Fast Start Helps Central Oklahoma To First-Day Lead
Bronchos looking like good bet to return to top of DII wrestling
March 9, 2007
By Michael J. Carnes
Special to CSTV.com
But coach David James, winner of six NCAA national titles and 11 overall (counting NAIA) in 25 years as the Bronchos' mentor, knows that a lot of wrestling remains before his team can call itself champions.
The Bronchos put themselves in prime position after the first day, getting a couple of big upsets early and advancing seven wrestlers to Saturday morning's semifinals at the Nebraska-Kearney Health and
But James will be the first to tell you that championships aren't won on the first day.
"I've been around long enough to know that this thing's not over until Saturday night, and hopefully we can get to the second day on a good note," he said. "Obviously, the quarterfinal was a very good round for us to get seven in for All-American."
The Bronchos got off to a hot start by winning nine of their first 10 matches in the opening round Friday morning. Key in that early run was sophomore 133-pounder Jared Henning, who pulled off a huge upset by beating defending champion Brett Allgood of host Nebraska-Kearney 7-5 in overtime. Henning out-hustled and outworked the Loper junior at the end of regulation and got the takedown in the extra session to help kick-start
The Bronchos also got a big win from true freshman Tyler Zukerman, who pinned eighth-ranked Payne Lint of Mercyhurst in the third period at 125 pounds. Both Zukerman and Henning upset ranked wrestlers Friday night to reach the semifinals, with Zukerman knocking off fourth-ranked Tyler Mumbulo of
"Henning was an All-American in 2005 and is a very capable wrestler, but that win was a real motivator for us to beat a defending national champion, and when you get something like that and the pin we got early on at 125, that can really snowball," James said.
That early momentum has put the Bronchos in position to end Nebraska-Omaha's three-year reign at the top of NCAA Division II, returning
The Bronchos will have Zukerman and Henning in the semifinals, along with top-ranked Kyle Evans (141), third-ranked Shea Timothy (149), third-ranked Jason Leavitt (157), fourth-ranked Jared Hess (184) and second-ranked heavyweight Josh Leadingfox. And the longtime Bronchos mentor hopes the momentum his team picked up Friday will carry into Saturday.
"We talked yesterday about momentum being so important, so for us to get that right away has really got us on a good roll," he said. "Of those nine we won the first round, there were probably four or five where we weren't favored on paper, so I'm very proud of the way we wrestled."
The host Nebraska-Kearney team came in with the No. 1 ranking, but got off to a rocky start by advancing just five of their nine qualifiers into the quarterfinals. The Lopers put three into the semifinals, with top-ranked Trevor Charbonneau (125), Joe Ellenberger (157) and top-ranked heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev winning two matches apiece on Friday.
"Our guys wrestled well the first part of the day and lost some close matches, and obviously losing (Allgood) was a hard one to take," Nebraska-Kearney coach Marc Bauer said. "But our guys came back this evening and really stepped it up and we've got the most All-Americans we've ever had (8) and we're still in this thing."
Allgood wasn't the only returning national champion to taste defeat Friday. Minnesota State-Moorhead's Nathan Baker went down to defeat in the quarterfinals at 165 pounds, losing a 4-2 decision to fifth-ranked Brett Hunter of
"That was a big win for Brett," Chadron coach Scott Ritzen said. "He beat that kid earlier in the year, but when you go up against a defending champion at nationals they know what it takes to win here, so to get a big win like that is very nice for Brett."
Three champions from last year and a fourth will have a chance at gold Saturday, and a potential matchup between a pair of 2006 champions is possible.
At 157 pounds, 2006 champion Brad Becker of Wisconsin-Parkside needed extra time to beat Brandon Girtz of Minnesota State-Mankato, putting him in the semifinals. A win there could put him in the finals against Antonio Guerra of
The loss by Girtz was part of a disappointing day for the Minnesota State-Mankato Mavericks, who were hoping to carry over their North Central regional title into the national team race, but find themselves a distant third, 10 points behind Nebraska-Kearney and 24.5 points behind the front-running Bronchos.
