The finals saw a pin, three overtime matches, a true freshman winning a title, and seven repeat winners.
Iowa's Brent Metcalf did what he always does. Dominate. The returning Big Ten and NCAA champion at 149 crushed Penn State's Bubba Jenkins, building a 9-1 lead before pinning the 2008 NCAA runner-up in the second period. For his efforts, Metcalf was named Most Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament.
"I felt good and strong before this round, really recovered," said Metcalf, who improved his record to 33-0 on the season. "That's a testament to our coaches. That's a testament to this program and its philosophy of feeling best when you need to be at your best."
Metcalf and Daniel Erekson (285) were the only champions for Iowa, but their points, along with the other seven place winners, were enough to give the Hawkeyes their second straight Big Ten crown. Iowa finished with 160 points, which was 27.5 points in front of second-place Illinois, who finished with 113.5 points. Michigan (92.5), Wisconsin (88), and Minnesota (86) rounded out the top five.
"Here's the thing," said Iowa coach Tom Brands, who was tabbed Big Ten Coach of the Year for the second straight season. "Individuals are doing their job at a high level, the team race takes care of itself. And that's really what happened. We had two categories today. We had the category when we woke up where they wanted to be wrestling for the championship. We won two out of those four. And we had a category of five guys where they were wrestling for where they didn't want to be. You still have to perform. You still have to get up. You still have to do things that are right to make sure that you are basically giving yourself the best chance to advance as far as you can even after you don't get what you want."
In addition to Metcalf repeating as a Big Ten champion, five other past Big Ten champions added titles to their collection: Angel Escobedo of Indiana (125), Franklin Gomez of Michigan State (133), Kellen Russell of Michigan (141), Mike Poeta of Illinois (157), Steve Luke of Michigan (174), and Jake Herbert of Northwestern (184).
Escobedo, the defending NCAA champion 125, scored a first period takedown on No. 1-seeded Brandon Precin of Northwestern, which is all he needed in his 3-2 victory in the finals.
"This year I'm a little bit overjoyed because it's kind of hard to come back and win two Big Ten titles," said Escobedo.
Gomez, who placed third at the NCAAs last season, won an exciting 7-4 match in overtime against Reece Humphrey of Ohio State, a University World silver medalist in freestyle who came through the bracket as the No. 5 seed. With the victory, Gomez is expected to enter the NCAAs as the No. 1 seed at 133, since the top five wrestlers in the weight class come from the Big Ten. It will mark the second straight season in which Gomez has earned the top seed at the NCAAs. But according to Gomez, he doesn't care where he is placed in the bracket.
"Eventually I'm going to have to wrestle tough people," said Gomez. "It doesn't matter where you put me. It's going to be sooner or later. So to me, it doesn't really matter."
Russell defeated a fellow New Jersey native Zach Tanelli of Wisconsin, 6-4 in overtime, in the 141-pound finals. Last season, Russell, who was the Big Ten Freshman of the Year in 2008, failed to place at the NCAAs after winning the Big Ten title and entering the NCAAs as the No. 3 seed. He wants to make sure that doesn't happen again.
"I think last year I got a little bit almost too excited about winning Big Tens," said Russell, who wrestled his prep career at Blair Academy in New Jersey. "I kind of lost a little bit of steam at Nationals. I didn't wrestle my best. I think this year I wanted to wrestle really good here, but I think I'm still peaking right now, and hopefully I'll be able to peak two weeks from now."
Poeta, who was NCAA runner-up last season at 157, registered an 8-2 victory over freshman Jason Welch of Northwestern.
Luke won his third Big Ten title with a 12-5 victory over hometown favorite Quentin Wright, a true freshman at Penn State. The Wolverine senior, who was the NCAA runner-up at 174, believes that the fact that he's a senior and will be done with his wrestling career in two weeks benefits him.
"It really takes a lot of the stress away," said Luke, who will be attending pharmacy school next year. "It helps me relax. When I'm relaxed, I wrestle a lot better."
Herbert, a Pennsylvania native, won his third Big Ten title and extended his winning streak in college to 60 matches with an 8-1 victory over Iowa's Phil Keddy. The Northwestern senior was also named Big Ten Wrestler of the Year.
Wisconsin's Andrew Howe won the title at 165 over Iowa's Ryan Morningstar, 2-1 in the tiebreaker period, and became the first true freshman under head coach Barry Davis to win a Big Ten title. He was also named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year, becoming the first Badger since Jeff Walter in 1992 to accomplish the feat.
Michigan had the most Big Ten champions with three. In addition to Russell and Luke winning titles for the Wolverines, 197-pounder Tyrel Todd won the title at 197 with a 5-4 victory over No. 1-seeded Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin.
Sunday's attendance was 4,482.
Related Content:
Final Brackets
Rev Audio: 2009 Big Ten Championships, Day 2
Pick 'Em Contest Results
Big Ten Championships Day 1 Wrap
Rev Audio: 2009 Big Ten Championships, Day 1
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