Kyle Evans capped a perfect season with the perfect combination -- individual and team national championships.
The Central Oklahoma junior became the first wrestler in school history to complete an unbeaten season at the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships here Saturday night, routing Shippensburg's Steve Fittery 7-1 to capture the 141-pound title and finish 39-0 as the No. 3-ranked Bronchos wrapped up their 15th team championship.
Evans was UCO's lone winner in five finals matches, with 125 Tyler Zukerman, 133 Jared Henning, 157 Jason Leavitt and 285 Josh LeadingFox all finishing as runner-up. The Bronchos also got a third-place showing from 184 Jared Hess, while 149 Shea Timothy was fourth and 197 Heath Jolley fifth.
UCO ended with 124.5 points in winning its seventh Division II crown, including a runaway triumph in 1995 the last time the tournament was held in Kearney. Tournament host and top-ranked Nebraska-Kearney was second with 108.5 points, followed by No. 4 Nebraska-Omaha (67.5) and No. 2 Minnesota State-Mankato (63).
Evans, ranked No. 1 all season after finishing as the national runner-up last year, completed his unblemished season with a dominating finals performance. The Edmond junior had takedowns in the first and third periods, a reverse in the second and a riding time point to easily dispatch Fittery and finish with a 33-4 scoring advantage in four tournament wins.
"I thought about being undefeated a lot during the regular season and it was starting to get to me," said Evans, now 93-18 for his career and the winner of 61 of his last 63 bouts. "But once we got to the regionals and nationals it was a whole different season and I didn't think about it. The team got closer and I started thinking of the team goal and not individual ones."
"It's a great feeling and I couldn't be more proud of my team and what they accomplished," said 25th-year head coach David James, who has led UCO to 12 of its 15 national titles and was named Division II Coach of the Year for the fourth time. "We came ready to wrestle and everybody went out and laid it on the line. We got contributions from all 10 guys and they were just determined to get the job done."
Three of UCO's four other finalists all lost close matches.
Zukerman, the true freshman from Lawton who upset the Nos. 2, 4 and 8 ranked wrestlers en route to the finals, fell to top-rated Trevor Charboneau of Nebraska-Kearney 5-2. Zukerman trailed 3-2 in the final 15 seconds of the match when Charboneau countered his takedown attempt and instead got the clinching takedown.
The unranked Henning had wins over Nos. 1, 2 and 6 in making the finals –- including the last two national champions at the weight –- before dropping a tough 1-0 decision to Kutztown's No. 4 Joe Kemmerer. The only scoring was Kemmerer's third-period escape, with Henning unable to come up with a winning takedown in the final minute.
Top-rated Tony Guerra of Findlay -- the champion at 149 last year -- trimmed No. 3 Leavitt 2-1 in the overtime tiebreaker. Leavitt nearly got the winning takedown at the end of the one-minute sudden victory period, but he couldn't' escape in the second 30-second tiebreaker after Guerra got loose with 10 seconds left in the first one.
LeadingFox fell behind 4-2 in the first period to No. 1 Tervel Dlagnev, then was caught and pinned early in the second stanza while trying to roll through and get a reverse.
KEARNEY, Neb. (March10) – No. 3-ranked Central Oklahoma pushed five individuals into the finals and added three other top-five placers to wrap up its 15th national wrestling championship here Saturday afternoon at the Health and Sports Center.
Central Oklahoma wraps up NCAA title
It's the seventh NCAA Division II title for the Bronchos, who also won here in 1995. UCO will go into tonight's championship finals with an insurmountable 22-point lead over top-ranked and tournament host Nebraska-Kearney (120.5-98.5), with No. 2 Minnesota State-Mankato (59) third and No. 4 Nebraska-Omaha (58.5) fourth.
Tyler Zukerman at 125 pounds and Jared Henning at 133 opened Saturday morning's semifinal round with their third straight upset wins to once again spark the Bronchos, with UCO also moving 141 Kyle Evans, 157 Jason Leavitt and 285 Josh LeadingFox into the finals.
Jared Hess added a third-place finish at 184, while 149 Shea Timothy was fourth and 197 Heath Jolley fifth.
"It's a great feeling and I couldn't be more proud of my team," said 25th-year head coach David James, who has led UCO to 12 of its 15 national titles. "We came ready to wrestle and everybody went out and laid it on the line. We won some big matches early in every round and that gave us great momentum."
Zukerman exploded for 10 third-period points to score a stunning 10-2 major decision over No. 2 Arsenia Barksdale of Adams State. The Lawton freshman broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown midway through the final stanza, added a pair of near-falls to extend the lead to 8-1 and then followed a Barksdale escape with a takedown at the buzzer to earn the bonus-point win.
Henning continued his amazing tournament with a 6-4 upset of No. 2 Andy Uhl of Findlay, avenging a loss in the Midwest Regional two weeks ago. Henning used a takedown with one second left in the first period to take a 4-1 lead and he made that hold up, barely fending off Uhl's last-second takedown try to end the match.
Evans had his closest call of an unbeaten season in a 4-2 sudden-victory win over West Liberty State's Doug Sura. Evans gave up just his fourth takedown of the season in falling behind 2-0 in the first 30 seconds of the match, cut the deficit to 2-1 with an escape and tied it with a third-period escape to force overtime.
The Edmond junior then pulled out the tense win on a takedown with just three seconds left in the one-minute sudden-victory period to improve to 38-0.
Leavitt knocked off No. 2 Brad Becker of Wisconsin-Parkside, last year's 149-pound national champion, with a tough 4-3 triumph. Leavitt's first-period takedown was the difference in the match as the Ponca City junior fought off Becker in the final 30 seconds to secure the win.
LeadingFox was in control all the way in a 6-0 shutout of Shippensburg's Jason Groller. The Pawnee senior took a 2-0 lead with a first-period takedown, controlled Groller the entire second period and added an escape and takedown in the final stanza.
Timothy dropped an 8-2 semifinal decision to No. 2 Todd Meneely of Nebraska-Omaha, while Hess fell to No. 2 Jared Deaguero of Adams State 6-1.
Timothy and Hess both bounced back with consolation wins, with Hess topping No. 1-rated Mike Corcetti of Pittsburgh-Johnstown 3-2 to take third while Timothy dropped his consolation finals bout.
Jolley had a second-period fall in his first consolation match Saturday morning and then came back from a semifinal loss to upend top-rated Casey Woodall of Adams State 3-2 in the overtime tiebreaker.
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