"We got three in the semis and five in for All-American, but at this point we're really disappointed," Mavericks coach Jim Makovsky said. "We had a couple of returning All-Americans get beat out, and I thought we could get eight in for All-American. We wrestled really well a couple of weekends ago in regionals and I thought that would carry over. It always seems there are one or two upsets that each team deals with, but not as many as we've had today."
Defending 174-pound champion J.D. Naig of Nebraska-Omaha had arguably the most dominating day of the returning champions. He had an easy major decision in the opening round and dominated Mercyhurst's Zach Schafer 7-2 to advance to the semifinals.
"I wrestled him two years ago and beat him in the semis at regionals, so I'm really going to have to go out and wrestle my match," he said. "Being a (four-time) All-American is a great feeling right now, but I know I still have a lot more business to do."
Seven of the 10 wrestlers who entered this tournament with the No. 1 ranking are still alive for national championships, including Evans, Guerra, Naig, Charbonneau, Dlagnev, Jason Rhoten of Minnesota State-Mankato (149) and Andy Pickar of Minnesota State-Mankato (165).
NCAA Division II National Championships
At Nebraska-Kearney Health and
Day 1 Team Standings (All-Americans)
Central Oklahoma (8), Nebraska-Kearney 55.5 (8), Minnesota State-Mankato 45.5 (5), Nebraska-Omaha 37.5 (4), Upper Iowa 35 (4), Western State 33 (5), Adams State 32 (5), University of Indianapolis 31 (4), Chadron State 30 (4), Pittsburgh-Johnstown 29.5 (5), Shippensburg 26 (3), Augustana 25.5 (4), Findlay 20.5 (3), Fort Hays State 18 (3), Wisconsin-Parkside 16 (1), Mercyhurst 15.5 (3), Ashland 14.5 (2), West Liberty State 12.5 (1), Carson-Newman 12 (1), Kutztown 10.5 (1), Minnesota State-Moorhead 10.5 (2), Belmont Abbey 10 (1), North Carolina-Pembroke 8 (2), Truman State 5 (1), Newberry College 3.5, Gannon 2.5, Southern Illinois-Edwardsville 1.5, Central Missouri State 0.5, Limestone College 0.5, New Mexico Highlands 0.5, Northern State 0.5, Colorado School of Mines 0, St. Cloud State 0, San Francisco State 0.
Saturday's Semifinal Matchups (NCAA D-II Ranking)
125 -
Chris Neidermeyer,
133 - (4) Joe Kemmerer, Kutztown vs. (5) Shane Perkey,
Jared Henning, Central Oklahoma vs. (2) Andy Uhl,
141 - (3) Steven Fittery, Shippensburg vs. (5) John Gamble,
(1)
149 - (2) Todd Meneely, Nebraska-Omaha vs. (3)
(1)
157 - (3) Jason Leavitt,
(5)
165 - Eric Lakia,
(8) Zach Lee,
174 - (5) Cody Henriksen, Augustana vs. (4) Michael Jackson,
(1) J. D. Naig, Nebraska-Omaha vs. (8) Larry Wilbanks,
184 - (5) Mark Murphy, Shippensburg vs. (7) Austin Boehm, Nebraska-Omaha
(2) Jared Deaguero,
197 - Josh Majerus,
(6) Michael Fowler, Pittsburgh-Johnstown vs. (3) Ryan Phillips,
285 - (8) Jason Groller, Shippensburg vs. (2) Josh Leadingfox,
(3)
Saturday's Third Round Consolations
125 -- Derrek Bosso, Pittsburgh-Johnstown vs. (7) Chris Trampe, Augustana
Eddie Lopez,
133 -- (8) Marques Bravo,
(1)
141 --
Joseph Deaguero, Adams State vs. (6)
149 -- (5) Mark Pfeifer,
(8) Mikel Delk,
157 --
(4)
165 --
(2)
174 -- (6) Eli Garshnick, Pittsburgh-Johnstown vs. (3) Zach Schafer, Mercyhurst
Matt Weingart,
184 -- (8) Travis Krinkie, Minnesota State-Mankato vs. (1) Mike Corcetti, Pittsburgh-Johnstown
Charlie Pipher,
197 -- (2) Derek Brunson, North Carolina-Pembroke vs. Heath Jolley,
(1) Casey Woodall,
285 -- (5) Jose Navarro (
(4) Andrew Ubben (
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