Jayson Ness, Minnesota's lone representative in the finals round at the 2008 NCAA Championships in St. Louis, was beaten 10-3 in the 125-pound championship match by Indiana's Angel Escobedo. Ness' defeat means the Gophers finished the national tournament with 61.5 team points and in 10th place, their lowest finish since 1996.
"It would have been a nice note to end on, a way to salvage the last three days," said Gophers' head coach J Robinson about Ness' match. "At the same time, you've got to look at and see that he was a national finalist."
After watching teammates Mack Reiter, Manuel Rivera and Dustin Schlatter win their final matches of the season in the consolation medal rounds, Ness was the first wrestler to take the mat during Saturday night's main event at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The 125-pound title bout was a rematch of this season's Big Ten final, also won by Escobedo.
Ness, determined not to be taken down early by Escobedo (he fell behind in the first period of his 4-2 loss to the Hoosier at the Big Ten finals), locked arms with the top-ranked wrestler for most of the first period. But 2:17 into the match, Escobedo swung around and gained position on Ness near the edge of the mat, earning a takedown to go up 2-0. Ness escaped less than 30 seconds later to make the score 2-1, but entered the second frame trailing for the second straight time against the Indiana wrestler.
Ness held his own during the second period, but was unable to earn that crucial takedown in the two-minute timeframe. Unlike the Big Ten final, when Escobedo racked up more than four minutes of riding time (including the second period) Ness earned an escape 35 seconds in, but not before Escobedo had accumulated more than one minute of total riding time. Ness nearly connected on a single leg with 15 seconds to go in the period, but Escobedo somehow avoided the takedown as the pair entered the final frame tied at two.
Escobedo began down in the third, and after Ness was called for stalling at the 1;35 mark, was allowed to escape 30 seconds in to go up 3-2. Ness, needing a score to win the match, instead suffered a crucial takedown by Escobedo at 1:08 into the period – he would not escape until just 27 seconds were left. Desperately trying for that critical score in the waning moments, Ness suffered a four-point swing in the final three seconds (a takedown and two-point nearfall). The bonus riding time point made the final tally 10-3 in favor of Escobedo.
"Escobedo is great at single-leg defense, and I just had to keep working," said Ness. "I couldn't get him in the end."
Despite the loss, it was an outstanding year for the Gopher redshirt sophomore and Bloomington, Minn. native. Ness finishes the 2007-08 season with a 39-2 record and his second All-American award. He also tied a school record with 20 pins (two at the NCAA Championships), a feat also accomplished by Gopher head assistant coach and fellow Bloomington Kennedy High School graduate Marty Morgan.
Ness rounds out his second NCAA tournament with a 4-1 record. He is 9-3 lifetime at NCAAs (79-7 total in two seasons with the Gophers) and has lost just three times in his last 43 official collegiate matches. All three of those losses have come against Escobedo.
"I've just got to keep training like I did this whole last year," said the sophomore his prospects for next season. "I've got to get back to work, and hopefully things will go my way next year at the tournament.
"Five matches is a lot to win in a row, especially against this kind of competition," said Ness. "I had a great year, but the goal was to be at the first place stand on the podium, and I couldn't get that."
Robinson expressed the same sentiment as his top wrestler about the program's outlook for the future. The Gophers finished with four All-Americans in 2008 after winning the national championship with four a year ago.
"We've just got to get back at it," he said.
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