NCAA Wrestling Championships

[ngineer]

Tournament starts, here in St. Louis, on Thursday at 11 a.m. CDST. Projections have Cornell and Lehigh battling for 5th and 6th place based upon seedings and rankings. But what's on paper rarely holds once the grappling starts. Lehigh is second of all teams over the past 12 years in having their wrestlers exceed their seeds. They will need that, again, as they have drawn some difficult draws in the seeding. Most projecting the team title to be fought primarily among Penn State, Minnesota, Ohio State, and Iowa.

[LakesBison]

NDSU has 3 wrestlers in it. Monk got a #12 seed in the tourney.

[ngineer]

Lehigh qualified 9, but sent only 8 due to our 174 pounder suffering a concussion at EIWA. We have four seeded: Hamlin #2 at 184; Rey #4 at 285; Hatchett #10 at 165 and Kennedy #11 at 197. Our 133 pound frosh, Beckman, faces the #2 seed right out of the chute this a.m. Tough draw, but we'll see what he's made of.

[ngineer]

Lehigh still has 7 wrestlers alive: 3 in the championship bracket (Hatchett-165; Hamlin-184 and Rey-285), and 4 in the consolations: Beckman-133; Dutton-141; Tanen-157 and Kennedy-197. Only tough luckster Shane Welsh is done. He drew a tough hand having to wrestle the#7 and #10 seeds back to back losing to both in close matches. Hamlin could be on a collision course with Wyoming's Joe LeBlanc as both have looked strong, as has Hatchett. Rey has won both matches, but he has struggled. Not the dominating Zach we have come to expect. Not sure what's going on there. Tanen is the 'feel good' story. A senior who never saw much varsity action in his career, he qualified for the NCAA with a 7-15 record after placing 5th at the EIWA. After losing to a top seed this a.m., he came back to beat his opponent from Chattanooga to move to the next round of consy's. Lehigh will look to crack into the top 10 on Friday with a strong showing. The team race is between Penn Stateand Minnesota at the moment with Okla. State and Iowa lurking. Major point total begin to mount on Friday as semifinalists are earned and consolations proceed for places.

[ngineer]

Appalachian State has a semifinalist! #9 seed Austin Trotman upset #1 seed Joe LeBlanc of Wyoming, 13-10 in a wild match this a.m. at 184 pounds. Match should be on ESPNU. Tonight's semi's start at 6 p.m. Trotman's match likely to go around 7:30-8 pm.

Lehigh has climbed into a pitched battle with Illinois and Ohio State for 6th place. LU has 3 semifinalists: Hatchett at 165, who looks the strongest I've ever seen him, beating the #3 seed from Iowa State; Hamlin looking solid at 184; and Rey doing enough to get by at 285. Concerns abound that he may not be 100% due to a 'bug'. He faces his #1 rival Flores of American tonight in the semis. Rey beat Flores for the National Championship last year, after losing to him in the EIWA. This year, Flores, again, beat Rey in OT in the EIWA. Hopefully history continues to repeat, but Flores looks very tough, pinning all opponents thus far.

Joe Kennedy is gamely fighting back through consolations and is one win away from guaranteed all-american status, and if he wins out (two tonight and tow tomorrow) he'll finish 3rd in his final season for the Brown & White.

[asumike83]

You beat me to it ngineer! Trotman will be moving on the semifinals. A Winston-Salem native, here is a nice article on him from the W-S paper:

http://www.journalnow.net/index.php/app_trail/entry/trotman-earns-all-america-status-maybe-more/

[LakesBison]

NDSU has 2 wrestlers alive, both won in consolation today and are 1 win from All americans!

[ngineer]

What a night. Lehigh has two finalists (and , imo, should have been 3), but we are in great position. Just a few points out of 5th place, Ohio State, and just ahead of Oklahoma State. Hatchett and Rey will wrestle for Lehigh's 28th and 29th national titles. Hamlin will try and finish third after very disappointing loss Wright of Penn State, who he tore apart in the dual this year. Very questionable non-call of stalling of Wright that would have sent the bout into overtime. Kennedy will wrestle for 7th place at 197, his first all-american status. Live coverage of the finals will be on ESPN at 7 p.m. ET.

[sgt smash]

Wat hing Hatchett now. Tough match but this kid is tough.

[ngineer]

David Taylor is Outstanding. He is a machine and tremendously talented. Hatchett took it to him in the dual, losing 8-5 (was down 6-5 with 10 seconds and shot a wild takedown attempt and was countered). Tonight he was not himself. From where I sat he look 'tired', and indeed, our coach confirmed that he could not get his 'breath'--very possibly due to nerves of never being on the 'center stage' before, and if you've been an athlete, you know if you cannot get a 'good wind' through relaxed breathing, you just cannot perform at the high level required in something like this. Still as an 11th seed, Hatchett had a tremendous tournament. Only a very few wrestlers in NCAA history have been seeded so low, only to make the Finals. He'll look back on the experience with fond memories years from now, but not tonight. A two-time all-american ain't too shabby.

[ngineer]

Lehigh's attempt to crack into the Top 5 fell 7 points short as Saturday proved to be a disappointment, considering the early success. Still Lehigh improved its point total from last year and succeeded in placing 4 All-Americans! Top Ten Teams:

1. Penn State 143
2. Minnesota 117.5
3. Iowa 107.5
4. Cornell 102.5
5. Ohio State 68.5
6. Okla. State 66
7. Illinois 62
8. Lehigh 61
9. Northwestern 42.5
10. Oreg. St. 40.5

David Taylor of Penn State was name Most Outstanding Wrestler, pinning his first four opponents and winning by tech fall in the finals. PSU becomes the first Eastern team to win back-to-back NCAA Championships.