InterMat Staff

ST. LOUIS, MO -- Hofstra's two-time All-American senior Charles Griffin defeated Iowa State's Nick Gallick and Oklahoma State's Nate Morgan to capture third place at the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at the Scottrade Center Saturday morning. Griffin placed third for the second consecutive year at 141 pounds. As a team, the Pride is in 14th place with 38 points heading into the finals. The Iowa Hawkeyes, with 109.5, have clinched the team championship. Nebraska is second with 74 points, followed by Iowa State with 72 and Penn State and Ohio State with 71 points each. Griffin, the second-seed who was knocked out of title contention Friday night with a loss in the semifinals, rebounded to post a 3-2 victory over Iowa State's ninth-seed Nick Gallick, and then take third place with 5-2 decision over fourth-seed Nathan Morgan from Oklahoma State. Griffin's third place finish is only the eighth time in school history that a Hofstra wrestler has finished in third or better. Griffin (Reading, PA), a four-time NCAA qualifier and a three-time CAA Champion, ends his senior season with a 37-5 record and his college career with a 126-25 mark. Junior All-American Alton Lucas was Hofstra's other athlete competing on Saturday morning. The sixth-seeded West Babylon, NY, native was pinned in the seventh-place match by Navy's seventh-seeded Matt Stolpinski in 4:07. Lucas, who earned his first All-American honor Friday night, finishes his junior season with a 29-7 record.

ST. LOUIS -- For the third-straight year, Northwestern will wrestle a Saturday night finals match at the NCAA Championships. Dustin Fox's late takedown of Oklahoma State's Jared Rosholt propelled him to his first national final. At 125 lbs., Brandon Precin secured his first-career All-American finish and will wrestle for seventh place Saturday morning. Mike Tamillow won a match in the consolation bracket, but fell one win shy of his second-career All-American finish. Saturday morning's session begins at 10 a.m. Precin will wrestle for seventh place. The finals begin at 7:30 p.m. and will be televised live by ESPN. In the team race, Northwestern sits in 13th, 1 point behind 12th place Illinois. Fox scored a takedown in the final 30 seconds of his match against fifth-seeded Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State to take a 3-2 decision in the semifinals. The top-seeded Fox scored the first points of the match with a quick escape in the second. After riding Rosholt for close to a minute, the Cowboy escaped to even the match at 1-1. Fox scored his first takedown of the match at the right time, as time was winding down, to pull ahead 3-1. He surrendered an escape to make the final score 3-2. Fox will see a familiar face on the championship mat Saturday night. Second-seeded JD Bergman of Ohio State advanced through his half of the bracket and the duo will do battle for the third time this season. Fox is 2-0 against the Buckeye this year. In just his sophomore season, Precin is now a Division I All-American. The Wildcat put up a strong showing against Bloomsburg's seventh-seeded Michael Sees with a 10-2 major decision. In a match that was tenser than the score would indicate, Precin started things off with the first points of the match with a takedown. He turned Sees for the first of two times for two more points. Precin accumulated riding time, but eventually surrendered an escape to lead 4-1 heading into the second. Precin started on top in the second and was able to turn Sees again for a three-point near fall. He gave another escape and took a 7-2 lead into the final period. The sophomore was able to put his stamp on the match with a late takedown. As time expired, Precin ran to the side of the mat and lifted head coach Tim Cysewski, his lower-weight training partner for the weekend, into the air in celebration. Precin becomes the second 125-pound Wildcat All-American in the last three years. In 2006, John Velez defeated Sees in the All-American match. He also gives NU multiple All-Americans for the third-straight year. In his next consolation match, Precin fell to third-seeded Tanner Gardner of Stanford by 5-0 decision. Gardner struck first with a takedown and he later added a reversal and riding time to take the match. The sophomore will face Old Dominion's 10th-seeded James Nicholson for seventh place Saturday morning. Tamillow fell one match short of seizing his second-career All-America finish and bowed out of the tournament Friday night. The third-seeded Wildcat fell to Missouri's fifth-seeded Max Askren by 7-3 decision. Tamillow struck first with a takedown in the first period. He was able to ride out Askren and take a 2-0 lead into the second period. Askren started down and escaped to make the score 2-1. He pulled ahead with a takedown and rode out the period to eat into the riding time advantage. Although Tamillow escaped to start the third to make the score 3-3, Askren hit a four-point move with a takedown and back points to put the match out of reach. Tamillow could not escape and his NU career came to an end. Tamillow won over 100 matches as a Wildcat, was a three-time NCAA qualifier and a 2007 All-American. He won the Big Ten title at 197 lbs. in 2007 and finished seventh in the nation last season.

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Junior captain Jordan Leen defeated Stanford's Josh Zupancic in the semifinals to advance to the finals at 157 pounds. Freshman Mack Lewnes lost to No. 1 Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan in the semifinals but earns All-America honors. Freshman Mike Grey and junior Steve Anceravage also became first time All-Americans winning their respective bouts in the wrestlebacks. This is the fourth year in a row that the Big Red has crowned four All-Americans. At the end of Session IV, Cornell sits in ninth place with 57.5 team points. At 157 pounds, Leen opened with a takedown after a little over a minute into the bout. Zupancic escaped only to have Leen grab him again. The Stanford grappler escaped, but was warned for stalling. Zupancic chose to start the second period in the down position and was hit with his second stalling warning to give Leen his fifth point. Leen racked up riding time riding out Zupancic for the rest of the period. Leen chose the bottom position in the third period and escaped within three seconds. Zupancic shot at Leen, but the Big Red grappler countered to take a commanding 8-2 lead. The Stanford wrestler attempted to escape with a roll, but Leen held on and rode out the period to rack up 4:39 in riding time to win a 9-2 decision. Leen will face Illinois' Mike Poeta in the finals Saturday night. Leen is the lowest seeded wrestler to advance to this year's finals. Lewnes was the only true freshman to advance to the semifinals at this year's NCAA tournament. The senior Wolverine made a single leg takedown in 45 seconds and rode Lewnes out for the remainder of the period. Lewnes chose neutral in the second period, but neither wrestler was able to score. Tannenbaum took a 3-0 lead with an opening escape and with 2:05 in riding time, won a 4-0 decision. Lewnes will move to the wrestlebacks Saturday morning to face No. 10 Michael Cannon of American. Grey took on Ohio State's Reece Humphrey in the wrestlebacks looking to earn his first All-America honor. Grey earned two points with a takedown and rode Humphrey out for the remainder of the period. The Buckeye chose to start the second at neutral and tied the bout with a takedown of his own with 41 seconds left, but Grey regained the advantage with an escape. Grey started the third in the down position and Humphrey let him up looking to score. He did just that with a takedown to tie the match, but with 1:34 left on the clock Grey grabbed two points with a reversal. Humphrey escaped only to have Grey take him down again with a riding time advantage, Grey won a 9-5 match. Grey moved on to face Navy's No. 11 Joe Baker. Baker was Grey's only loss at the EIWA tournament and the freshman was looking to avenge the defeat. The Midshipman took a 4-1 lead into the second period with two takedowns and further extended his lead with a takedown in the second period. Grey escaped and earned two takedowns of his own, but Baker had secured riding time early in the third period. Grey escaped and needed a takedown. Grey earned his takedown put Baker on his back earning the fall in 6:40. Grey will wrestle the No. 1 seed Frank Gomez of Michigan State in his next match. At 174 pounds, junior Steve Anceravage had only Oklahoma State's No. 9 Brandon Mason in his way of earning his first All-American honors. Anceravage looked to have an advantage late in the first moving in for a takedown, but time expired before the Big Red wrestler could gain control. Mason chose bottom in the second, and kept working to his feet but Anceravage repeatedly threw him down to the mat. Anceravage rode him for the complete two minutes to earn his riding time advantage. In the third period, Anceravage chose neutral, and evaded the Oklahoma State grappler long enough to win a 1-0 match by riding time. In his next bout, Anceravage also rematched against his only loss of the EIWA tournament, Navy's Matt Stolpinski. The two were scoreless in the first period, and Stolpinski chose bottom to start the second. Anceravage held tough on top and earned two back points during his two minute ride. Anceravage started the third period down and escaped for another point. The Big Red wrestler made another takedown, but Stolpinski escaped. With a riding time advantage, Anceravage won a 6-1 decision. Anceravage will face Iowa's No. 4 Jay Borschel on Saturday morning. Session V begins at 10 a.m. CST on Saturday morning and will be telecast on ESPNU and featured on ESPN360.com.

ST. LOUIS –- Six seconds. That is all that separated Iowa State from a second-place team finish at the NCAA Championships Saturday in the Scottrade Center. Ohio State's second-seeded Mike Pucillo won in after the second tie-breaker with six seconds of riding time against two-time Cyclone NCAA finalist Jake Varner to carry the Buckeye to a 4-3 win in the 184-pound title match. The loss put Ohio State into second place in the team race, while ISU tied with Oklahoma State for fifth place with 72 points. Iowa won the team title with 117.5 points. In a tight race, Ohio State finished second with 79 points, followed by Penn State with 75. Nebraska placed fourth with 74 points. "We're close," head wrestling coach Cael Sanderson said. "We lost some close matches throughout the tournament and we also won some close matches. We just need to get better in areas and I need to get better as a coach because that's my responsibility. I need to make sure these guys are ready to go and they know exactly what they need to do out there. "We had an incredible year," Sanderson continued. "(Iowa State's wrestlers) really had a great tournament and did an outstanding job. We can be proud of what we accomplished. We have some big teams coming in the future and we're going to keep getting better. We knew that a couple years ago, but it's my job to make sure that happens." Varner, the tournament's top-seed at 184 pounds, pursued Pucillo the entire first period, but could not get in for a takedown and the opening three minutes finished scoreless. The Cyclone deferred to begin the second period, with the sophomore Buckeye taking the down position and eluded the powerful grip of Varner in a quick seven seconds to go up 1-0. Varner evened the score with an escape in the third period and the match was pushed into a 60-second sudden victory. Both wrestlers were locked at the shoulders, unable to score, forcing the match into a pair of 30-second tiebreakers. Again, both wrestlers exchanged escapes to deadlock the score at 2-2 and move into a second edition of sudden victory. With neither wrestler able to change the score, riding time became critical and would ultimately determine the 184-pound champ. Pucillo started the first tiebreaker from the down position and Varner was able to accumulate 11 seconds of riding time before Pucillo escaped. Varner did escape in his turn from the down position, but it was too late. Pucuillo was able to maintain a strong hold and erase ISU's 11 seconds of riding time and get six seconds of his own. Those six seconds landed the Buckeye a top of the podium as the 184-pound national champion and pushed Ohio State up to second place. "It's a tough way to lose a match that way, but he's doing a great job," Sanderson said. "(Varner) will be back. I think he wrestled well. He was the aggressor the whole match and it came down to six seconds of riding time and that makes it hard. It's one thing to get taken down but this is difficult. He'll bounce back and be fine. He still has two great years of wrestling left." The sophomore from Bakersfield, Calif., closes out a decorated season with a 29-1 mark. He tallied 11 wins resulting in bonus points with four major decisions and seven falls. In his two-year Iowa State career, he is 59-8 and has been a two-time NCAA finalist and has twice been an All-American. Iowa State finished the tournament with seven grapplers earning All-American status: Nick Fanthorpe (7th-133), Nick Gallick (5th-141), Cyler Sanderson (7th-157), Jon Reader (7th-165), Jake Varner (2nd-184), David Bertolino (8th-197) and David Zabriskie (6th-HWT). The seven All-Americans are the most ISU finishers in the top eight since1993. It marked the ninth time the feat has been completed by the ISU wrestling program. Six of Iowa State's All-Americans will return in the 2008-09 season. "We have a lot of positives to build on with seven All-Americans, six of which are back," Sanderson said. "It's obvious that we have some things we need to improve on over the year, but I'm excited about the future."

