Late Heroics Put Iowa State In Front

Cyclones take lead from top-ranked Minnesota after second day at NCAA Championships

March 16, 2007

Kyle Stefan

Special to CSTV.com

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - Pushing all day to take the lead from top-ranked Minnesota, Iowa State used some late heroics to pull in front at the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships Friday night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

Sixth-seeded Jake Varner, an Iowa State freshman, notched a thrilling takedown in the final seconds of overtime to defeat Minnesota's Roger Kish, 4-2, in a semifinal at 184 pounds. 

Immediately after Varner's triumph, ninth-seeded ISU senior Kurt Backes earned a 5-4 win over Penn State's Phil Davis at 197.

Both Cyclones advanced to Saturday night's finals; more importantly, the wins propelled ISU--for the moment--to a slight advantage over second-place Minnesota.  

After two days and four sessions of wrestling, Iowa State tops the field with 83.5 points. Minnesota is second with 80 while Missouri sits in third with 69.5.

Oklahoma State, trying to win its fifth straight NCAA title, is well behind in fourth with 62.5. The Cowboys are comfortably in front of fifth-place Northwestern (56.5 points) and sixth-place Michigan (55.5).

The Cyclones advanced three wrestlers--Varner, Backes and Trent Paulson (157 pounds) to the finals and have one (Travis Paulson) left in the consolation bracket.

Minnesota's Cole Konrad, last year's heavyweight champ, was the lone Golden Gopher to advance to a final. Minnesota has four wrestlers alive in the consolation round.

In the night's biggest upset, Edinboro's Gregor Gillespie ended Minnesota sophomore Dustin Schlatter's 65-match winning streak with a 3-2 shocker in the semifinals at 149 pounds.

Following are recaps of Friday's championship semifinal action.

125

Oklahoma senior Sam Hazewinkel, looking for his first individual title after placing third in three prior NCAAs, cruised to the finals with a 10-0 semifinal pounding of Minnesota's Jayson Ness.

"There's always that fear you won't get your chance to come to the finals," Hazewinkel said. "Senior year not having done it yet, there was a different kind of senioritis.

"I went out in the first period planning to get way ahead. (Jayson's) a tough freshman, but it worked out that way for me."

Hazewinkel remained undefeated on the season at 25-0.

Paul Donahoe will oppose Hazewinkel in a rematch of this year's Big 12 final--won by Hazewinkel--after receiving a controversial stalling point with one second left in double overtime in his 2-1 semifinal match win over Cornell's Troy Nickerson.

"Sam is a great competitor," Donahoe said. "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

Matt Valenti of Penn earned his way back to the finals with a 4-2 semifinal win over sixth-seeded Darrell Vasquez from Cal-Poly.

Valenti, the defending NCAA champion, took a 4-0 decision over Minnesota's Mack Reiter in the quarterfinals earlier Friday.

Asked to compare his runs to the finals in successive NCAA championships, Valenti said, "The biggest difference for me is just the starting place. Other than that, I haven't approached it any differently. There have been battles, and that's exactly what I expected. That's exactly what last year was.

"The semifinal win was a big one for me," he added. "Darrell Vasquez was a very tough kid."

Fourth-seeded Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State will oppose Valenti after a tight 4-3 win over Michigan State's Nick Simmons, the No. 1 seed and a three-time All American.

"I've seen him once," Scott said. "At the beginning of the year I wasn't wrestling my best and he ended up beating me by a couple of points."

141

The finals at 141 will feature a pair of wrestlers who are unbeaten on the season.

Derek Moore of UC-Davis, the No. 2 seed, got to the finals with a 6-2 win over Oklahoma State's Nathan Morgan.

Moore, 23-0, will face Northwestern's Ryan Lang (29-0), who escaped a strong effort from Rider's Don Fisch in a 3-2 semifinal win. 

149

Michigan's Josh Churella will be the host state's lone representative in the finals after taking out Ohio State's Lance Palmer in a classic Wolverine-Buckeye showdown, 5-2. 

In the other semifinal, Gillespie, a sophomore, took a 3-1 lead into the final 30 seconds and held on for the upset over the top-seeded, unbeaten Schlatter, also a sophomore, despite stalling for the final 10 seconds.

157

Iowa State's Trent Paulson and Wisconsin's Craig Henning will meet in the finals after Paulson dispatched Illinois' Michael Poeta 4-0 and Henning took care of Hofstra's James Strouse 1-0.

165

For the fourth time this year, Oklahoma State's Johny Hendricks defeated Iowa State's Travis Paulson. All four times, Hendricks won by just a single point.

"Paulson is a good wrestler," Hendricks said. "He definitely made it tough on me."

Hendricks' win advances the two-time defending NCAA champ into the finals against Iowa's Mark Perry, the No. 2 seed. Perry beat Hofstra's Michael Patrovich, 6-4, in the semis.

Hendricks, an OSU senior and three-time Big 12 champ, extended his winning streak to 56 straight.

"I have Mark Perry tomorrow, and I still have to view him as a threat," Hendricks said. "I am not really too interested in anybody else, which is what makes me successful at this tournament. I do not care about anybody else. I only worry about me; I do not want to worry about them. Just line them up and let's wrestle."

174

Missouri's Ben Askren, a three-time Big 12 Champion, made it 85 wins in a row by cleaning up Iowa's Eric Luedke, 8-3.

Askren will face Pittsburgh's Keith Gavin, a 4-3 winner over Penn's Matthew Herrington.

184

Iowa State's Varner will square off against No. 1 seed Jake Herbert in the finals.

Herbert, a Northwestern junior, remained unbeaten (29-0) on the year with a 13-4 major decision over Michigan's Tyrel Todd.

197

Backes' opponent in the finals will be American's Joshua Glenn after the junior pinned Hosftra's Chris Weidman in 4:27.

Heavyweight

Minnesota's Cole Konrad returned to defend his title after a narrow 2-1 win over Oregon State's Ty Watterson thanks to 1:28 of accumulated riding time.

Konrad's opponent will be Penn State's Aaron Anspach, who won 5-3 over Central Michigan's Ryan Gritter.

Saturday begins with session five at 11 a.m. featuring the 3rd-through-8th wrestle-back finals. The championship finals are slated for Saturday night at 8.

Notes: As evidence of the ever-increasing parity throughout college wrestling, 25 different schools had at least one semifinalist. Iowa State, Minnesota, Oklahoma State and Hofstra--all contenders for the team championship--led the way with four...16 different schools landed one wrestler in the finals...Sacred Heart heavyweight Payam Zarrinpour became the school's first All-American in any sport with his win over Cal State Fullerton's Wade Sauer in the wrestle-backs...Attendance for Saturday's evening session was announced at 14,745, bringing the two-day combined total at the Palace to 56,806.