Quick notes from Friday morning's championship
quarterfinal bouts.
-
Iowa 125-pounder Charlie Flack started out very
fast against Tanner Gardner of Stanford with a takedown in the
opening seconds. Gardner got a takedown of his own right at the end
of the second for a 4-2 lead. The Hawkeye chose neutral in the third
and got a takedown and rode Gardner out the rest of the way for a
riding time point and 5-4 victory.
-
No. 10 seed James Nicholson of Old Dominion, a
former State champ at Des Moines Roosevelt, was no match for No. 2
Jayson Ness of Minnesota. Ness built up a 9-1 lead in the second
period before recording the fall with his tough half Nelson.
-
Mack Reiter of Minnesota (Don Bosco) was denied a
trip to the semifinals with a 5-3 loss to No. 1 seed Franklin Gomez
of Michigan State. Gomez scored the only two takedowns of the match.
-
There wasn't a lot of scoring, but it sure was
exciting between Iowa's Joey Slaton and Nick Fanthorpe of Iowa State
at 133. Both earned escapes in the final two periods to send the
match into overtime knotted at 1-1. After no scoring from their feet
in overtime, they went to the 30-second tiebreakers. Slaton was able
to ride the Cyclone the first tiebreaker period. Fanthorpe
intentionally released Slaton in the next tiebreaker to give the
Hawk a 2-1 lead and went after the winning takedown. But it was
Slaton who would shoot in on a single leg and hold n tight until the
whistle blew for a 2-1 win.
-
No. 9 Nick Gallick of Iowa State went into the
second period tied 0-0 with top-ranked and undefeated Chad Mendes of
Cal Poly at 141 and only trailed 1-0 entering the second. But Mendes
rode the Cyclone the entire third period and earned a pair of back
points in the process, for a 5-0 victory over Gallick.
-
Top-seeded Brent Metcalf of Iowa at 149 had to
fight off a late takedown attempt by No. 9 Lance Palmer of Ohio
State for a 3-2 quarterfinal win. Metcalf had the only takedown of
the match just seconds after a third-period escape. The Hawkeye
somehow escaped Palmer's takedown bid with 25 seconds left in the
match to hold on.
-
Everyone who wanted to see a rematch in the
finals between Metcalf and Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota won't get
their wish. The Hawkeye would have to lose in the semifinals for
that match to be possible, since Schlatter lost to Darrion Caldwell
of North Carolina State, the only wrestler who has defeated Metcalf
this season.
-
At 165, a trio of wrestlers from the state were
in action. Moza Fay of UNI faced top-ranked Eric Tannenbaum of
Michigan, Jon Reader of Iowa State met Nick Marable of Missouri and
Iowa's Mark Perry battled Michael Cannon of American.
-
Perry didn't take long, as he took Cannon down
with a cradle already locked up and earned the fall in 47 seconds,
to clinch his fourth All-American honors.
-
Fay and Reader both ended up on the short end of
close matches. Fay gave up a late takedown and Tannenbaum had more
than enough riding time for an extra point, in a 7-4 victory. Reader
was taken down twice and couldn't get a takedown of his own, in a
5-3 loss.
-
Jay Broschel of Iowa kept the Iowa train rolling
with a dominating 8-2 win over Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan.
Borschel took Sinnott down in the opening seconds and never let up,
with two more takedowns and more than three minutes of riding time
in the victory.
-
Iowa State got their first and only quarterfinal
win at 184, where top-ranked Jake Varner scored an escape in the
second period and rode Roger Kish of Minnesota the entire third
period for a riding time point, in a 2-0 victory.
-
The Hawkeyes suffered their first loss of the
round at 184, when Philip Keddy gave up a takedown in the final
seconds, in a 4-3 loss to undefeated Ohio State sophomore Mike
Pucillo.
-
The Cyclones took another hit at 197, when
unseeded David Bertolino dropped a 5-4 match to No. 6 Dallas Herbst
of Wisconsin. Bertolino nearly scored near fall points on a cradle
in the third period, but Herbst wormed his way out of trouble and
scored a reversal to tie the match at 4-4. He rode the Cyclone the
rest of the way for a riding time point and one-point win.
-
Iowa State finished 1-5 in quarterfinal bouts
when heavyweight David Zabriskie fell to No. 2 J.D. Bergman of Ohio
State, 11-1. The Buckeye led 4-1 at the end of the first period,
rode the Cyclone the entire second period and added a late takedown
with near fall points for the major decision.
-
It was also a disappointing weight for Iowa,
where Matt Fields lost 2-0 to Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State.
Rosholt escaped in the second period and rode Fields the entire
third for a riding time point.