ST. LOUIS -- J.D. Bergman, J Jaggers and Mike Pucillo, members of the No. 9 Ohio State wrestling team will become the first Buckeyes since 2004 to make an appearance in the finals of the NCAA championships. All three wrestlers won their semifinal matches Friday night at the 2008 edition of nationals in Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Mo. With three Buckeyes in the finals and Lance Palmer vying for a seventh-place finish Saturday morning, Ohio State currently is in second place with 71 points after four sessions. Medal-round action will begin at 11 a.m. ET Saturday, while the finals will get underway at 7 p.m. ET. ESPNU will broadcast live coverage of the medal rounds and ESPN/ESPN360.com will air the finals live. Jaggers, a sixth-seeded redshirt-junior, defeated the second-seeded wrestler and 2007 NCAA third-place finisher Charles Griffin of Hofstra, 11-9, to earn a spot in the final at 141 pounds against No. 1 seed Chad Mendes of Cal Poly Saturday night. It was a hard-fought decision for Jaggers, a 2007 All-American and three-time NCAA qualifier. The Northfield, Ohio, native owned a 7-3 lead heading into the second period, but Griffin continued to attempt a rally, cutting Jaggers' lead to one (10-9) in the third period. However, Jaggers would not be denied, scoring an escape with 24 seconds left to go up, 11-9. As the seconds ticked off the clock, Jaggers held on for the victory. "During this tournament I have been able to execute my finishes," Jaggers said. "I know what I can do and everyone in our wrestling room knows what I can do. It's the outsiders who don't know what you can do until you show them in a tournament like this. "I was joking with Tom (Ryan), asking him whose corner he was in for this match. Was he with me or Griffin? He is going to go in the record book as one of the greatest coaches of all time. I mean he took this team from 45th to 10th in one year. Lou Rosselli is the coach I work with everyday and he has changed my life in the sport of wrestling." Pucillo, a redshirt-sophomore, was the second Buckeye to earn a trip to the 2008 finals. The second-seeded Pucillo posted a dramatic 2-1 decision over Missouri's sixth-seed Raymond Jordan in a second tiebreaker. After a scoreless first period, Pucillo took a 1-0 lead in the second period after scoring an escape early in the stanza. Jordan countered with an escape of his own with 1:26 left in the third period to tie the score and send the match into overtime. With no scoring in sudden victory, both wrestlers were headed into the first of two 30 second tiebreakers. Pucillo took the down position in the initial round and recorded an escape with 27 seconds left on the clock. Up 2-1, Pucillo managed to keep Jordan in his grips to earn his first trip to the finals. Pucillo will face 2007 NCAA runner-up and No. 1-seed Jake Varner of Iowa State. Bergman, a senior heavyweight, made it three Buckeyes in the finals after he beat third-seed Ed Prendergast of Navy, 5-4. With the score knotted at 2 apiece after the first period, Bergman took a 5-3 lead in the second period on an escape and takedown. Prendergast would keep fighting, recording an escape with 1:21 left in the match, but the Oak Harbor, Ohio, native was able to hold on for his first appearance on the stage at the national championships. Bergman and Northwestern's Dustin Fox will square off in a rematch of the Big Ten championships final from two weeks ago. Fox is the No. 1-seed in the tournament. At 149 pounds, Palmer, 2007 All-American, posted an impressive 11-3 major decision over Brandon Carter of Central Michigan in his opening match of session four to earn his second-career All-America laurel. Last season, as a freshman, the Columbia Station, Ohio, native finished fourth. Palmer was stopped short of chance to continue his progress towards the third-place matchup when he dropped a 6-2 decision to fifth-seed Josh Churella of Michigan. Palmer will now vie for seventh-place Saturday morning against Minnesota's No. 2-seed Dustin Schlatter. Redshirt-sophomore Reece Humphrey's bid to become an All-American ended Friday night when he dropped a 9-6 decision to No. 7-seed Mike Grey of Cornell. Down 2-0 after the first period, Humphrey tied the score at 2-all when he scored a takedown with 39 seconds left in the second period. However, Grey notched an escape with just 16 second left in the period to go up by one. In the final period, Humphrey again evened the score at 4-4, but Grey scored a pair of takedowns and compiled a riding time of 2:27 to take control and earn the win.

ST. LOUIS, MO -- The top-ranked University of Iowa wrestling team still leads the team race with 102 points after two days of competition at the 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, MO. The Hawkeyes advanced three wrestlers to Saturday night's championship finals and are guaranteed seven all-Americans. It is the first time that Iowa has had that many NCAA finalists and all-Americans since the 2000-01 season when they had four finalists and seven all-Americans. Ohio State is in second place with 71 points, and Iowa State is in third with 68. Iowa and Ohio State are the only schools with three finalists, while Iowa and Iowa State have the most wrestlers still alive in the competition (7). "The team race is not over as far as I'm concerned," said Hawkeye Head Coach Tom Brands. "We have to keep our edge and our sense of urgency. We have to stay competitive, and all seven guys have to get ready to go." Hawkeye sophomores Joe Slaton (133) and Brent Metcalf (149), and senior Mark Perry (165) all won their semifinal matches Friday night to advance to the finals. Perry is the defending NCAA champion at 165 and his making his third finals appearance. Slaton and Metcalf will wrestle for their first national title. Slaton scored a takedown in sudden victory to upset top-seed Franklin Gomez of Michigan State, 3-1, in the 133-pound semifinal. The fourth-seeded Hawkeye will face third-seeded Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State in the finals. Scott won the only meeting between the two with an 8-6 decision at the dual in Iowa City in January. Metcalf extended his winning streak to 31 matches with an 8-4 victory over fourth-seeded Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska in the 149-pound semifinal. The top-seeded Hawkeye will face sixth-seed Bubba Jenkins of Penn State in the finals. Metcalf is 2-0 against Jenkins this season, pinning him in 5:33 at the dual in Iowa City in January and posting a 15-3 major decision in the Big Ten semifinal earlier this month. Perry scored a takedown with 10 seconds remaining in regulation to beat third-seeded Nick Marable, 4-2, in the 165-pound quarterfinal. Perry, the second seed and defending NCAA champion, picked up his 95th career victory with the win. He will face top seed Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan in the finals, which is a rematch of the 2008 Big Ten finals. Perry lost that bout, 3-2, but won the previous two meetings (4-1 at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in January and 5-2 at the 2007 Big Ten Championship finals). Perry is 2-2 in collegiate competition against Tannenbaum. Hawkeye junior Charlie Falck (125) and sophomore Jay Borschel (174) lost their semifinal matches and will wrestle in the consolation semifinals Saturday morning. Falck lost a 4-1 decision to top-seeded Angel Escobedo of Indiana in the semifinal, and will face Penn State's Mark McKnight in the wrestlebacks. Falck is 4-0 against McKnight, posting the most recent win (5-2) in Thursday's NCAA second round. Borschel lost a close 3-2 decision to top-seeded and undefeated Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh in the semifinal. He will face Cornell's Steve Anceravage in the consolation semifinal. Borschel won the only meeting between the two - a 10-4 decision at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in January. Iowa's other two all-Americans are senior Matt Fields (Hwt.) and sophomore Phillip Keddy (184). Both went 2-0 Friday night. Fields picked up his 30th season win with a last second reversal to defeat Michael Spaid of Bloomsburg in the first wrestleback match. He then scored a takedown in sudden victory to beat Central Michigan's Ryan Gritter, 3-1. Fields will face third-seeded Ed Prendergast of Navy in the consolation semifinals. Keddy posted a 5-3 win over West Virginia's Kurt Brenner and a 6-1 victory over Oklahoma State's Jack Jensen. He will face fourth-seeded Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan in the consolation semifinals. Keddy is 0-3 against Sinnott, losing a 5-3 decision and a 3-2 bout at the 2007 Midlands and a 9-7 match at the 2007 NCAA Championships. Saturday's competition will feature the consolation semifinals and placing matches at 10 a.m. (CT) and the championship finals at 7:30 p.m. (CT) at the Scottrade Center. ESPNU will air Saturday morning's competition live, while ESPN will air the championship finals live.

Angel Escobedo (Indiana, 125) What was it like avenging an earlier loss in the season to Iowa's Charlie Falck? "It was great. The first time he beat me he scored off of my shoot. He just kind of shut my offense down. I knew if I brought my offense to him that it would be a better match." Escobedo describes the winning move that propelled him to the finals. "He rode me the whole time. He was tough on top and I was just like, ‘I have to find some will to win…something just to pull out that I've never used before.' That was a move that I've never hit in my life. To get to the NCAAs you have to use every strength and ability you have to get to the finals." What is your confidence level heading in to the finals against Minnesota's Ness after beating him three straight matches? "It's confidence but it's not overconfidence. I know how dangerous he is. He is a great wrestler and we've had great battles, so I know I'm going to have to bring my ‘A' game tomorrow." What is it like being the first wrestler on the mat during the semifinal rounds? "It's awesome; you know no one is going to want to leave because they want to watch wrestling. It's great; it's a confidence booster to hear the crowd going crazy. When the fans are just going nuts, it pumps you up. It gets your adrenaline going." Jayson Ness (Minnesota, 125) What was your mindset during the final moments of your quarterfinal match? "You never give up. You never know what's going to happen late in a match. [My opponent] was tired, I'm tired, but good things are going to happen if you wrestle hard for seven minutes." How difficult is it to wrestle an opponent several times in a season? "It's really tough because both guys know what each other is going to do. Every time we wrestle it's going to be a close match. It's always a barn burner with him." What are your thoughts on your rematch with Indiana's Angel Escobedo in the finals? "It's going to be a great match. He's a tough competitor. It's just going to be a matter of wrestling hard the whole seven minutes. I'm going to have to really fight to get off of the bottom. I can't let him ride me out all day long." What is it like being the first wrestler on the mat during the semifinal rounds? "It's a lot of fun. It's really exciting. It gets your heart going. It gets your adrenaline pumping. Your emotions start running high and it's a really fun experience." Coleman Scott (Oklahoma State, 133) What factor did riding time play in your semifinal win against Illinois' Jimmy Kennedy? "I knew it was going to be part of the match. Any time you can ride somebody like that it obviously helps. I was able to ride him, but just let up a little bit in the third [period]." What is going to be your preparation and expectations heading into your finals match against Iowa's Joey Slaton? "It's the national finals. It's going to be the most intense match of both of our careers. I know that and he knows that. I'm just looking for a good match, and it's going to be fun. I'm excited." How did last year's finals loss in the NCAA Championships help you this year? "I have learned a lot. I was a little nervous going into that match, and also very disappointed. I got the only takedown of the match last year and lost; that doesn't happen too often. I just have to have a better match this year and look to walk away with that title." What would it mean to cap off your senior campaign with a national championship? "Everything; it's everything I've dreamed about. This is where I've wanted to be. I have no more chances. This is it for me." Joey Slaton (Iowa, 133) Can you describe your takedown against Michigan State's Franklin Gomez in overtime that propelled you into the finals? "It felt good. I had a tough time getting to him. He was skating around the edge like my last opponent, but that's alright. I stayed on the attack and it paid off in the end." How does it feel to come back and reach the NCAA finals after having to sit out a year for transferring from Virginia Tech? "It feels good. It's paying off now. That year [of sitting out] helped me and I feel good about it now. It was definitely worth it. I would have gone where ever Coach Brands went because he's the reason I went out there." How did the Big 10 Conference Championships prepare you for the NCAA Championships? "I have learned that you need to be ready for every match. Two of my matches … one I ended up winning and the other I lost to Gomez. I wasn't ready and I wasn't prepared mentally. I didn't get a good enough warm up, and I think that's the biggest change this weekend." What are your thoughts heading into your rematch against Oklahoma State's Coleman Scott in the finals? "He is going to come after me. He's going to throw everything he has at me but I'm going to be mentally and physically prepared for this. I am ready; I have been training my whole life for this. It's my goal to win [the championship]. It's been my goal since I was a little kid. It feels good to get to the finals, but I have to pick it up one more notch to win it." J Jaggers (Ohio State, 141) On his approach … "Obviously the first thing I wanted to do was pin him. It was actually my third cradle this weekend that I've had pretty close to pinning the guy. Some refs may call that, but I guess when you have a match of that magnitude, a lot of people don't want to see it end early." On beating wrestlers ranked higher than him … "Not that I'm holding a grudge out there because some ranking service doesn't rank me or anything. I look at the rankings, don't get me wrong, and I get mad when I see where I am, but I know what I can do and my teammates know what I can do because they see it every day. Sometimes the outsiders don't know what you can do until you show them." On his head coach … "He's going to go down as one of the greatest coaches of all time. Look what he did for us. He took our program from 45th to 10th." On his championship opponent, Chad Mendes … "I know he's got a gator roll. He's tough. I practiced with him a few years ago when I was a 149 and he was a 125. He was tough as nails then too. We both had to beat some great kids. It should be a great match." On how he is performing … "It's definitely the highest level I've been at. I'm peaking at the right time. The thing I've probably done better this tournament than previous is getting my finishes. It's probably the area that I've improved on the most based on past tournaments." Chad Mendes (Cal Poly, 141) On the early stalling call … "I thought it was a little bit of a quick call, but it happens, and you can't let those things get in your head. I looked at my coach and he told me not to worry about it and I just kept wrestling and I kept getting at it." On how he felt during the match … "There were a few times in the match I was pretty nervous. Nathan's [Morgan] a tough guy, but I knew if I could keep my head in the game and kept wrestling I could get him." On last time he faced Nathan Morgan … "I feel he was a lot more aggressive. The match before I feel he hesitated a bit, but he was really coming after me a bit more. He was trying a bunch of shots at once, while last time he would pick and choose. He was really trying to ride me out this time." On his riding ability … "The last month and a half or so I've been getting into riding. I've always liked to dominate on my feet, but I've been taught a lot of things on top. I feel really strong up there and I feel that it really helps me. I feel strong and ready to win it." On last year … "I was at 125, and I was cutting a lot of weight. My natural pre-season body weight was around 153. It was a pretty drastic cut. I hurt my elbow early last season and I wasn't able to keep my weight down since I couldn't wrestle. I figured if I went more towards my natural weight for my senior season I'd feel better on the mat." Bubba Jenkins (Penn State, 149) On the last time he faced Brent Metcalf … "Last time I went after him and I was up 6-1, but he came back how he does and I couldn't fight off the storm. Then another time my plan was to sit back and wait on him, but that's just not my style. We've got some strategies, and I'm just going to go out there and wrestle my best." On how he felt during the end of his semifinal match … "I knew when he took the injury timeout that he was gasping for air and I felt I had another two minutes in me with just 45 seconds left. I just had to dig in there and get it." On his World championship from the past summer … "It definitely gave me confidence. I'm terrible on bottom, and if you don't get taken down you'll beat anybody. I just worked towards being comfortable and being in close matches. It definitely helped me." On how he feels when his teammates lose … "Losses for my team refocuses me for my match. It makes me zone in and get ready. I feel that coach got let down on that last one, so I'm going to try and pick him back up." On his approach against Darrion Caldwell "We had some film on him and we saw that he scores points early. We felt if we could stop his flurry in the beginning, we'd be able to do some damage. I retaliated with my offensive explosions and just went after him. I just went after him really." On how finishing strong helps the program … "It's very important. We only came with seven guys and we had five guys in the championships going for it. Last I saw we were tied for sixth, but we're only a few points out of second place. It helps us in recruiting and it helps us as a program to keep inching up and keep inching forward." Brent Metcalf (Iowa, 149) On how getting scored on early affects his approach ... "You get scored on early then you've really got to come on strong. You can't let the match go on longer and longer because he'll get more comfortable. You've got to get more scores and get him out of his comfort zone." On restoring Iowa's wrestling tradition … "That's our goal, that's my goal, that's the entire programs goal. We want to regain the dominating force that Iowa had in the past." On Bubba Jenkins … "He's a dangerous wrestler. He's tough on those quick little shots and I'm going to have to be on my A-game. I'm just going to have to say on my offense and stay where I'm good." On if matters who he wrestles … "I want to go out and wrestle the best guy. This is the national tournament and you've got to be ready to face anyone. Bubba Jenkins is the one that stepped up and he's the one I want to wrestle." On where he is seeded … "Seeds don't really matter. You want to be the No. 1 seed because it says you're the best, but I don't put much emphasis on it. I don't hope to get better than a certain number. I just go out to perform and wrestle my style." On his passion for wrestling … "The hand to hand combat. It's a fight. I don't see it as a thing of strategy. It's a hand fight. It's to see who is the better man. That's the attitude I take to it. If you're going to wrestle me, you're going to go through seven minutes of hell. If you can beat me then I congratulate you, but know it's going to be tough. That's the kind of wrestler I am and the mentality I take to it." Mike Poeta (Illinois, 157) On wrestling Vallimont "I think it's a big time rivalry just because of how good he is. It's tough to beat a guy three times especially when he's pissed off at you … I'm happy with the win." On the score of the match: "I wanted the score to be as lopsided as possible. Those matches are going to give my mom a heart attack. I got two good shots on him and took him down and he got a take down. He was in on my legs a lot. In the previous two matches we wrestled…this was the first time he was able to finish. With this match being on the biggest stage, I think I panicked a little bit when he was scrambling a little better. So I think if we wrestled that match at Penn State or Illinois in a smaller gym, I don't think I would have panicked a little bit." On Jordan Leen: "The only think I know about him is he beat my roommate at CA nationals about four years ago, Joe Bowman. Other than that, I don't know anything." On not being a No. 1 seed: "It's kind of BS that they took Vegas crumpled them up and threw them out. It really doesn't make sense to me; punish wrestlers for something they have no control over. But you know it doesn't matter whether you're unseeded or seeded; every guy has an opportunity to win this tournament. It really doesn't matter where they put you if you're going to win you're going to win. It doesn't matter who you have to go through." On panicking in the big stage: "None that was a big one … tomorrow is about having fun and wrestling hard. I got that one out of the way. The match last year I lost in that round left a pretty bitter taste in my mouth. It was a guy just like [Leen], someone I beat earlier in the year. That was the big one. I was probably more nervous in that round. Tomorrow I'm just going to have fun." Jordan Leen (Cornell, 157) On how important it was to set the pace: "It was very important. Mat wrestling is where I feel most dominant and anytime I can get a 1st period take down and be able to get right to the mat with a lead. I feel great about that." On battling injuries through the year: "It's unbelievable. I feel like the luckiest kid alive right now. I know I got one more to take care of to reach my goal. I'm going to try to stay focused on that. But it has been an injury-ruled year and it's been really the first time I've dealt with that in college. It was very difficult for me and very difficult for our coaches to sit back and not wrestle. I love to train about as much as I love competing. I like being in the mix; I like scrapping, and so that was tough for me. It really tried my patience; it tried my character a lot. I feel like I've grown up a lot though it. Sometimes at nationals you get lucky even though you haven't had the best year. So I feel good about that." On his injuries: "I had various knee injuries. I had surgery over the summer. An injured MCL and LCL in my other leg and had some ankle problems also. It was kind of a chain reaction getting injured and being impatient and coming back to early. That's been kind of the story of this year." On preparation for the tournament: "I feel like the conference finals when I got beat, it was a blessing in disguise. And looking back I realized all year when I'd get to wrestle I'd want to wrestle every second. Push, push, push, push, and that's not always my best tactic. That's not where I'm most successful. I pushed my way right into losing in the conference finals. It taught me right before nationals sometimes you have to sit on a lead. What a blessing. Sometimes if a guy is not going to attack just keep a low stance and get the "W." I've had to do that a couple times this tournament. Lesson learned for sure. I feel lucky about that. On wrestling 157 as opposed to 149: "I did it by choice and our coaches are very flexible and just really supportive. When I decided I wanted to go up they supported me. The biggest adjustment was at the beginning of the year and realizing that these guys are a lot stronger and more explosive off bottom. Wrestling on top used to be a given to me. I felt like I could ride anybody and then I had these guys with tree trunk legs underneath me blowing out of there. It did take the year to adjust as far as riding people but I felt like quickness is a quality of mine that I've tried to use a lot and quickness seems to be even more quick the bigger you get. So I kind of like that."

