins in a roller coaster afternoon. Trailing 6-4 in the final seconds of the consolation finals against Central Michigan's Tyler Grayson, McSpadden scored a late takedown to force overtime and earned a 7-6 sudden victory win when he rode Grayson out in the first thirty seconds and scored an escape in the second. McSpadden topped off his day with a 3-2 victory over third-seeded Josh Zupancic to earn his third-place finish.
Senior Jake Dieffenbach continued his strong start in Stillwater, despite losing his first match of the season. Seeded second, Dieffenbach stormed through his first two matches, picking up major decisions over Eric Coxbill of Wyoming (12-4) and Justin Jacobs of Navy (13-5). After dropping an 8-3 decision to eventual champion Mark Lewnes of Cornell, Dieffenbach posted a 7-1 decision over Tommy Hutchinson of Appalachian State and a 7-3 decision over top-seeded Patrick Pitsch of Arizona State to earn third place honors.
Brandon Mason continued his season-long trend of winning big, picking up two falls, a technical fall, and two major decisions in his third place effort. Mason essentially went untouched until the semifinals when he dropped a 4-2 decision to eventual champion Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan. Mason followed up just his second loss of the season with an 11-2 major decision over John Wilcox of OKCU and a 2:31 fall over Evan Copeland of Adams State in the third place match.
Clayton Foster showed flashes of brilliance throughout his run to third-place honors, proving why the Cowboy coaching staff is so high on the 197-pound true freshman. Among Foster's five victories were two major decisions and a pair of gutsy two-point victories. He wrapped things up with an 11-5 decision over Thor Moen of Arizona State in the third-place match.
Jared Shelton was strong out of the gate, picking up a fall in his first match and jumping out to a 7-2 lead in his second before his injury. Neil Erisman also saw his solid performance end in injury default after picking up three wins in his first four matches.
At 149, both Quinten Fuentes and Mike Bizzle went 2-2 for the Cowboys, while Cody Hill had a 2-2 showing and Ben Ashmore finished with a 1-2 tournament record.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now