Konrad's Win Caps Minnesota's NCAA Championship

Gophers win third title in school history

March 17, 2007

By Kyle Stefan

Special to CSTV.com

AUBURN HILLS, Mich. - With the NCAA title secured, Cole Konrad sent his Minnesota Golden Gophers out in style.

Konrad, the two-time defending NCAA heavyweight champion, ended his career with a third crown by pinning Penn State's Aaron Anspach in the final match of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships in front of a single-session record 17,780 last night at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

The senior's win took just 1:53 and punctuated Minnesota's third title in school history, all coming this decade. The Gophers were back-to-back champions in 2001-02 under coach J Robinson.

"I was pumped up and looking for a pin," Konrad said.

"It's a national tournament, and for the most part, I felt I had control of it, from the first match to the last match," he added.

Minnesota finished with 98 points and the team championship; second-place Iowa State ended with 88.5. Missouri was third with 80, Northwestern collected 71.5 to place fourth, while Oklahoma State, the four-time defending champions, had 69 and placed fifth.

Iowa State entered Saturday's championship finals trailing Minnesota by 7.5 points (92-84.5) and had three wrestlers competing for individual titles against Minnesota's one. But sixth-seeded Jake Varner (184 pounds) and ninth-seeded Kurt Backes (197) were decided underdogs against Northwestern's Jake Herbert - the No. 1 seed at 184 - and American's Joshua Glenn - seeded No. 2 at 197.

Trent Paulson kept Iowa State in the team title race by capturing the title at 157 pounds with a pair of third-period takedowns against Wisconsin's Craig Henning.

However, Herbert was too much for Varner in a non-descript 6-1 win; and Glenn took down Backes 12 seconds into overtime, winning 6-4 and ending all suspense surrounding the team title entering Konrad's heavyweight showdown with Anspach.

"When we met last night and talked about what had to be done, we had to get in striking distance," Robinson said. "If those guys in the morning could get us where we needed to be, we knew Cole could end the deal for us one way or another. He did play a big deal, and he has played a big deal."

Saturday night also saw title defenses and first-ever championships to cap a wild weekend of high-caliber wrestling in Auburn Hills.

Missouri's Ben Askren wrapped up his title defense at 174 with a takedown and near-fall midway through the third period against Pittsburgh's Keith Gavin, eventually winning 8-2.

Askren, a four-time NCAA finalist and two-time national champion, finished his senior season unbeaten at 41-0 and ended his career on an 87-match winning streak.

In the night's biggest upset, Iowa junior Mark Perry - a Stillwater, Okla. native - shocked Oklahoma State's two-time defending champion Johny Hendricks at 165, winning a 4-3 thriller via a two-point near-fall with 18 seconds left.

"I saw my dad's first national championship at Nebraska and that's been my life goal," Perry said. "It's the most important thing in my life. It's a relief finally to win it after coming so close the past two years. It's huge for me."

Perry had finished second and third at NCAAs the past two seasons.

"In the past it just wouldn't have happened," he added. "I would have gotten rode out in that third period. What it really came down to was the support from my coaches and my family."

Nebraska sophomore Paul Donahoe - who grew up about 30 minutes north of the Palace in Davison, Mich. - returned home and picked up the NCAA title at 125, winning 3-1 with a two-point takedown of Oklahoma's Sam Hazewinkel in the first overtime period.

"Hazewinkel beat me 10-3 or 11-3 last weekend, but I knew it wasn't a good match I wrestled," Donahoe said. "I'm so happy. This is like a dream."

Hazewinkel finished his career at the NCAA championships as a four-time All-America with three third-place finishes and this year's second.

Penn senior Matt Valenti successfully defended his title at 133 with a 4-2 win over Oklahoma State junior Coleman Scott. 

"I've wrestled him before so I knew what was coming," Valenti said. "In my warm-ups today I was just working on my outside shots and duck and preparing for that.

"Knowing it was my last match and my last tournament I couldn't ask for a better ending."

Unbeaten UC-Davis senior Derek Moore dominated Northwestern's Tom Lang - who also entered the match undefeated - at 141, winning 17-2 by technical fall.

Moore took command of the match with a three-point near fall and three-point cradle late in the second period before notching his first takedown early in the third to build a 10-point lead.

"It was maybe my wildest dreams," Moore said about winning the title via technical fall. "It's just crazy being able to get on top of that guy and being able to turn him and turn him. At every point I was just building and building. It's just insane being here (after that)."

Edinboro sophomore Gregor Gillespie - the No. 6 seed - completed a meteoric rise to the title at 149 with a takedown of Michigan's Josh Churella with 15 seconds left in sudden victory.

Gillespie upended defending champion and second-seeded Dustin Schlatter 3-2 in Friday's semifinals. 

"I had quite a bit of confidence coming in," Gillespie said. "Coach always tells me to believe in myself. I try to do that as much as possible and I know he believes in me as well. That really helped out."

CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND RESULTS:

125: Donahoe (Nebraska) dec. Hazewinkel (Oklahoma), 3-1 ot.

133: Valenti (Penn) dec. Scott (Oklahoma State), 4-2.

141: Moore (California-Davis) tech. fall Ryan Lang (Northwestern), 17-2, 5:41.

149: Gillespie (Edinboro) dec. Churella (Michigan), 3-1 ot.

157: Paulson (Iowa State) dec. Henning (Wisconsin), 6-5.

165: Perry (Iowa) dec. Hendricks (Oklahoma State), 4-3.

174: Askren (Missouri) dec. Gavin (Pittsburgh), 8-2.

184: Herbert (Northwestern) dec. Varner (Iowa State), 6-1.

197: Glenn (American) dec. Backes (Iowa State), 6-4 ot.

285: Konrad (Minnesota) pinned Anspach (Penn State), 1:53.

NOTEBOOK: Minnesota and Michigan topped the field with five All-Americans. The last NCAA Championships where the leading teams had less that six was 32 years ago in 1975 ... The weekend started with 329 wrestlers representing 74 schools ... 37 had at least one All-American ... Derek Moore, the champion at 141, became UC-Davis' first national champion at any weight ... American 197-pounder Josh Glenn also became his school's first national champ ... More history was made this week as Missouri's Max Askren became the first No. 1 seed every to go 0-2 at the NCAAs ... Saturday night's single-session record attendance of 17,780 brought the three-day count to 89,190 ... with its third-place finish, Missouri claimed its first hardware in any NCAA championship since 1965.