Would the overall trend of minimal upsets continue on Day 2? That was one question weighing on the wrestlers and fans gathered for the 2008 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships at Scottrade Center in downtown St. Louis. Interestingly, of the eighty wrestlers still in the title hunt in the quarterfinals Friday morning, six were unseeded. Of the top eight seeds in each weight class, only fifteen have failed to make it this far. The one weight class where all eight seeds were still in contention: heavyweight. As for team title chase, as of the start of the Friday action, Iowa State and Central Michigan still had nine wrestlers in the tournament; Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska and Oklahoma State each had eight. Let's look at quarterfinal action on Friday … 125: Seven seconds of riding time made the difference for top-seeded Angel Escobedo of Indiana, who got the 3-2 win over eighth-seeded Brandon Precin of Northwestern. Jayson Ness, the second seed for Minnesota, had been leading tenth-seeded James Nicholson of Old Dominion 9-1… when the Golden Gopher got the fall at 4:04. The defending champ, third-seeded Paul Donohoe of Nebraska, got a 4-2 win over Illinois' Gabe Flores, the sixth seed. Fifth-seeded Charlie Falck of Iowa edged the fourth-seeded Tanner Gardner of Stanford 5-4 to become the fourth semifinalist. In this weight class, three semifinalists were from the Big Ten, and one representing the Big Eight. 133: Top-seeded Franklin Gomez of Michigan State advanced to the semifinals with a 5-3 win over Minnesota's Mack Reiter, seeded eighth. Third seeded Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State got the 9-4 win over eleventh-seed Joe Baker of Navy. Iowa's Joe Slaton and Nick Fanthorpe of Iowa State took their cross-state rivalry into overtime, with a 2-1 TB win for the fourth�seeded Hawkeye. The Jimmy Kennedy vs. Mike Grey match also went beyond regulation, with the Illinois' second seed getting the win with a takedown in overtime over the Cornell seventh-seed to move on to the semis. The Illini engineering major becomes the twentieth individual to earn All-American honors for long-time coach Mark Johnson. 141: Top-seeded Chad Mendes of Cal Poly continued his perfect record with a 5-0 shutout of Nick Gallick, the ninth seed from Iowa State. Hofstra's second-seeded Charles Griffin got a 5-2 win over unseeded Matthew Kyler of Army. However, the third seed, Kellen Russell of Michigan, fell to Ohio State's sixth-seeded J Jaggers, 5-3. Oklahoma State's Nathan Morgan won in dominating fashion; the fourth-seeded Cowboy got a takedown in each period to rack up a 8-1 win over Minnesota's fifth-seeded Manny Rivera. 149: Iowa's top-seeded Brent Metcalf came back from a 1-0 deficit to bring the score to 3-2 over Ohio State's ninth-seeded Lance Palmer. Darrion Caldwell continued to make headlines; the seventh-seeded North Carolina State wrestler got a 4-1 upset over second-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota. In another upset, Penn State's sixth-seeded Bubba Jenkins got the win over third-seeded JP O'Connor of Harvard, 5-3. Nebraska's fourth-seeded Jordan Burroughs edged Michigan's fifth-seeded Josh Churella, 3-2. 157: A defending champ falls: sixth-seeded Jordan Leen of Cornell had a 4-1 lead over 2007 titlewinner Gregor Gillespie of Edinboro in the first period, and pretty much held on to get the 8-6 upset win. The second-seeded Mike Poeta of Illinois got a 7-3 win over tenth-seeded Mike Chandler of Missouri… while the third-ranked Dan Vallimont of Penn State defeated Tyler Sherfey, the eleventh seed from Boise State, 7-5. Stanford's Josh Zapancic may be the Cinderella story of the tournament; the twelfth seed advanced to the semifinals by edging unseeded Jonny Bonilla-Bowman of Hofstra 9-8. The deciding factor: Zapancic's 1:27 riding time. 165: A defending champ gets the fall: Iowa fans erupted when defending champ Mark Perry pinned American's tenth-seeded Mike Cannon with a cradle in 47 seconds. Eric Tannenbaum got a 7-4 win over Moza Fay, the eighth seed from Northern Iowa, earning All-American honors for the fourth time. Nick Marable of Missouri beat Iowa State's Jon Reader, 5-3. Cornell's Mack Lewnes tied things up at the end of regulation; the Big Red fourth seed got a 6-5 TB victory over Nebraska's fifth-seeded Stephen Dwyer 174: A defending champ gets a scare: top-seeded titlist Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh was dealing with a 3-3 tie into the third period against Oregon's unseeded Nathan Lee but got a 7-4 win. Second-seeded Steve Luke of Michigan got a 6-2 victory against seventh-seeded Matt Stolpinski of Navy. Nebraska's third-ranked Brandon Browne edged eleventh-ranked Steve Anceravage of Cornell, 3-2. Fourth-seeded Jay Borschel of Iowa continued the trend of the top four seeds advance to the finals with a convincing 8-2 win over Central Michigan's fifth-seeded Brandon Sinnott. 184: Familiar foes -- top-seeded Jake Varner of Iowa State and Minnesota's Roger Kish. The Cyclone got a 2-0 victory, and remained undefeated. Iowa's Phil Keddy, the seventh seed, had been leading Ohio State's second-seeded Mike Pucillo but the Buckeye scored a takedown with six seconds left to win 4-3. Fourth-seeded Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan got the 3-2 win over unseeded Doug Umbeheuer of Rider. Rounding out the bracket: Missouri's sixth-seeded Raymond Jordan got a 3-1 win over unseeded Vince Jones of Nebraska. 197: A defending champ cruises to the semifinals: American's top seed Josh Glenn got a convincing 10-5 win over Nebraska's eighth-ranked Craig Brester. Second-seeded Phil Davis of Penn State got a 7-3 win over Maryland's Hudson Taylor. Wynn Michalak � fourth seeded Central Michigan Chippewa -- was behind in the third but got nearfall points over Missouri's Max Askren to ultimately win 5-4. Sixth-seeded Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin locked up the 5-4 win over Iowa State's unseeded David Bertolino, thanks to riding time. Hwt: Top-seeded Dustin Fox of Northwestern got a 2-0 win over Central Michigan's Bubba Gritter, the eight seed. Ohio State's second-seeded JD Bergman got the 11-1 decision over Iowa State's#7 David Zabriskie. Navy's third seeded Ed Prendergast got a 9-3 win over Wisconsin's sixth-seeded Kyle Massey. Iowa's Matt Fields � seeded fourth -- fell to Oklahoma State's fifth-seeded Jared Rosholt 2-0. Session 4: Friday evening When the smoke had cleared after Session 3 quarterfinals, no unseeded wrestlers had made it into the semifinals. (By comparison, in the two previous years, there were two unseeded competitors each year.) This year, only one freshman reached the semis: Mack Lewnes of Cornell. 125: Top-seeded Angel Escobedo of Indiana vs. Charlie Falck, the fifth seed from Iowa. The Hoosier's only loss of the season was to the Hawkeye. No scoring in the first two periods. In the third, Falck escaped in the first thirty seconds. With about a minute left, Escobedo got a body lock and inside trip for a two-point takedown and two-point near fall. Escobedo won 4-1, avenging that one loss. In the other semifinals match, it was the defending champ Paul Donahoe of Nebraska (seeded third) vs. second-seeded Jayson Ness of Minnesota. No scoring in the first; in the second, the Gopher escaped… followed by the Cornhusker's takedown… with Ness escaping, knotting the score at 2-2. In the third, the champ escaped. However, in the last nine seconds, Ness got a takedown to take the match 4-3. Friday's finals: The top two seeds. 133: In a battle of Big Ten sophomores, Franklin Gomez, the top-seeded wrestler from Michigan State, vs. Joe Slaton, the fourth-seed from Iowa. In the first two periods, Gomez scored the only point, an escape. Slaton starts third with escape to tie the score. Barely into overtime, Slaton got the takedown to win 3-1 SV 1. Oklahoma State's third-seeded Coleman Scott vs. Jimmy Kennedy of Illinois, the second seed. No scoring in the first two periods. Scott scored an escape at start of third, Kennedy followed. Scott was hit twice for stalling, making the score 2-1 Kennedy. However, the Cowboy veteran got a double-leg takedown with 20 seconds left in the third. With riding time of over two minutes, Coleman got the 4-2 victory. The finals will feature the third and fourth seeds. 141: Undefeated top seed Chad Mendes Cal Poly vs Nathan Morgan Oklahoma State. No scoring in the first period. Not mjch action. The Mustang tamed the Cowboy 1-0, taking his perfect record into the finals… and becoming the first Cal Poly first seed to make it into the finals since 1980. In contrast, the other semis match was a high-scoring affair, with second seed Charlie Griffin of Hofstra faced off against J Jaggers, the sixth seed from Ohio State. The Buckeye built a 9-5 lead at end of the second. Griffin ges reversal in third, Jaggers escaoes. Hofstra gets takedown. Final score 11-9 Jaggers. 149: Brent Metcalf, the top seed from Iowa, vs. fourth-seed Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska. The Husker scored a long double-leg takedown about one minute in; the Hawkeye countered with a double of his own to knot the score. Metcalf got a high crotch and converted it to make the score 3-2. In the second, the Iowan escaped, then, later in the period, got another takedown. Burroughs escaped but Metcalf got a reversal for an 8-3 score. The oly scoring in the third: Burroughs escaped to make the final 8-4. The other semis match-up featured Penn State's Bubba Jenkins, the six seed vs Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State, seeded seventh. In the first, both scored takedowns… with Caldwell getting a ride out to make the score 3-2. IN the second, Caldwell got the escape… but the Nittany Lion got a nifty double-leg takedown after a backflip from the NCSU wrestler, making it 5-4 Caldwell. In the third, Jenkins got a takedown and let Caldwell loose… who then got a takedown. Jenkins escaped to make it 8-7 Caldwell. (Are you exhausted yet?) In the last thirty seconds, the Penn Stater got a takedown to win 12-8. 157: In a battle of #2 and #3, it was Illinois' Mike Poeta vs. Dan Vallimont of Penn State. Poeta scored a takedown in the first… with the Nittany Lion getting an escape. In the second, Poeta got out quickly, then Vallimont followed with a takedown. The Illini got an escape and a takedown to make it 6-4. The Penn Stater escaped… but Poeta held on to get the win 6-5. In a battle of the overachievers, eighth seeded Jordan Leen of Cornell took on twelfth seed Josh Zapancic of Stanford. The EIWA champ scored a very quick takedown to start the action, followed by an escape for Zapancic. A bit later, the same scoring pattern: a TD for Leen, an escape for Stanford. In the third, Leen escapes, then gets another takedown. With riding time, Leen gets the 9-2 victory. The finals will feature Big Ten vs. EIWA champs, the second seed vs. the eighth. 165: Top-seeded Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan vs fourth seed Mack Lewnes of Cornell � the only true freshman still in the title hunt. In the first period, the Wolverine got a single-leg takedown. No scoring in the second. In the third, the Big Ten champ scored an escape. With riding time, the final score: 4-0 Tannenbaum. In the other semis match, second-seeded Mark Perry � the 2007 NCAA champ -- vs. third seed Nick Marable of Missouri. Knotted at 2-2 at the end of the second (the Tiger scoring a takedown in the first, and the Hawkeye escaping in the first… and then again in the second). In the third, the Hawkeye scored a takedown in the final half-minute of the match for the 4-2 victory. It'll be a Big Ten finals rematch… and a chance for Perry to become a back-to-back titlewinner. 174: Top seed and defending champ Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh vs fourth-seeded Jay Borschel of Iowa. No score in the first. In the second, the Panther got the one-point escape. In the final stanza, Borschel scored an escape… but Gavin got a single-leg takedown to make the final score 3-2 Gavin. The champ remains undefeated, and will go for a second straight title on Saturday. In the other semifinal match-up, it was second-seeded Steve Luke of Michigan facing off against third-ranked Brandon Browne of Nebraska. Not much scoring in regulation, with the Husker scoring an escape in the second… and the Wolverine getting an escape at the start of the third to tie up the score. In sudden victory period, Luke got the takedown to win 3-1 SV. 184: Top-seeded Jake Varner, the sophomore from Iowa State, going up against Christian Sinnott, the fourth-seeded wrestler from Central Michigan. In the opening period, the Cyclone got a knee-pick takedown… then, in the second, got an escape to make the score 3-0. In the third, Sinnott got a high-crotch takedown with just three seconds left. With riding time, Varner got the 4-2 win… and remains perfect through the season. In the other end of the bracket, it was second-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State vs. sixth-ranked Raymond Jordan of Missouri. Score tied up 1-1 at end of regulation (each man getting an escape). The Buckeye got an escape almost immediately, then rode out the Tiger to get the 2-1 TB 1 win. The finals will feature a battle between the 2008 Big Eight vs. Big Ten champs. 197: Defending champ and top seed Josh Glenn of American University vs. Central Michigan's Wynn Michalak, seeded fourth. Tied up at 5-5 until the Chippewa got a takedown in the last seconds to knock out the champ 7-5. On the other mat, it was Penn State's Phil Davis, the second seed, vs. Wisconsin's Dallas Herbst, seeded third. Davis got the 6-0 shut out to make the finals a match between the second and fourth seeds. Hwt: Dustin Fox, the top-seeded big man for Northwestern, faced off against Oklahoma State's Jared Rosholt, the fifth seed. No score in the first period. Fox got a quick escape to start the second. In the third, despite being outweighed by 50 pounds, Rosholt escaped. With the score tied, in the last half-minute, the Wildcat got a single-leg takedown. After a restart, the Cowboy got an escape in the last thirteen seconds but it wasn't enough; the Big Ten champ got the 3-2 win. The other side of the bracket featured second-seeded JD Bergman of Ohio State taking on third-seeded Ed Prendergast of Navy. Prendergast scored the first takedown … with Bergman getting a reversal to close the first period 2-2. In the second, the Buckeye got a quick escape, followed by a takedown. The Midshipman got an escape to make the score 5-3. In the third, Prendergast got out … but the Buckeye ended up with the 5-4 victory to set the stage for a revisit of the 2008 Big Ten heavyweight finals. At the end of the evening, two defending champs would not be able to try for a second straight title (Gillespie and Glenn)… leaving just Mark Perry and Keith Gavin to see if magic will strike twice Saturday night. Team standings: 1. Iowa 102 2. Ohio State 71 3. Iowa State 68 4. Penn State 63 5. Central Michigan 61.5

