This year's finals, which will get underway at 7:30 p.m. CST, will feature the highly anticipated and much talked about match at 174 pounds between the hometown favorite Jake Herbert of Northwestern and exciting Mark Perry of Iowa.
Herbert, who won a Midlands title last year as a freshman, pinned R.J. Boudro of Michigan State at 5:24 to advance to the finals.
Perry, who won a Midlands title at 165 last year, cruised through his first three matches, but was tested for the first time this season in the semifinals against Donnie Reynolds of Illinois. Perry led the match 4-0 in the third period before taking an injury timeout. Reynolds came back with a late takedown to cut the deficit to two, but Perry held on for the 4-2 victory. The Hawkeye was visually upset with his performance after the match.
The other top-seeded wresetlers to advance to tonight's finals were Nick Simmons of Michigan State (125), Nate Gallick of Iowa State (141), Cliff Moore of Hawkeye Training Club (149), Alex Tirapelle of Illinois (157), Ben Wissel of Purdue (184), and Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan (197).
At 141, it will be a rematch of last year's Midlands final between Gallick and Andy Simmons of Michigan State. Gallick advanced to the finals with a 3-0 win over Brandon Carter of Central Michigan.
"I feel like I'm wrestling well," said Gallick. "I think it's the best I've wrestled all year. I feel good. I get a nice little break now."
Last year at the Midlands, Gallick defeated Simmons by a score of 4-2. He then defeated him again in the semifinals of the NCAA Championships, 2-0.
"I'm pretty much going in with the same game plan," said Gallick. "I kind of want to take the match to him a little bit. I don't want to wait around. It might go into overtime. I would like to get a takedown and score some points."
The most exciting semifinal finish took place at 157 between Tirapelle and Matt Lebe of West Virginia. In overtime, with the match tied at one, Tirapelle nearly gave up a takedown and looked to be in serious trouble, but scrambled out and scored a takedown of his own to win 3-1.
"To tell you truth, it wasn't too bad of a performance," said Tirapelle. "Lebe wrestles me tight. He's a returning All-American. We've wrestled several times throughout our careers. He's making those adjustments to make it tighter and tighter every time we wrestle."
Tirapelle will now face Joe Johnston of Iowa in the finals. This will mark the sixth meeting between these two Big Ten foes. Tirapelle and Johnston have split four official NCAA matches, with Johnston winning the last of those, when he defeated Tirapelle in the NCAA semifinals last March. Tirapelle came back to beat Johnston earlier this season at the NWCA All-Star Classic on Nov. 19 by a score of 5-2.
"Johnston is a tough kid. It's kind of the same situation. We've wrestled several times throughout our careers. We pretty much know what the other one is going to try and do. It's just a question of who is going to do it better."
Les Sigman of Nebraska-Omaha was the lone non-Division I wrestler to reach the finals. The three time NCAA Division II champion at heavyweight crushed Payam Zarrinpour of Sacred Heart, winning by technical fall, 17-1. He will now face Iowa's Matt Fields in the finals. Sigman defeated Fields in the finals of the Kaufman-Brand Open earlier this season by a score of 9-2.
Midlands Finals Match-Ups:
125: No. 1 Nick Simmons (Michigan State) vs. No. 7 Pat Castillo (Northern Illinois)
133: No. 7 Jesse Sundell (Iowa State)vs. Tommy Vargas (Cal State Bakersfield)
141: No. 1 Nate Gallick (Iowa State) vs. No. 2 Andy Simmons (Michigan State)
149: No. 1 Cliff Moore (Hawkeye Training Club) vs. No. 2 Mark DiSalvo (Central Michigan)
157: No. 1 Alex Tirapelle (Illinois) vs. No. 2 Joe Johnston (Iowa)
165: No. 3 Nick Baima (Northern Iowa) vs. No. 4 Michael Poeta (Illinois)
174: No. 1 Jake Herbert (Northwestern) vs. No. 2 Mark Perry (Iowa)
184: No. 1 Ben Wissel (Purdue) vs. No. 3 Pete Friedl (Illinois)
197: No. 1 Wynn Michalak (Central Michigan) vs. No. 3 Tyrone Byrd (Illinois)
Hwt: No. 2 Les Sigman (Nebraska-Omaha) vs. No. 4 Matt Fields (Iowa)
Related Articles:
Midlands Session II Recap
Midlands Session I Recap
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