NCAA Wrestling Friday's Results
Friday Highlights:
What a great night for Utah wrestling!!! What can you say! The high school class of 1998 which produced three high school national champions has now produced three NCAA All-Americans and two finalists. With Aaron Holker and Ryan Lewis making the finals with Cael Sanderson Utah has three NCAA finalists tying Pennsylvania with the most NCAA finalists! What an incredible night in wrestling proving once and for all that Utah is a true powerhouse in amateur wrestling.
Justin Ruiz came through in the consolations and will finish no worse than 6th in the tournament.
Sanderson won his 157th and 158th consecutive matches and now stands one match away from college wrestling immortality.
In the quarter-finals Friday morning he defeated Northern Iowa's Jayson Payne by technical fall 23-8. Ohio State's Nick Preston put up a better fight in the semi's but Sanderson had way too much firepower and prevailed 18-7. Sanderson will now take on Lehigh's Jon Trenge.
Holker's match with #1 ranked, Navy's Marc Conley was simply awesome! There was no scoring in the first round but some incredible scrambling by Holker fought off some good leg attacks by Conley. Conley scored first with a second period escape which was answered by Holker early in the third period.
Holker effectively countered a Conley attack and spun behind as Conley stood up. To avoid a takedown Conley fled the mat and Holker was awarded a point. Conley then took down Holker with about thirty seconds left. With 8 seconds left both wrestlers went off the mat. But Holker executed a nice roll which he turned into a reversal just before the buzzer to secure a thrilling 4-3 win.
Ryan Lewis, who has had the knack of giving up some early points, wrestled his best match of the tournament. He scored first against Wisconsin's Kevin Black and Black escaped to end the period 2-1. Lewis started the second stanza on top and pinned Black with a powerful arm-bar and half pin. Lewis is undefeated and the number one seed for Minnesota.
Justin Ruiz lost in the quarter-finals to Trenge and came back with a pin over Indiana's Pat DeGain. Ruiz then secured a solid 8-4 win over Michigan's Kyle Smith. The Cornhusker will have two matches tomorrow to determine where he will finish, third through sixth.
Rocky Smart (Arizona State) was eliminated just one match from All-American status dropping a 3-1 OT decision to Northern Illinois' Scott Owen. Smart won three straight matches after an opening round loss. The score was tied 1-1 going into the OT period. Owen shot immediately as the whistle was blown and caught Rocky off-guard for the winning take down.
After a second round loss last night Gabe Vigil (Boise State)lost a heart breaking decision to the Army's Phillip Simpson.
Collin Robertson, also of Boise State, was eliminated in the first round of consolation Friday by Jason DeBruin (Hofstra) 15-7.
The Utah contingent of ten wrestlers produces four All-Americans and Utah wrestlers have an overall record of 22-13 with five matches pending! Not much more to say about this great tournament in Albany.
Team Scores:
Minnesota 112.0, Oklahoma 95.0, Iowa State 88.0, Iowa 83.5, Oklahoma State 66.5, Lehigh 55.5
The finalists are listed below:
125 Pounds--Stephen Abas (Fresno) vs. Luke Eustice (Iowa)
133 Pounds--RYAN LEWIS (Minnesota) vs. Johnny Thompson (Oklahoma State)
141 Pounds--AARON HOLKER (Iowa State) vs. Eric Larkin (Arizona State)
149 Pounds--Jared Frayer (Oklahoma) vs. Jared Lawrence (Minnesota)
157 Pounds--Bryan Snyder (Nebraska)vs. Luke Becker (Minnesota)
165 Pounds--Joe Heskett (Iowa State) vs. Matt Lackey (Illinois)
174 Pounds--Greg Parker (Princeton) vs. Greg Jones (West Virginia)
184 Pounds--Rob Rohn (Lehigh) vs. Josh Lambrecht (Oklahoma)
197 Pounds--CAEL SANDERSON (Iowa State) vs. Jon Trenge (Lehigh)
285 Pounds--Tommy Rowlands (Ohio State) vs. Steven Mocco (Iowa)
Fast Facts: Rohn is the lowest seed in the finals (8th) but takes on #6 seed Lambrecht. Stephen Abas had a close call against Boston's Jose DeLeon in first round but has been on task since. Abas, Lewis, Snyder and Sanderson are undefeated. The upset of the tournament was at 184 pounds where #1 Scott Justus (Virginia Tech) was upset in the first round by Cal State Fullerton's Rowdy Lundegreen, who came into the tournament with a 3-4 record.