12:50 pm: The quarterfinals are now completed. Thanks for joining us during the action! 12:54 pm: Sandy Stevens announced that the attendance was 15,861 for Session III. 12:52 pm: At heavyweight, No. 3-seeded Ed Prendergast of Navy used a big throw in the second period against No. 6-seeded Kyle Massey of Wisconsin to pace him to a 9-3 victory. No. 5-seeded Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State excited the Cowboy faithful with a 2-0 shutout victory over No. 4-seeded Matt Fields of Iowa. No. 1-seeded Dustin Fox won 2-1 on riding time. No. 2-seeded J.D. Bergman of Ohio State scored major decision to advance to the semifinals. The semifinals now are now set at heavyweight: Fox-Rosholt, Bergman-Prendergast. 12:38 pm: At 197 pounds, No. 4-seeded Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan edged No. 5-seeded Mack Askren of Missouri, 5-4. The top two seeds, Josh Glenn of American (No. 1) and Phil Davis of Penn State (No. 2), both advanced. No. 6-seeded Dallas Herbst of Wisconsin won on riding time, 5-4, over unseeded David Bertolino of Iowa State. The semifinals now are now set at 197: Glenn-Michalak, Davis-Herbst. 12:30 pm: Updated team scores: 1. Iowa 67 2. Nebraska 47 3. Oklahoma State, Missouri 37.5 5. Ohio State 37 12:24 pm: No. 6-seeded Raymond Jordan of Missouri registered a 3-1 victory over Vince Jones of Nebraska. No. 2-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State came from a behind to defeat No. 7-seeded Phil Keddy of Iowa. Pucillo scored the go-ahead takedown with under 20 seconds to go in the match. Iowa State's Jake Varner, who is seeded No. 1 and undefeated, scored a 2-0 victory over No. 8-seeded Roger Kish of Minnesota. No. 4-seeded Christian Sinnott of Central Michigan also advanced to the semifinals. The semifinals now are now set at 184: Varner-Sinnott, Pucillo-Jordan. 12:08 pm: Unseeded Nathan Lee of Boise State was tied 2-2 with No. 1-seeded Keith Gavin in the third period of their 174-pound quarterfinal match. But Gavin took the victory by a score of 7-4. No. 3-seeded Brandon Browne of Nebraska edged No. 11-seeded Steve Anceravage of Cornell by a score of 3-2. No. 2 seeded Steve Luke of Michigan and No. 4-seeded Jay Borschell of Iowa also advanced at 174. The semifinals now are now set at 174: Gavin-Borschell, Luke-Browne. 11:52 pm: In the last quarterfinal match at 165, No. 4-seeded Mack Lewnes of Cornell got a reversal with less than 10 seconds left to send the match into overtime against No. 5-seeded Stephen Dwyer of Nebraska. In the tiebreaker period, Lewnes got another reversal and Dwyer added an escape, but Lewnes held on for the 6-5 decision. The semifinals now are now set at 165: Tannenbaum-Lewnes, Marable-Perry. 11:46 pm: At 165, No. 1-seeded Eric Tannenbaum of Michigan won by a score of 7-4 over No. 8-seeded Moza Fay of Northern Iowa to become a four-time All-American and advance to the semifinals. Missouri's Nick Marable, who is seeded No. 3, won 5-3 over No. 6 Jon Reader of Iowa State. 11:38 pm: Updated team scores: 1. Iowa 50.5 2. Nebraska 40.5 3. Oklahoma State 37.5 4. Minnesota 33 5. Penn State 32.5 11:36 pm: No. 2-seeded Mark Perry of Iowa picked up a pin in just 47 seconds over Mike Cannon of American at 165 pounds. 11:32 pm: In the final quarterfinal match at 157, No. 8-seeded Jordan Leen of Cornell came through as the No. 8 seed to upset defending NCAA champion and No. 1-seeded Gregor Gillespie of Edinboro by a score of 8-6. The semifinals now are now set at 157: Leen-Zupancic, Poeta-Vallimont. 11:27 pm: At 157, No. 3-seeded Dan Vallimont of Penn State defeated No. 11-seeded Tyler Sherfey of Boise State. No. 12-seeded Josh Zupancic of Hofstra edged Jonny Bonilla-Bowman of Hofstra, 9-8, on riding time. No. 2-seeded Mike Poeta of Illinois won 7-3 over No. 10-seeded Michael Chandler of Missouri of Missouri. 11:14 pm: In the other quarterfinal matches at 149, No. 1-seeded Brent Metcalf hangs on for the 3-2 victory over No. 8-seeded Lance Palmer of Ohio State. No. 6-seeded Bubba Jenkins of Ohio State upsets No. 3-seeded JP O'Connor of Harvard. The semifinals now are now set at 141: Metcalf-Burroughs, Jenkins-Caldwell. 11:12 pm: In 149-pound quarterfinal action, No. 7-seeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State holds on for a victory over No. 2-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota. No. 4-seeded Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska edged No. 5 Josh Churella of Michigan. 11:03 pm: Just 20 seconds into it, No. 7-seeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State already has a takedown on No. 2-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota to go up 2-0. 11:02 pm: The quarterfinals are now underway at 149. This weight class is sick. Four amazing matches going on. 10:59 pm: No. 4-seeded Nathan Morgan of Oklahoma State topped No. 5-seeded Manny Rivera of Minnesota in the final quarterfinal match at 141. The semifinals now are now set at 141: Mendes-Morgan, Griffin-Jaggers. 10:58 pm: In NCAA quarterfinal action at 141, No. 1-seeded Chad Mendes defeated No. 9-seeded Nick Gallick of Iowa State, while No. 6-seeded J Jaggers of Ohio State upset No. 3-seeded Kellen Russell of Michigan. 10:56 pm: No. 2-seeded Charles Griffin trailed against Matt Kyler of Army, 2-0, in the third period, but came back to win a hard-fought match, 3-2. 10:41 pm: In the other quarterfinal matches at 133, No. 3-seeded Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State cruised to a victory over Joe Baker. No. 2-seeded Jimmy Kennedy of Illinois scored a takedown in sudden victory to defeat No. 7-seeded Mike Grey of Cornell. No. 4-seeded Joe Slaton of Iowa edged No. 5-seeded Nick Fanthrope of Iowa State in the tie-breaker period. The semifinals now are now set at 133: Gomez-Slaton, Kennedy-Scott. 10:36 pm: At 133, No. 1-seeded Franklin Gomez of Michigan State held on for a 5-3 victory over No. 8-seeded Mack Reiter of Minnesota. 10:24 pm: No. 1-seeded Angel Escobedo of Indiana defeated No. 8-seeded Brandon Precin of Northwestern in the second tiebreaker. Escobedo had a seven-second riding time advantage, which was the difference. The semifinals are now set at 125: Escobedo-Falck, Ness-Donahoe. 10:16 pm: In other quarterfinal action, No. 5-seeded Charlie Falck of Iowa won on riding time over No. 4-seeded Tanner Gardner of Stanford. No. 3-seeded Paul Donahoe defeated No. 6-seeded Gabe Flores of Illinois. 10:12 pm: No. 2-seeded Jayson of Minnesota pinned No. 10-seeded James Nicholson of Old Dominion with a half nelson. It looks like we might see a Ness-Paul Donahoe III in the semifinals. Donahoe is up 4-2 after the second period. 10:06 pm (CT): We are underway for the NCAA quarterfinals. Four great matches at 125. Thanks for joining us!

