Dubbed Edinboro's Murderer's Row by the ESPN announcing crew, their strong showing likely has Edinboro finishing fifth at Nationals, the best showing in school history. The 1997 and 2009 teams finished sixth. Head coach Tim Flynn has now produced 33 All-Americans, with Port and Schopp joining the group of two-time All-Americans and Habat stepping on the stand for the first time.
Mitchell Port defeated Zain Retherford on Saturday morning (Photo/Mark Beshey, The Guillotine)Retherford would knot the score at 1-1 with an escape at 1:21 of the third. The match would go through an overtime period and two 30-second tiebreaker periods without a score. Port almost tilted Retherford in the second 30-second period, then had to hold on Retherford nearly escaped.
They went to a second one-minute overtime session, and Port came up with the winning takedown with 32 seconds remaining. He spun around a takedown attempt by Retherford for the 3-1 win in the second tiebreaker.
That moved Port into the third place match and a rematch with North Carolina's Evan Henderson. The ninth seed had denied Port a shot at the national championship with a 5-3 upset in the quarterfinals, but this time it was all Port. He grabbed a 4-1 lead after one period, then reversed Henderson in the second period for a 6-1 advantage. In the third Port started with an escape and added another takedown for a 9-1 major decision.
Port concludes his junior season with a 32-1 record and enters his final season with a 96-15 career ledger. He now has a second place finish in 2013 and a third in 2014 to his credit.
Schopp faced Minnesota's David Thorn in his consolation semifinal match at 133 lbs. The redshirt junior dominated the seventh seed, posting a 12-4 major decision. He jumped out to fast start with a takedown with just over a minute left in the first period, tilting Thorn for two points and then three points at the end of the period for a 7-0 advantage.
Schopp added three more back points in the second period after starting on top. Thorn would record a pair of takedowns in the third.
The third place match turned out being what many thought would be tonight's championship bout, with the second-seeded Schopp squaring off against top-seeded Joe Colon of Northern Iowa. Colon had handed Schopp his lone loss prior to Nationals, winning 3-0 at the Midlands Championships.
It turned out to be another low scoring affair, as the only point came in the second period. After Schopp chose the top, Colon would escape 12 seconds into the period in what would turn out to be the only point in a 1-0 decision. Colon chose neutral to start the third period and Schopp was unable to take him down.
Schopp finishes his third season with a 35-3 record, with two losses to Colon and the third to Iowa's Tony Ramos, who will wrestle for the 133 lb. championship tonight after defeating Schopp in the semifinals. He enters his senior campaign with a 107-14 career record and has now finished fourth twice at Nationals. That is good for 20th in career victories.
Habat made an impressive run as the eighth seed. After losing his second match to Michigan's Eric Grajales, he battled back to win five straight matches, including a 5-4 upset of top-seeded Drake Houdashelt of Missouri. The day before he won over the number two seed Nick Dardanes of Minnesota.
Habat opened the scoring against Houdashelt with a takedown at the 2:22 mark, with an escape making it 2-1 after one period. The two traded reversals, with a stalling point against Habat making it 4-4 after two periods. Habat came up with the winning point with an escape with 1:28 left.
He moved on to face Grajales in the third place match. After a wild 15-10 decision in the first meeting, Grajales ended up winning a 4-2 decision over Habat in the third place match. Habat fell behind 2-0 after one period, and the only point in the second period was a Grajales escape. Habat closed it to 3-2 with a reversal 40 seconds into the third period. He was unable to tilt Grajales and finally had to cut him with 38 seconds left. He came close to a takedown in the final ten seconds near the edge of the mat.
Habat ends the year at 32-6 and now has a 98-24 career as a first-time All-American.
Recommended Comments
There are no comments to display.
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now