Wright's semifinal victory helped put Penn State on top in the team standings heading into Sunday. The Nittany Lions have totaled 110.5 points. Three-time defending Big Ten and NCAA champion Iowa sits in second place, just 1.5 points behind Penn State.
Wright came into the Big Ten Championships with a 12-6 record and riding a three-match losing streak. He avenged two of those three losses on Saturday with his victories over Rutt and Dallago.
"For a long time there, the person I was out there in front of everybody wasn't the same person that I was in the practice room," said Wright, who was off the mat for five weeks this season with a shoulder injury. "A lot of athletes go through that stage. I was just having a hard time dealing with that."
Quentin Wright upset Travis Rutt in the quarterfinals (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)"Winning and losing is all about pride," said Wright. "This last year has been humbling. I've had to turn to my faith and grow as a person, deep down inside. For a while, things were just coming easy for me. Now it's the next step in life where things get a little harder. A few curve balls were thrown at me and I had to deal with them. I've been making progress every week. Coach Cael has been helping me out, encouraging me, and praying for me. I have a group of people in my hometown who have been praying for me. Their prayers have been working because I'm in the finals now."
Wright is one of five finalists for the Nittany Lions. Penn State's other four finalists are No. 1 seeds: Andrew Long (133), Frank Molinaro (149), David Taylor (157), and Ed Ruth (174).
Long handled fourth-seeded B.J. Futrell of Illinois, 7-2, in the semifinals. He will now face second-seeded Tyler Graff of Wisconsin in the finals. The two met on Feb. 18, with Long coming out on top, 12-5, in that match.
Penn State wrestlers, like David Taylor, cheer on teammates (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Taylor, a redshirt freshman, continued his domination this season, picking up bonus points in both victories on Saturday. In the semifinals, Taylor won 18-4 over Indiana's Paul Young. Taylor is now 33-0 with bonus points in 32 of those victories.
Ruth, also a redshirt freshman, reached the finals with a hard fought 3-2 victory over Iowa's Ethen Lofthouse.
Iowa sent four wrestlers to the finals: Matt McDonough (125), Derek St. John (157), Luke Lofthouse (197), and Blake Rasing (285).
McDonough, the defending NCAA champion at 125 pounds, pinned Michigan's Sean Boyle in the semifinals to advance to the finals where he will face Northwestern's Brandon Precin, who defeated Minnesota's Zach Sanders, 4-0, in the semifinals. It will be the rubber match between McDonough and Precin.
Precin won the first meeting, 3-1, in the finals of the Midlands on Dec. 30. McDonough came back to pin McDonough in a dual meet on Jan. 28.
"It's going to be an exciting match," said Precin, a two-time All-American. "It's like two bulls going at it, so it's exciting."
St. John defeated Northwestern's Jason Welch, 5-2, to advance to the finals at 157 pounds. He will now face Taylor in the finals. Taylor won the first meeting, 12-4, on Jan. 30.
Lofthouse, who is seeded second at 197 pounds, won 9-3 in the semifinals over Purdue's Logan Brown. Lofthouse will now face defending Big Ten champion Trevor Brandvold of Wisconsin in the finals.
Rasing reached the finals by beating Michigan State's Joe Rizqallah, 2-0.
Eric Grajales reached the finals as the No. 6 seed (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Grajales knocked off third-seeded Kurt Kinser of Indiana in the quarterfinals before edging second-seeded Andrew Nadhir of Northwestern, 3-2, in the semifinals.
"He wrestled extremely smart," said Grajales of Nadhir. "It was down to the wire, but I knew that's how it was going to be, and I knew what I had to do."
Grajales, who was ranked as the No. 2 overall recruit by InterMat coming out of high school, knows that he has to be at his best to beat Molinaro in the finals. Molinaro has two victories over Grajales this season.
"Molinaro is an amazing wrestler," said Grajales. "He's extremely strong. He's by far the strongest person I've wrestled all year. But it's just like any other day. Everybody can be beaten. I just have to go out there and wrestle my match and not let him wrestle his match."