Spring has arrived in St. Louis … along with 330 wrestlers and thousands of avid (and sometimes rabid) fans for the 2008 NCAA Division I championships held at Scottrade Center. At the beginning of the first day of competition, there were four undefeated wrestlers: Chad Mendes of Cal Poly, Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh, Jake Varner of Iowa State, and Josh Glenn of American University. By comparison, at last year's NCAAs, there were eight wrestlers who came to Auburn Hills with perfect records. Let's recap some of the day's highlights, weight by weight … 125: At conclusion of the second round of 125-pound matches, all but one of the top eight seeds were still in title contention. The one exception: Tenth-seeded James Nicholson of Old Dominion, who upset No. 7 Michael Sees of Bloomsburg 8-2. 133: Hofstra's Lou Ruggirello has two claims to fame at the 2008 NCAAs. The Pride 133-pounder got the very first fall of the tournament. Ruggirello also made news with a truly epic-length match against Chattanooga's Stephen Hromada in the first round. It took the sixth-ranked Pride wrestler three tiebreakers, winning on an escape to win 3-2. The match was appealed �- there was a question whether the escape in the twelfth period was before the buzzer -- but the result stood, appeal denied. The match lasted thirteen minutes �- not the longest in NCAA championship history, but its believed to be the longest since the mid 1960s when match length was cut from nine to eight minutes. The second supersized battle at 133 pounds was in the second session, Spartan vs. Buckeye: top-seeded Franklin Gomez of Michigan State vs. unseeded Reece Humphrey of Ohio State. Gomez had been leading throughout much of the match, but the Buckeye made it 4-3 towards the end of regulation… but the Spartan tied it up in the last seconds of regulation. There was no scoring in first sudden victory period. Or the second. In the third sudden victory period, Gomez got an escape. Humphrey knotted it up again with an escape of his own. It looked like the Buckeye had a takedown but ruled out-of-bounds. After thirteen minutes of wrestling, Gomez won based on four seconds of ride time! Despite Lou Ruggirello's hard work in his thirteen-minute match, he was upset in his third bout by the Navy's Joe Baker, seeded eleventh, who got a 3-1 win over the Hofstra wrestler. Otherwise, the top eight wrestlers continued on their title quest. 141: The top six seeded wrestlers continued towards the finals. Seventh-seeded Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin was upset by unseeded Matt Kyler of Army 5-3, SV2. It was the West Point wrestler's second upset of the day. Kyler had knocked off tenth-seeded Cody Cleveland of UT-Chattanooga 5-2 in the opening round. 149: Seventh-seeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State got his second pin of Day One, having gotten a fall in his first match vs. Boston University's Mike Roberts. Thursday evening, he pinned Central Michigan's Brandon Carter. In this weight class, the top seven wrestlers continued their advance towards the finals, with five Big Ten wrestlers making it to the quarterfinals. There was one slight upset �- ninth-seeded Lance Palmer of Ohio State got a 14-6 major decision over the eighth seed, Jake Patacsil of Purdue. 157: In a tournament that hasn't featured too many upsets, this weight class tried to make up for it. First, a nice surprise for Hofstra as Jonny Bonilla- Bowman got a 5-3 win over No. 4 Brandon Becker of Indiana. The Hoosier was penalized at the end of the match for unnecessary roughness. Moments later, twelfth-seeded Josh Zupancic of Stanford got the win over C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota, the fifth seed, 5-3. Eleventh-ranked Tyler Shelfey of Boise State got an upset in overtime over Pitt's sixth-seeded Matt Kocher, 3-3, TB 2. And, in what may be classified as a minor upset, tenth-seeded Michael Chandler of Missouri beat Big Eight rival Cyler Sanderson of Iowa State, the seventh seed, 5-3. The Tiger got a 3-point near fall in the third to counter the Cyclone's first-period takedown. Thanks to these upsets, only the top three seeds were still on the path to the championship: defending champ Gregor Gillespie of Edinboro, Illinois' Mike Poeta, and Dan Vallimont of Penn State. The other ranked wrestlers were seeded eighth, tenth, eleventh, and twelfth … along with the unseeded Bonilla-Bowman. 165: The top six seeds cruised on their path to the finals. The one "overachiever" was tenth-seeded Mike Cannon of American University; on Thursday night, he beat the man (Penn's Zach Shanaman) who beat the seventh-seeded wrestler, Jacob Dieffenbach of Oklahoma State 5-4 in the first round. 174: Two upsets worth mentioning: Cornell's eleventh-seeded Steve Anceravage pinned familiar foe, the sixth-ranked Alton Lucas of Hofstra. (The two had split their two matches this season.) Nathan Lee of Oregon scored two surprises on opening day at the 2008 NCAAs. In the first round, he got a 3-1, SV 1win over Minnesota's eighth-seeded Gabe Dretsch. In the second, the Duck got a 2-1, TB 1 over ninth-seeded Brandon Mason of Oklahoma State. The top five wrestlers at 174 remained perfect at the end of the first day: Pitt's Keith Gavin, Michigan's Steve Luke, Nebraska's Brandon Browne, Iowa's Jay Borschel, and Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan. Also in contention: seventh-seeded Matthew Stophinski of Navy, and eleventh-seeded Steve Anceravage of Cornell. 184: Two surprises in this weight class: Rider's unseeded Doug Umbehauer got a 3-2 win over twelfth-seeded Jack Jenson of Oklahoma State. It was the Rider wrestler's second upset of the day, having beaten fifth-seeded Josh Weitzel of Oklahoma 9-5 in the first round. Nebraska's unseeded Vince Jones got a 7-5 win over third-seeded Tyrel Todd of the University of Michigan on Thursday evening. The top two seeds, Iowa State's Jake Varner, and Mike Pucillo of Ohio State, continued undefeated… as did the fourth, sixth, seventh and eighth seeds. 197: A big Cyclone upset, as unseeded David Bertolino got a 6-4, SV 1 win over third-seeded Mike Tamillow of Northwestern. In addition to the unseeded Iowa Stater, the top two seeds -- along with the light-heavyweights seeded fourth through eighth -- are still alive in the title hunt. Hwt: The top-ranked big men of college wrestling followed the script to the letter; all of the heavyweights seeded one through eight made it into the quarterfinals. At the end of competition on Thursday, all of the first and second seeds survived into the quarterfinals. However, two third-seeded wrestlers -- Michigan's Todd, and Northwestern's Tamillow -- had their title hopes dashed. Team standings: 1. Iowa 29.5 2. Nebraska 26.5 3. Iowa State 25 While we celebrate the first day of competition at the 2008 NCAAs, we also have sad news to report: Tommy Evans passed away March 18 at age 77 after long illness. Evans' wrestling resume was impressive by any measure -- a two-time NCAA champ for the University of Oklahoma, Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament in 1954, and a member of the US Olympic team. He then took the reins of the Sooners, where, in thirteen seasons, his wrestlers won two team championships and nineteen individual national titles; 59 Sooners earned All-American honors

The top-ranked University of Iowa wrestling team is in first place with 29.5 points after Thursday's first day of competition at the 2008 NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis, MO. The Hawkeyes hold a three-point lead over second-place Nebraska, and Iowa State is in third with 25. Iowa posted a near-perfect 8-1 record Friday night, winning 15 of 18 bouts on the day, and advancing seven wrestlers to Friday morning's championship quarterfinals. Hawkeye sophomore Ryan Morningstar is also still alive in the 157-pound consolation bracket. "That sets us up," said Iowa Head Coach Tom Brands. "We've got seven guys going in the quarterfinals - seven guys with firepower. They have got to be ready in the morning because it starts over for everyone. We did a good job of picking up bonus points today, but we have to wrestle hard and smart the entire time, every time." Hawkeye junior Charlie Falck kicked off Thursday night's session at 125 with a 5-2 win over Penn State's Mark McKnight, picking up his 30th season win. Falck, who is the fifth seed, will face fourth-seeded Tanner Gardner of Stanford in the quarterfinals. Falck is 0-2 against Gardner, losing a 3-2 decision at the 2004 Midlands and getting pinned in 2:41 at last year's NCAA Championships. Sophomore 133-pounder Joe Slaton followed with a 9-5 victory over Nebraska's Kenny Jordan. Slaton is the fourth seed, and he will face fifth-seeded Nick Fanthorpe of Iowa State in the quarterfinals. It will be the first meeting between the intra-state rival teams at the tournament. Slaton is 1-0 against Fanthorpe, winning a 6-5 decision at the dual in December. Top-seeded 149-pounder Brent Metcalf posted a 10-5 win over Indiana's Kurt Kinser to advance to the quarterfinals. The Hawkeye sophomore will take on ninth-seeded Lance Palmer of Ohio State. Metcalf won the only meeting between the two - a 5-3 decision at the dual in January. Second-seeded senior Mark Perry scored team bonus points in his second match of the day with his 12-2 major decision over Air Force's Stephen Crozier at 165. Perry will face 10th-seeded Michael Cannon of American in the quarterfinals. Sophomore Jay Borschel also posted his second bonus-point victory of the day when he stuck Illinois' John Dergo in 6:06 at 174. The fourth-seeded Hawkeye will face fifth-seeded Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan in the quarterfinals. Borschel is 1-0 against Sinnott, winning an 8-5 decision at the Midlands Championships in December. Sophomore Phillip Keddy scored an escape in the tiebreak period to defeat Kirk Smith of Boise State, 2-1. Keddy, who picked up his 40th career victory with the win, is the seventh seed at 184. He will face second-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State in the quarterfinals. Keddy is 0-2 against Pucillo, losing a 3-2 decision at the dual in January and a 9-4 match last season. Hawkeye senior heavyweight Matt Fields won Iowa's final championship bout of the day, scoring a 4-1 win over Indiana's Nate Everhart. Fields, who is the fourth seed, will face fifth-seeded Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State in the quarterfinals. Fields is 2-1 against Rosholt, winning the last two bouts in the series. Iowa went 1-1 in the consolation bracket. Morningstar scored a 4-1 victory over American's Christian Stout to stay alive in the tournament. The Hawkeye sophomore will face fifth-seeded C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota Friday morning. Morningstar is 0-3 against Schlatter, losing all three bouts by decision. Iowa sophomore 141-pounder Dan LeClere lost a 13-7 decision to Arizona State's Chris Drouin to end his season. LeClere, who was the tournament's eighth seed, posted a 22-11 record at 141 this season. Friday morning's matches are scheduled to start at 10 a.m. (CT) at the Scottrade Center. Competition will include the championship quarterfinals and two rounds of consolation matches. NCAA FIRST ROUND TEAM STANDINGS (Top 10 Teams) Place Team Points 1. Iowa 29.5 2. Nebraska 26.5 3. Iowa State 25 4. Central Michigan 24 Minnesota 24 6. Missouri 23 Oklahoma State 23 8. Ohio State 22 9. Cornell 17.5 Penn State 17.5

The defending national champion Gopher wrestling team wasn't perfect, but remained in the title hunt during the second session at the 2008 NCAA Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis Thursday evening. Five Minnesota athletes remained in the winner's bracket after the second round, with eight of nine Gophers still alive after day one. Minnesota is tied with Central Michigan (24 team points) for fourth place after a day's worth of action, trailing first-place Iowa by 5.5 points. The Hawkeyes (29.5 points) extended their session one lead over second-place Nebraska (26.5) and third-place Iowa State (25). Seven of Iowa's nine wrestlers remained in championship contention after day one. After an outstanding showing in the morning session, Minnesota's lightweight corps of Jayson Ness, Mack Reiter, Manny Rivera and Dustin Schlatter all advanced to Friday's quarterfinals with wins Thursday night, as did two-time All-American Roger Kish. Unfortunately for the Gophers, senior C.P. Schlatter was upset by No. 12 seed Josh Zupancic of Stanford. He will be forced to regain his All-American status through the wrestlebacks. Senior Gabe Dretsch, the eighth seed at 174 pounds, bounced back from his first round loss to post a 5-3 win over Penn's Scott Giffin in the wrestlebacks, and heavyweight Ben Berhow also won his consolation match to stay alive in the tournament. Senior Justin Bronson's first career NCAA appearance came to an end Thursday when he lost his consolation match with Jared Villers of West Virginia 12-4. After picking up his 19th pin of the season Thursday morning, returning All-American Ness was outstanding in his second round match-up with Central Michigan's Luke Smith. Ness, who beat Smith 8-2 at the National Duals earlier this season, used a big second period to win a 9-0 major decision Thursday night. The lanky Ness and diminutive Smith locked up for much of the first three minutes, but Ness turned the tide with a second-period reversal and racked up an impressive 3:05 worth of riding time to improve his overall record to 37-1 on the season. Two-time All-American Reiter seems to have regained the form he flashed in his first two national tournaments as he thoroughly handled Central Michigan's Conor Beebe in a 15-6 major decision win. Reiter led just 3-2 after a period but out-scored Beebe a whopping 12-4 the rest of the way to advance to the quarterfinals. This will be the fourth NCAA quarterfinal appearance of Reiter's career, but it might also be his toughest – the senior captain will match up with No. 1 seed and defending Big Ten champion Franklin Gomez of Michigan State Friday night. Gomez defeated Reiter 7-4 in a dual meet earlier this year. Rivera looked good in his quest for an All-American award, as he won a close 8-5 decision with No. 12 Garrett Scott of Penn State to advance. Rivera trailed 3-0 early in the second period but scored both a takedown and three-point nearfall late in the frame to jump ahead and bring the Gopher faithful in attendance to their feet. Rivera's victory propels him to a Friday night quarterfinal match with Oklahoma State's Nathan Morgan. Morgan narrowly defeated Rivera 6-4 earlier this year. Despite being the No. 2 seed, Dustin Schlatter had another tough match at 149 pounds. After beating Boise State's Adam Hall 5-3 early Thursday, Schlatter had to contend with Iowa State's Mitch Mueller in the second round. Schlatter's elusive style prevented Mueller from scoring a single takedown, and the former NCAA champion put the match away with a third-period takedown of his own. Schlatter will take on N.C. State's Darrion Caldwell in the quarterfinals. Caldwell is the only wrestler to defeat top-seeded Brent Metcalf of Iowa this season. Unfortunately, Dustin's older brother C.P. did not fare as well in his efforts to end his career with back-to-back All-American laurels. Schlatter took on little-known No. 12 seed Josh Zupancic of Stanford and appeared to have the match under control by jumping out to a 4-1 lead. But Zupancic took Schlatter down in the second and rode him out for much of the period, closing the deficit and gaining a significant riding time advantage. Zupancic started down in the third and escaped to tie the score at four and prevented Schlatter from scoring the go-ahead points the rest of the way to with 5-4 with 1:05 worth of riding time. Schlatter, who was forced to take an injury timeout during the match because of a hamstring injury suffered during the Big Ten semifinals, drops down to the wrestleback bracket and must now fight his way back through for third place. It wasn't always pretty, but returning Gopher All-American Kish showed an impressive amount of veteran guile in his 4-0 win over Purdue's A.J. Kissel at 184 pounds. Kish, who defeated UT-Chattanooga's Josh Edmundson early Thursday afternoon to advance to the second round, retained excellent position throughout his match with Kissel to notch the shutout win. Kish's quarterfinal draw is also a tough one – he must take on top-ranked sophomore Jake Varner of Iowa State. After beating Varner in two dual meets last season, Kish has dropped his last three matches with the undefeated sophomore sensation – during last year's NCAA semifinals, the All-Star Classic event last November and the teams' Dec. 2 dual meet match-up at Williams Arena. Minnesota's consolation wrestlers were a mixed bag Thursday night as they began their long road through the loser's bracket. Dretsch while Bronson's season came to an end with an 0-2 NCAA performance. Berhow won a back-and-forth match with Army's Nathan Thobaben – he trailed 3-2 and 4-3 at different points in the second period, but the redshirt freshman scored two crucial takedowns to regain the lead and ended up the 10-7 winner. Thursday's second session announced attendance was 15,170. The Gophers will look to make up ground Friday morning during the quarterfinals and wrestleback rounds. The action begins at 10 a.m. at the Scottrade Center, with Friday night's semifinal round set to start at 6 p.m. Television coverage also gets underway Friday on ESPNU and ESPN360.com. All of Friday's wrestling will be feature live ESPNU broadcasts, and ESPN360.com will offer viewers the option to view any quarterfinal and semifinal matches they wish to see on-demand.

The NCAA quarterfinal matchups are set for Friday morning at 10 a.m. CT. 125 No. 1 Angel Escobedo (Indiana) vs. No. 8 Brandon Precin (Northwestern) No. 4 Tanner Gardner (Stanford) vs. No. 5 Charlie Falck (Iowa) No. 3 Paul Donahoe (Nebraska) vs. No. 6 Gabe Flores (Illinois) No. 2 Jayson Ness (Minnesota) vs. No. 10 James Nicholson (Old Dominion) 133 No. 1 Franklin Gomez (Michigan State) vs. No. 8 Mack Reiter (Minnesota) No. 4 Joe Slaton (Iowa) vs. No. 5 Nick Fanthorpe (Iowa State) No. 3 Coleman Scott (Oklahoma State) vs. No. 11 Joe Baker (Navy) No. 2 Jimmy Kennedy (Illinois) vs. No. 7 Mike Grey (Cornell) 141 No. 1 Chad Mendes (Cal Poly) vs. No. 9 Nick Gallick (Iowa State) No. 4 Nathan Morgan (Oklahoma State) vs. No. 5 Manny Rivera (Minnesota) No. 3 Kellen Russell (Michigan) vs. No. 6 J Jaggers (Ohio State) No. 2 Charles Griffin (Hofstra) vs. Matthew Kyler (Army) 149 No. 1 Brent Metcalf (Iowa) vs. No. 9 Lance Palmer (Ohio State) No. 4 Jordan Burroughs (Nebraska) vs. No. 5 Josh Churella (Michigan) No. 3 J.P. O'Connor (Harvard) vs. No. 6 Bubba Jenkins (Penn State) No. 2 Dustin Schlatter (Minnesota) vs. No. 7 Darrion Caldwell (North Carolina State) 157 No. 1 Gregor Gillespie (Edinboro) vs. No. 8 Jordan Leen (Cornell) No. 12 Josh Zupancic (Stanford) vs. Jonny Bonilla-Bowman (Hofstra) No. 3 Dan Vallimont (Penn State) vs. No. 11 Tyler Sherfey (Boise State) No. Mike Poeta (Illinois) vs. No. 10 Michael Chandler (Missouri) 165 No. 1 Eric Tannebaum (Michigan) vs. No. 8 Moza Fay (Northern Iowa) No. 4 Mack Lewnes (Cornell) vs. No. 5 Stephen Dwyer (Nebraska) No. 3 Nick Marable (Missouri) vs. No. 6 Jon Reader (Iowa State) No. 2 Mark Perry (Iowa) vs. No. 10 Mike Cannon (American) 174 No. 1 Keith Gavin (Pittsburgh) vs. Nathan Lee (Boise State) No. 4 Jay Borschell (Iowa) vs. No. 5 Brandon Sinnott (Central Michigan) No. 3 Brandon Browne (Nebraska) vs. No. 11 Steve Anceravage (Cornell) No. 2 Steve Luke vs. No. 7 Matt Stolpinksi (Navy) 184 No. 1 Jake Varner (Iowa State) vs. No. 8 Roger Kish (Minnesota) No. 4 Christian Sinnott (Central Michigan) vs. Doug Umbehauer (Rider) No. 6 Raymond Jordan (Missouri) vs. Vince Jones (Nebraska) No. 2 Mike Pucillo (Ohio State) vs. No. 7 Phil Keddy (Iowa) 197 No. 1 Josh Glenn (American) vs. No. 8 Craig Brester (Nebraska) No. 4 Wynn Michalak (Central Michigan) vs. No. 5 Max Askren (Missouri) No. 6 Dallas Herbst (Wisconsin) vs. David Bertolino (Iowa State) No. 2 Phil Davis (Penn State) vs. No. 7 Hudson Taylor (Maryland) Hwt No. 1 Dustin Fox (Northwestern) vs. No. 8 Bubba Gritter (Central Michigan) No. 4 Matt Fields (Iowa) vs. No. 5 Jared Rosholt (Oklahoma State) No. 3 Ed Prendergast (Navy) vs. No. 6 Kyle Massey (Wisconsin) No. 2 JD Bergman (Ohio State) vs. No. 7 David Zabriskie (Iowa State)

8:46 pm: The Round 2 matches are in the books. We will be providing a running blog during Friday morning's quarterfinal matches. 8:46 pm: Updated team scores: 1. Iowa 29 2. Nebraska 24.5 3. Central Michigan, Iowa State 24 5. Minnesota 22.5 6. Missouri 20 7. Oklahoma State 19.5 8. Ohio State 19 9. Cornell, Wisconsin 16.5 8:38 pm: No. 2-seeded heavyweight JD Bergman of Ohio State won 6-3 over Joe Fendone of Edinboro. 8:35 pm: Iowa State got another key victory at heavyweight as David Zabriske, who is seeded No. 7, won 3-2 over Zach Scheaffer of Pittsburgh. 8:31 pm: Iowa State 197-pounder David Bertolino picked up a huge upset victory over No. 3-seeded Mike Tamillow of Northwestern, 6-4, in the sudden-victory period. Cyclone fans go crazy. 8:28 pm: Iowa heavyweight Matt Fields, who is seeded No. 4, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 4-1 victory over Nathan Everhart of Indiana. 8:23 pm: Missouri's Max Askren, who is seeded No. 5 at 197 pounds, recorded his second major decision of the day, 14-6, over North Carolina State's Daren Burns. Askren has outscored his opponents 29-11 thus far. 8:20 pm: No. 2-seeded Mike Pucillo of Ohio State dominated Ryan Goodman of North Carolina State, 14-1, at 184 pounds. 8:18 pm: No. 7-seeded Phil Keddy of Iowa won by a score of 2-1 (tiebreaker) over No. 10-seeded Kirk Smith of Boise State at 184 pounds. 8:16 pm: No. 1-seeded heavyweight Dustin Fox of Northwestern pinned Joshua Wine of VMI in the first period. 8:14 pm: No. 2-seeded Steve Luke of Michigan won 5-2 over Luke Feist of Stanford at 174 pounds. 8:12 pm: Vince Jones of Nebraska scored big upset over No. 3-seeded Tyrel Todd of Michigan, 7-5, at 184 pounds. 8:08 pm: Updated team scores: 1. Iowa 27 2. Nebraska 22.5 3. Minnesota 21.5 4. Iowa State 20 5. Central Michigan 19 8:08 pm: At 197 pounds, No. 4-seeded Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan recorded a first period pin over Cayle Byers of George Mason 8:04 pm: No. 1-seeded Jake Varner of Iowa State picked up a first period pin over Zack Giesen of Stanford at 184 pounds 8:01 pm: At 174 pounds, No. 4-seeded Jay Borschell of Iowa pinned John Dergo of Illinois. 8:00 pm: Nathan Lee of Boise State, who upset No. 8-seeded Gabe Dretsch in the opening round, defeated No. 9-seeded Brandon Mason of Oklahoma State in overtime at 174 pounds. 7:59 pm: Keith Gavin held on for a 4-2 victory over Chance Litton of West Virginia at 174 pounds. 7:58 pm: No. 2-seeded Mark Perry of Iowa, the defending NCAA champion, registered a major decision over Stephen Crozier of Air Force at 165 pounds. 7:52 pm: At 174 pounds, No. 11-seeded Steve Anceravage of Cornell upset No. 6-seeded Alton Lucas of Hofstra. 7:46 pm: Missouri picked up a couple key victories in the middleweights. No. 10-seeded Michael Chandler defeated No. 7-seeded Cyler Sanderson of Iowa State, 5-3, at 157 pounds. A short time later, No. 3-seeded Nick Marable defeated Patrick Pitsch of Arizona State at 165 pounds. 7:44 pm: At 157 pounds, Newly McSpadden of Oklahoma State hung close with No. 1-seeded Mike Poeta of Illinois, but Poeta held on for the 3-2 victory. 7:39 pm: No. 12-seeded Josh Zupancic of Stanford, a returning All-American, scored a 5-4 upset over No. 5-seeded C.P. Schlatter of Minnesota. The match was tied at the end of regulation, but Zupancic earned one point for riding time, which proved to be the difference. 7:37 pm: Jonny Bonilla-Bowman of Hofstra picked up a 5-3 victory over No. 4-seeded Brandon Becker of Indiana at 157 pounds. 7:32 pm: At 149 pounds, Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota, who is seeded No. 2, won 6-2 over Iowa State's Mitch Mueller to advance to the quarterfinals, where he will face Caldwell. 7:29 pm: No. 6-seeded Bubba Jenkins of Penn State edged NCAA runner-up Ryan Lang of Northwestern, 4-3. 7:28 pm: No. 7-seeded Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State picked up his second straight pin of the tournament after throwing Central Michigan's Brandon Carter in headlock and pinning him in 42 seconds. 7:25 pm: Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska, who is seeded No. 4 at 149 pounds, looked great in picking up a technical fall over Edward McCray of Gardner-Webb. 7:22 pm: No. 1-seeded Brent Metcalf of Iowa defeated Kurt Kinser of Indiana, 10-5, at 149 pounds, but the Hawkeye sophomore looked anything but happy with the victory as he ran off the mat. 7:08 pm: In a battle at 133 pounds, No. 1-seeded Franklin Gomez was leading 3-0 in the third period, before Reece Humphrey of Ohio State threw the Spartan sophomore to his back for a four-point move to take a 4-3 lead. Gomez earned an escape as time expired to put the match into overtime. But Gomez came out victorious in the third tiebreaker (by having four seconds of riding time) in a controversial match. 7:02 pm: Minnesota won a pair of matches over Central Michigan. Jayson Ness defeated Luke Smith at 125 pounds, while Mack Reiter took care of Connor Beebe at 133 pounds. 6:49 pm: Iowa's Charlie Falck, the No. 5 seed at 125 pounds, was in a tight-battle with Mark McKnight of Penn State, but sealed the victory, 5-2, with a takedown with just over 30 second to go. 6:48 pm: At 125 pounds, Angel Escobedo gave up a late takedown to Eric Hoffman of North Dakota State, but it didn't matter … as the Hoosier sophomore held on for the 6-3 victory. 6:38 pm (CT): Thanks for joining us again at the NCAA Division I Championships at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. We will be blogging throughout all the second-round matchups.