Steinahaus defeated Iowa's Grant Gambrall, 4-1, in the semifinals, setting up a meeting with Wright in the finals. Steinahus defeated Wright, 10-1, in their only meeting this season on Feb. 13.
Nelson avenged one of his losses this season by beating Penn State's Cameron Wade, 3-0, to advance to the finals. Nelson racked up over three minutes of riding time in the match.
"When I wrestled him the first time he got up in about 10 seconds," said Nelson. "Usually I'm a real good rider. That kind of frustrated me. I worked on it the last couple weeks. I think being able to ride him really wore him out, especially when he got a hold of those legs and I was still riding. I think that kind of took the wind out of his sails. Just getting out on bottom really helped me too."
Nelson finished the regular season with two straight losses. One of those losses came to Wade. The other came to Iowa's Blake Rasing, the wrestler he will face in the finals.
"It was the first time I lost two in a row all year," said Nelson. "It was kind of hard on me because you're winning all year and then take a couple hard losses right at the end when you want to be peaking. The last couple weeks after we were done I watched a little film and looked at what I needed to do better. I spent the two weeks and worked on those things ... and this is where I'm at."
Nelson gives credit to his training partner, Ben Berhow, a three-time NCAA qualifier at heavyweight.
"He's just been a great guy to have around," said Nelson. "He has a great heart. He really helps me prepare for these types of tournaments. He's just a great guy."
In addition to Steinhaus and Nelson, Minnesota has another finalist in Mike Thorn, the defending Big Ten champion at 141 pounds. Thorn trailed Iowa's Montell Marion, 5-1, in the third period after getting put to his back. But the Gopher senior rallied to win, 7-5, in sudden victory. It was the fifth collegiate meeting between the two wrestlers. Thorn now leads the series 3-2.
Mike Thorn defeated Montell Marion to reach the finals (Photo/Tony Rotundo, WrestlersAreWarriors.com)Thorn will face Michigan's Kellen Rusell, a two-time Big Ten champion and 2009 All-American, in the finals. It will mark the third meeting between the two wrestlers this season. The undefeated Rusell won the first meeting, 6-2, in the finals of the Southern Scuffle, and the second meeting, 3-1, in sudden victory, on Feb. 11.
So will Thorn go back to those matches to prepare for Russell?
"No, "said Thorn. "There's no reason to. He's a freaking tough wrestler. It's going to take my A game to get past him. I'm just going to throw everything I've got at him and see if it's enough."
The 165-pound finals match will be a rematch of last year's Big Ten finals match between Wisconsin's Andrew Howe and Ohio State's Colt Sponseller. Howe advanced to the finals with a 2-1 victory in tiebreaker over Iowa's Aaron Janssen. Sponseller topped Minnesota's Cody Yohn, 2-0, in the semifinals.
Sponseller is looking forward to facing Howe again because of their similar styles.
"Really, he's just a brawler like me," said Sponseller. You're going out there and just hitting each other. It's whoever makes the first mistake and can capitalize on that first mistake and wrestle smart. It's just two physical guys going at it."
The final session is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. CST on Sunday. The finals will take place at 3 p.m.
Finals Matchups:
125: No. 1 Matt McDonough (Iowa) vs. No. 2 Brandon Precin (Northwestern)
133: No. 1 Andrew Long (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Tyler Graff (Wisconsin)
141: No. 1 Kellen Russell (Michigan) vs. No. 3 Mike Thorn (Minnesota)
149: No. 1 Frank Molinaro (Penn State) vs. No. 6 Eric Grajales (Michigan)
157: No. 1 David Taylor (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Derek St. John (Iowa)
165: No. 1 Andrew Howe (Wisconsin) vs. No. 2 Colt Sponseller (Ohio State)
174: No. 1 Ed Ruth (Penn State) vs. No. 2 Nick Heflin (Ohio State)
184: No. 2 Kevin Steinhaus (Minnesota) vs. No. 8 Quentin Wright (Penn State)
197: No. 1 Trevor Brandvold (Wisconsin) vs. No. 2 Luke Lofthouse (Iowa)
285: No. 3 Blake Rasing (Iowa) vs. No. 4 Tony Nelson (Minnesota)
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