2:44 pm: Session I comes to a conclusion. We will be back blogging for Session II. Here are the team results after Session I: 1. Iowa 19 2. Central Michigan 18 3. Iowa State 16 4. Minnesota, Nebraska 15.5 2:40 pm:No. 2-seeded heavyweight JD Bergman of Ohio State wasted little time with Patrick Walker of Liberty, picking up a pin in just 27 seconds. 2:37 pm: No. 12-seeded Mark Ellis of Missouri edged John Wise of Illinois, 5-4, at heavyweight. 2:33 pm: The No. 11 seed at heavyweight, Mike Spaid of Bloomsburg, picked up a pin over Levon Mock of Brown. 2:31 pm: Iowa's Matt Fields was a 7-3 winner over Reece Hopkin of Northern Colorado at heavyweight. 2:27 pm: At heavyweight, No. 5-seeded Jared Rosholt of Oklahoma State looked great in picking up a first-period pin over Trey McLean of Penn. Rosholt was leading 5-0 before picking up the pin. 2:22 pm: Team results after 184: 1. Iowa: 17 2. Minnesota: 15.5 3. Central Michigan, Nebraska: 12 5. Iowa State: 11 2:20 pm: More tough luck for Tennessee Chattanooga. At 197 pounds, Cayle Byers of George Mason defeated Matt Koz of Tennessee Chattanooga, 3-1, in the tiebreaker period. 2:16 pm: Another Missouri Tiger, No. 5-seeded Max Askren, who was upset in the first round of the NCAAs last season, looked good in picking up a 15-5 major decision over Joe Fagiano of Indiana at 197 pounds. Askren will take on Daren Burns of UNC Greensboro in the second round. 2:02 pm: No. 6-seeded Raymond Jordan of Missouri wrestled like a man on a mission in picking up a technical fall, 23-7, over Matthew Gevilinger of Brown at 184 pounds. 1:59 pm: Sandy Stevens announced that the attendance for Session I was 15,513. 1:50 pm: A heavily-bandaged Roger Kish of Minnesota, a 2006 NCAA runner-up who entered this event seeded No. 8 at 184 pounds, won a 6-3 decision over Josh Edmondson of Tennessee Chattanooga. 1:44 pm: No. 1-seeded Jake Varner of Iowa State registered a shutout, 6-0, over Lior Zamir of Penn at 184 pounds. 1:32 pm: At 174 pounds, Boise State's Nathan Lee picked up a 3-1 victory in overtime over No. 8-seeded Gabe Dretsch of Minnesota. 1:22 pm: Zack Shanaman of Penn, who was runner-up in the EIWA, pulled an upset at 165 pounds by defeating No. 7-seeded Jake Dieffenbach of Oklahoma State. 1:19 pm: No. 2-seeded Mark Perry of Iowa gave the Hawkeye fans something to cheer about by picking up a pin over Marcus Effner of Cleveland State at 165 pounds. 1:14 pm: Early team results (after 157): 1. Minnesota: 13 2. Hofstra, Iowa, Penn State: 9 5. Central Michigan: 8 1:05 pm: At 157 pounds, No. 6-seeded Matt Kocher of Pittsburgh defeated Ryan Morningstar of Iowa, 4-2, in the second sudden-victory. The Hawkeyes now have two wrestlers, Morningstar and LeClere (141), in the consolation bracket. 1:02 pm: It was announced that Tennessee Chattanooga's protest at 133 pounds was denied. Lou Ruggirello wins the match by a score of 3-1 to advance to the second round. 12:52 pm: Tennessee Chattanooga lost another tough overtime match when Bill Garvin lost in overtime, 5-4, to No. 3-seeded Dan Vallimont of Penn State at 157 pounds. 12:52 pm: Tennessee Chattanooga lost another tough overtime match when William Garvin lost in overtime to No. 3-seeded Dan Vallimont of Penn State at 157 pounds. 12:47 pm: Freshman Adam Hall of Boise State gave No. 2-seeded Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota all he wanted at 149 pounds. The match was tied 2-2 heading into the third period, but Schlatter, who needed injury time in the third period, pulled out the 5-3 victory. 12:46 pm: In a battle of All-Americans, Jordan Leen of Cornell defeated Ryan Hluschak of Drexel in a tight match, 4-3, at 157 pounds. 12:37 pm: No. 6-seeded Lou Ruggirello of Hofstra defeated Stephen Hromado of Tennessee Chattanooga in a controversial triple overtime match at 133 pounds. The Tennessee Chattanooga coaching staff has filed a protest. 12:35 pm: At 149 pounds, Darrion Caldwell of North Carolina State avenged a midseason loss at the Southern Scuffle to Mike Roberts of Boston by picking up a first-period pin. He will now take on Brandon Carter of Central Michigan, who upset Scott Ervin of Appalachian State. 12:27 pm: Luke Smith of Central Michigan needed double overtime to defeat Tyler Clark of Iowa State at 125 pounds. 12:18 pm: No. 1-seeded Brent Metcalf of Iowa excites the Hawekeye faithful with a pin over Will Rowe of Oklahoma at 149 pounds. 12:16 pm: At 125 pounds, No. 1-seeded Angel Escobedo of Indiana got a bit of a scare against Pac-10 runner-up Anthony Robles of Arizona State in the opening round. Escobedo was trailing 2-1, but picked up a takedown and added riding time to win by a score of 4-2. 12:10 pm: No. 7-seeded Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin was trailing heading into the third period against true freshman Corey Jantzen of Harvard, but the Badger sophomore picked up a pin to advance to the second round at 141 pounds. 12:02 pm: Zach Bailey of Oklahoma avenged a Midands finals loss to No. 8-seeded Dan LeClere with a come-from-behind 8-7 victory at 141 pounds. 12:00 pm: At 141 pounds, No. 12-seeded Garrett Scott of Penn State looked impressive in pinning Carter Downing of Wyoming. 11:36 am Minnesota picked up two pins right off the bat. Jayson Ness pinned Marcos Orozco of UC Davis … while Mack Reiter pinned Jeffrey Schell of Brown 11:06 am (CT): The 2008 NCAA Division I Championships are underway at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. RevWrestling.com will be providing a blog throughout the event and end-of-the-day stories and audio clips. We also be providing this running blog on Thursday. Thanks for visiting RevWrestling.com.

The mantra of collegiate wrestling has always been "only March matters." Few will argue against the idea that one contest be placed above all others in significance: the final one. Indeed, people remember the Cinderella title run of Oklahoma State's Mark Branch in NCAA 1994 much more than his losing record from the regular season that led up to it. And historical NCAA brackets are littered with names of athletes such as John Fisher of Michigan and Scott Moore of Virginia, who had strong success in the regular season of their senior seasons, but couldn't put it all together for the Big Show. As they years go by, remembering their regular season dominance becomes more difficult than remembering the names of the champions who finished ahead of them. The college wrestling season is long -- arguably too long -- and in the months preceding the Big Show, many wrestlers shine. While fans and historians will not speak the names of these wrestlers with the same reverence as those who succeed in the NCAAs, it's important to note their accomplishments before the fur begins flying at the big dance. There have been others who have made noise throughout the season, but here are those who have been talked about the most as the months have gone by. Lou Ruggirello (Photo/Tech-Fall.com)November: Lou Ruggirello Lou Ruggirello, a 133-pound sophomore for Hofstra, went 0-2 at the NCAAs last season but began this season with an amazing run. On November 10, he pinned two-time All-American Tyler McCormick of Missouri in a dual, then he controlled Mack Reiter of Minnesota (http://youtube.com/watch?v=y9eBhxqB4LM) at the All-Star Classic (also a two-time All American) and on November 25, downed No. 1-ranked Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State. These wins made him an instant message board darling, but disappointing performances at both the Cliff Keen Las Vegas invitational and the Southern Scuffle resulted in significantly diminished online chatter. He's had some good wins since, including a pin of Nick Fanthorpe of Iowa State at the National Duals, but discussion about him has resumed to that of a mortal. Early December: Darrion Caldwell Darrrion Caldwell of North Carolina State was best known for a loss last year against Ryan Lang of Northwestern in the quarterfinals of the NCAA tournament at 141 pounds (http://youtube.com/watch?v=rGMIkDxY05Q). Caldwell was scoring all kinds of points while building up an 8-3 lead before getting double cement mixed and pinned. This season, Caldwell moved up to 149 pounds and had an early season test (November 24) against the name most often typed on wrestling message boards: Brent Metcalf of Iowa. He famously caught Metcalf in a spladle (http://youtube.com/watch?v=kQuvAN-c36g) and pinned him. Despite the victory, most people wrote it off as luck … until the beginning of December when he won Vegas handily in a stacked weight. After majoring Josh Churella of Michigan in the semis and beating JP O'Connor of Harvard, 8-6, in the finals, he had to be considered a legit force -- and was. But only a few weeks later, the Southern Scuffle came around and he got pinned twice: once by Mike Roberts of Boston University and once to Scott Ervin of Appalachian State. (Interestingly, Caldwell faces Roberts in the first round of the NCAAs and could face Ervin second round.) Caldwell has won the rest of his matches this season, has pinned more opponents than anyone else, but has sort of slipped off the radar due to the emergence of others in the same weight class. Late December: Mike Roberts Unheralded Mike Roberts of Boston University not only beat the white-hot Caldwell by pin in the opening round of the Southern Scuffle, but kept winning and ultimately shocked former NCAA champ and last year's third- placer finisher Dustin Schlatter of Minnesota, 3-2, in the finals. Roberts was picked by virtually no one to win the Scuffle at 149 pounds and his performance was stunning. Losses before the Scuffle coupled with BU's weak schedule made it unclear how strong a wrestler Roberts was/is. Subsequent defeats at the hands of JP O'Connor of Harvard and Don Fisch of Rider have taken him off the radar. Is Roberts a sleeping giant who will regain his late December glory in St. Louis? Or will he be considered a one-tourney wonder? We'll find out this week. January: Brent Metcalf After losing to Caldwell, Brent Metcalf has gotten his hand raised every time he's stepped on the mat. He won the Midlands tournament at the end of December, but didn't face any of the big names in the weight class. It was only after he won Outstanding Wrestler at the National Duals that he had to be considered as great as his reputation. There, he beat Churella as well as highly-ranked Jordan Burroughs of Nebraska. But Metcalf didn't rest on his laurels, and finished out the month with dual meet wins over Lance Palmer of Ohio State (5-3), Junior World champ Bubba Jenkins of Penn State (pin), and NCAA finalist Ryan Lang of Northwestern (12-3). Unlike the others on this list, Metcalf's success has marched on uninterrupted, but if he doesn't win it all this weekend, no one will be more disappointed than he. February: Chad Mendes 141-pounder Chad Mendes of Cal Poly is one of four wrestlers going into the NCAAs undefeated -- but for most of the season didn't have recognition equal to the other three (Keith Gavin of Pittsburgh, Jake Varner of Iowa State and Josh Glenn of American). That changed in the middle of last month. Chad Mendes (Photo/Tech-Fall.com)He had a big win in December over Minnesota's Manuel Rivera by pin (http://youtube.com/watch?v=JZwcT_-X9AY) but, like Caldwell's pin over Metcalf, it was dismissed as a fluke. Most of Cal Poly's wrestlers took the Vegas tournament off in order to study for finals, so Mendes missed the opportunity to square off against many of the nation' best. It was only when Cal Poly's schedule afforded Mendes an opportunity to face two time All American Nathan Morgan of Oklahoma State (http://youtube.com/watch?v=j7JbtB91S2k) was he able to truly silence critics. Behind late in the third, Mendes secured an impressive takedown against the talented Morgan and kept his undefeated record intact. The season has seen other mini-heroes as well. Two Big Ten wrestlers at 157 come to mind: 1. Brandon Becker of Indiana -- who scored impressive wins over Mike Poeta of Illinois and Craig Henning of Wisconsin. 2. Dan Vallimont of Penn State -- who was undefeated until early February and has only lost this season to Poeta. It has indeed been a common theme this season to see everyone beating up on everyone else. There's obviously still a lot to sort out between the top wrestlers in the country and many weights are difficult to handicap. Moreover, the field is complicated by strong wrestlers from conferences that get less press. Under praised bracket-busters will undoubtedly emerge, as they do every season. The heroes of the post season will certainly eclipse the accomplishments of those from the regular season -- and that's the way it should be -- but what a season it has been.

ESPNU, ESPN360.com and ESPN will combine for extensive live coverage of the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships On Friday, March 21, and Saturday, March 22, from the Scott Trade Center in St. Louis. On Friday, ESPNU features more than five hours of coverage, with the quarterfinals at 11 a.m. ET and the semifinals at 7 p.m. For the second consecutive year, ESPNU will deliver the semifinals in a "side-by-side" format, allowing viewers to see both semifinal matches in each weight class at the same time. ESPNU will telecast the Championship Medal Round on Saturday, March 22, at 11 a.m., while ESPN will air the finals at 8:30 p.m. During the Championship Round, the referees will wear microphones, providing fans with even more access to and understanding of the action. ESPN360.com, ESPN's signature live sports broadband network, will offer one-stop access to all rounds of the championships. ESPN360.com will complement the ESPNU and ESPN telecasts by providing live coverage of all four mats during the quarterfinals, giving users the option to select the match they want to see. ESPN360.com will also simulcast live coverage of the semifinals, Championship Medal Round and Finals. ESPN360.com is now available at no cost to millions of U.S. college students and U.S.-based military personnel. Users accessing ESPN360.com from an on-campus ".edu" or ".mil" network domain in the United States receive free, seamless access to the NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships and hundreds of other live college and professional sporting events each month. The service is also available via more than 25 Internet service providers, including AT&T, Verizon, Insight, RCN, Frontier, Cavalier, Charter, Mediacom, Conway, Grande Communications and more. Dave Armstrong will serve as play-by-play announcer alongside analysts Tim Johnson and Olympic gold-medal winner Jeff Blatnick, with Quint Kessenich reporting. Former Iowa State coach and wrestler James Gibbons will serve as a guest commentator describing the action on ESPN360.com. NCAA DIVISION I WRESTLING CHAMPIONSHIPS SCHEDULE Date Time (ET) Event Network Friday, March 21: 11 a.m. Quarterfinals (Session 3) ESPNU LIVE – 3 hrs. 7 p.m. Semifinals (Session 4) ESPNU LIVE – 2.5 hrs. Saturday, March 22: 11 a.m. Championship Medal Round ESPNU LIVE – 3 hrs. 8:30 p.m. Finals ESPN LIVE

WATERLOO, IOWA -- Three Iowa state high school championship teams and high school state placewinners from Black Hawk County will be special guests at Frank Gotch Day ceremonies set April 3 in Waterloo. In addition, Iowa's first four-time state wrestling champion will be on hand for the festivities. Bob Steenlage made Iowa history in 1962 when he captured his fourth state title for Britt High School. He went on to become an All-American at West Point, serve as an officer in Vietnam and become a highly sought motivational speaker in the 1990s. Other guests already confirmed are Dan Gable, 1972 Olympic champion and long-time University of Iowa wrestling coach; Dan Severn, former wrestling All-American and mixed martial arts star; Tolly Thompson, the only native born Iowan to win a World Championship medal at heavyweight; Chuck Yagla, two-time NCAA champion and 1980 Olympian; Brad Rheingans, two-time Olympian and pro wrestling hall of famer; and Tim Hurley, mayor of Waterloo. "This will be a one of the great days in wrestling history," said Kyle Klingman, associate director of the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum. "The Waterloo and Cedar Falls area has been considered the wrestling capital of the world. I can't think of a better way to honor Iowa's first true wrestling legend than by celebrating a day in his honor in Waterloo." Frank Gotch Day will be celebrated on April 3, 2008, in Humboldt, Waterloo and at the Dan Gable International Wrestling Institute and Museum here. The museum is planning several activities and has invited everyone to participate. April 3, 2008, will commemorate the 100-year anniversary of Gotch's win over George Hackenschmidt to win the world heavyweight wrestling championship. Gotch's victory in Chicago on April 3, 1908, was a pivotal moment in wrestling history. Gotch's victory set off a wild celebration among sports fans in Humboldt, across Iowa and around the nation. Waterloo Mayor Tim Hurley and Humboldt Mayor Walter Jensen have both declared April 3 as Frank Gotch Day in their respective cities. Iowa Governor Chet Culver has also proclaimed April 3 Frank Gotch Day statewide. "This is a very important date in the history of wrestling, and we didn't want it to pass unnoticed," said Mike Chapman, executive director of DGIWIM. "Gotch has had a tremendous impact on wrestling in the state of Iowa, and around the nation. Having all these wrestling legends here for this event will be a highlight for all wrestling fans." The addition of this year's Iowa High School state wrestling champions marks another historic day for the state. Gilbertville-Don Bosco (1A), Ballard-Huxley (2A), and Waverly-Shell Rock (3A) each set the record for the most points scored at state tournament for its respective class. Waverly Shell Rock set the all-time state record amongst all classes with 225 total team points. All three schools will be honored and will participate at the luncheon. Events for the day include a Frank Gotch luncheon at the Five Sullivan Brothers Convention center at noon, followed by a special reception at the Gable Wrestling Museum at 2 p.m. At the reception, artwork of the historic match between Gotch and Hackenschmidt from April 3, 1908, will be unveiled for the first time. Also, a 12-mintue documentary on the life of Gotch will be shown, and a new book about Gotch's legacy will be available for the first time. The documentary is the work of Atlas Technologies of Ames, and Mike Chapman authored the book. Copies of the documentary and the book will be available for purchase. The documentary will include a historic look at the amazing career of Frank Gotch. The film will also feature commentary from Chapman, Gable, and University of Iowa head coach Tom Brands. Brands was quoted recently that Gotch was the primary reason for Iowa's great wrestling tradition. At 6 p.m., Severn will hold a three-hour seminar in the Dan Gable Teaching Center in the museum, showing and discussing the techniques of catch wrestling (Gotch's preferred style of wrestling) and mixed martial arts. Both the luncheon and the seminar are open to the public, but will be limited to 100 persons at the luncheon and 30 at the seminar. The cost for the luncheon is $15 and the cost of the Dan Severn seminar is $40. Anyone wishing to reserve spots at either can call the museum at 319-233-0745. Frank Gotch Day Schedule (April 3) 12 Noon -- Frank Gotch Luncheon at Five Sullivan Brothers Convention Center (Special Guests: Dan Severn, former NWA world champion and UFC legend; Dan Gable, America's leading figure in amateur wrestling history; and Bob Steenlage, Iowa first four-time state champion, as well as representatives of the three 2008 Iowa high school team champions). 2:00 p.m. -- Unveiling of new artwork at museum of Frank Gotch's historic match on April 3, 1908, when he won the world heavyweight title, and of new book by Mike Chapman on Gotch's legacy in the world of catch wrestling. 2:15 p.m . -- Debut at museum of the Frank Gotch documentary 6-9 p.m. -- Special clinic on catch wrestling and mixed martial arts by Dan Severn in Dan Gable Teaching Center

Mid March will always see outrage over wild card selections from wrestling conference tournaments. There's just no way around it. Fans of teams with wrestlers who aren't selected to go to the big dance are going to scream conspiracy. Period. And the thing is, with the system as it is, they might be right. One of the best things about wrestling is that athletes control their own destiny. Wild card selections are one of the few times where a wrestler's fate is not in his own hands. The announcement of wild cards often results in frustration and head scratching and unfortunately, there are no easy fixes that will make everyone happy. The amount of wrestlers a conference is allowed to take to the NCAAs is based on performance at the tournament -- specifically how many wrestlers from the conference make it to the round of 12 over the years. An increase or decrease in the number of wrestlers a conference advances to this round results in a change of NCAA qualifiers. For example, the success of the Big Twelve conference recently resulted in a change from 36 to 38 qualifiers. Because the number of qualifiers a conference earns is most often not divisible by 10, the decision of which of the athletes who didn't place high enough to qualify automatically must be made off the mat. After a conference tournament is over, the coaches have a meeting to vote on the wild cards. The Big Ten appears to have the some of the more strict rules. The two Big Ten wild card slots can only go to wrestlers who finished eighth. This system eliminated Craig Henning from wild card consideration this season, despite the fact that last season he was an NCAA runner-up, losing a close match in the finals. Andrew NovakWhile this might make the Big Ten seem very merciless in its wild card selection, it does prevent situations such as what happened at this year's MAC Conference. At 125 pounds, third-place finisher Luke Smith of Central Michigan was awarded a wild card over runner-up Andrew Novak of Eastern Michigan, despite the fact that Novak not only placed higher, but beat Smith 11-6 in the semifinals. So how do coaches decide who should go to the Big Show? How should the decision be made? Well, there are a number of criteria that could be used such as: season record, record against ranked opponents, the strength of the weight class at the conference, the wrestler's ranking prior to the conference tourney, or how the wrestler did in the previous postseason. Traditionally, emphasis seems to be placed on prior success in the postseason. At least, that's how it's always seemed to me when the wild cards were announced. And while this discriminates against lower-classmen, it's probably more fair. Freshmen and sophomores who stumble in the beginnings of the postseason will have other opportunities to put a better conference tourney together. If Chad Erikson would have been chosen as a wild card over Wes Hand in 1999, would Minnesota have won the NCAA title? (Photo/The Guillotine)One example of this would be the Big Ten wild cards in 1999. There had been much hype about the freshman season of Minnesota wrestler Chad Erikson at 141 pounds. He had regular season wins against 2004 Olympic silver medalist Jamill Kelly of Oklahoma State and two-time All-American Damion Logan of Michigan. But the Big Ten was loaded at 141. In addition to Logan, the weight class featured 1999 NCAA champion Doug Schwab of Iowa, 2000 NCAA champion Carl Perry of Illinois, and three-time All-American Scott Schatzman of Northwestern. Erikson finished eighth, losing 7-6 to Isaac Miller of Michigan State while wrestling with an injured ankle. Minnesota coach J Robinson campaigned hard for Erikson to get a wild card over Iowa heavyweight Wes Hand of Iowa. It was in vain as, despite having a bad tournament, Hand was a returning All-American. Hand won two matches at the NCAAs, and those team points were the difference in Iowa winning the title over Minnesota. It was therefore hardly surprising the following year when Robinson voted for Ty Matthews of Indiana for a wild card over Lee Weber of Iowa. Weber had more impressive wins on the season, but was essentially a first year starter and his lack of post-season experience apparently hurt him in getting a wild card. Still, the decision was surprising. That said, it was even more surpising Minnesota's Tyler Safratowich didn't get a wild card this year. Saftratowich did compete at the NCAAs last year, winning two matches, one over a seeded wrestler. However, freshman Kurt Kinser of Indiana was voted a wild card over him. So I guess you can scratch whatever I said about post season experience being the top criteria. Obviously, none of these criteria are etched in stone, but perhaps they should be. It would appear that the system is not immune from politics. Because teams at the top of the conference will be slugging it out again once again in the NCAA team race, campaigning against athletes from rival teams helps ones chances at the big show. The correct wild card selecting strategy for a coach isn't to pick the most deserving wrestler but to pick a wrestler from a team that poses the least threat to challenging his own team. I can't prove that this is what coaches do or have done, but there is a perverse incentive for them to do so. And it hurts the sport. The best solution would be to have no wild cards. Have the wrestlers decide it all on the mat and give no wrestler who has a bad tourney a second chance. The problem is this would mean that all conferences could only have qualifiers in denominations of 10, which wouldn't be fair. The only other solution is to spell out what the criteria is -- sort of like the old long list of criteria when bouts were tied at the end of overtime. I'm sure some sort of mathematical formula could be constructed and although I'm sure it wouldn't be perfect and would have objections similar to the complaints you hear about the BCS, I think it would feel less ugly than the wild card outrage that erupts from the current system.

The Nebraska-Kearney wrestling team has won the national championship. With a 4-1 win by heavyweight Tervel Dlagnev, the Lopers finished with 108.50 points, just ahead of Minnesota State at 108.00. This is UNK's first-ever team national title at the NCAA Division II level; softball won a pair of national titles (1987 and 1990) at the NAIA level. The Lopers, who came into the meet with three national runner up finishes in the last five years, entered the finals with a half point lead over Minnesota State. UNK got a huge assist from, ironically, Nebraska-Omaha as Cody Garcia won the 125 lbs. national title over Manktao's Nick Smith, 8-2. In 2004, the Lopers' Jeff Sylvester helped UNO claim a team national title, by just points over North Dakota State, when he won the 197 lbs. class. Keeping the Lopers national title hopes alive, senior Brett Allgood won his second national title at 133 lbs. with a 5-3 decision overBrett Allgood Shane Perkey of Indianapolis. This marks Allgood's seventh first place finish as he won four state titles while at Bennington High and won a JUCO title for Iowa Central College. "Of all the things I've won in my wrestling career, this second National title means the most to me," he said. However, MSU's Jason Rhoten (157 lbs.) and Andy Pickar (165 lbs.) won their weight classes to give MSU a brief lead in the overall team race. In Pickar's 8-2 win, he almost got bonus points late in the third period but the clock thankfully ran out. Dlagnev finished his career on a 70-match win streak by getting by Central Oklahoma's Dustin Finn. After a scoreless first period, Finn escaped to take a 1-0 lead in the second. Not forcing any action, Finn was called twice for stalling later in the second, giving Dlagnev a point. The Texan took the lead for good by easily escaping to start the third, then recorded a late takedown to secure the win and team trophy. "I liked that the team title was up to me to get. That's why I wrestle...for the team," said Dlagnev. "I wrestled well, but wasn't satisfied with my performance. I wanted to dominate more." The four-time All-American and two-time national champion added, "I didn't feel any pressure throughout the tournament; only excitement."Tervel Dlagnev Dlagnev finishes his collegiate career 166-19, including an 86-1 mark of the last two years. UNK head coach Marc Bauer, a Kearney native and the architect behind the Lopers national rise the last decade, was named the Division II Coach of the Year. He also won the award in 2003. Coach of the Year Marc Bauer Allgood and Dlagnev join the legendary Ali Elias (1990 & 1991) as the only Lopers to win two national titles. Dlagnev also joins Elias, Sylvester and Bryce Abbey as the only UNK wrestlers to be four-time All-Americans. UNK needed every win on Saturday as the team started the day almost 10 points behind the MSU Mavericks. The Lopers went 2-2 in the semifinal round but took a big step toward first place when four wrestlers finished third in the afternoon session. The group included seniors Joe Ellenberger (157 lbs.) and Jeff Rutledge (141 lbs.) and sophomores Ryan Etherton (149 lbs.) and Marty Usman (174 lbs.). Rounding out UNK's eight All-Americans were junior Keenan McCurdy (165 lbs.) and sophomore Derek Ross (197 lbs.); they both placed eighth. Showing how close the entire meet was, Rutledge won his third place bout 4-3 over Shane Valko of Pittsburgh-Johnstown. Next, Etherton edged RMAC-rival Joey Deaguero of Adams State, 4-2, with Ellenberger winning 2-1 over Upper Iowa's Travis Eggers in a first tiebreaker. Ellenberger reached the third place match with Eggers only after a sudden victory win, 10-8, against Muhammad Abdur-Rahman of Ashland. Finally, Usman nipped Josh Shields of Mercyhurst, 3-2, in UNK's final third place match. The Lopers couldn�t win everything on Saturday as McCurdy lost 10-4 to Wisconsin-Parkside's Kyle Becker, then fell to UNO's Aaron Denson, 3-0, in the seventh place bout. Ross lost to UNO's Jacob Marrs to start the day and was then edged by Ashland's Jason Ohl, 6-4, in his seventh place match.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -– Kyle Evans joined some select company and capped off a sensational career in style here Saturday night, capturing his second straight 141-pound national title in leading Central Oklahoma to a sixth-place finish in the NCAA Division II Wrestling Championships. The Edmond senior edged Shippensburg's Steve Fittery 3-2 to become the 10th four-time All-American and 16th multiple national champion in UCO's illustrious history, ending his career with a 22-match winning streak. Evans' win enabled the No. 7-ranked Bronchos to finish sixth in the team race with 65 points. No. 2 Nebraska-Kearney edged top-ranked Minnesota State-Mankato by a half-point (108.5-108) for the championship, followed by No. 3 Nebraska-Omaha (93.5), No. 8 Pittsburgh-Johnstown (87), No. 5 Adams State (68.5), UCO and No. 4 Western State (64.5). The Bronchos also got a runner-up finish from Dustin Finn at heavyweight -- with UNK's Tervel Dlagnev getting a 4-1 win there to give the Lopers their first-ever team title -- while 133 Tim Elliott placed fifth and 149 Colby Robinson and 184 Heath Jolley sixth to also earn All-America status. "We obviously didn't have the tournament we wanted," UCO coach David James said. "We knew coming in we were going to have to be almost perfect since we didn't have some of the qualifiers other teams had and that didn't happen. "I'm extremely happy and proud of our five placers, particularly Kyle and Dustin for making the finals and Kyle for winning another national championship. He had a great career for us and meant an awful lot to our program." The top-ranked Evans beat No. 2 Fittery in the finals for the second straight year, but this one was much tougher. "I don't think that I wrestled very well the whole tournament," Evans said. "It seemed like every time I got a lead I kind of starting coasting and that's not my style. It's a big relief and a great feeling to win it again." Evans, who rolled to an easy 7-0 triumph over Fittery in 2007 to end a 39-0 season, took a 2-0 lead with 42 seconds left in the opening period on a slick duck-under takedown. Fittery escaped 30 seconds later to make it 2-1, then got loose again early in the second period to tie it 2-2. Evans escaped 15 seconds into the final stanza to take a 3-2 lead and nearly scored a clinching takedown with 30 seconds remaining before holding off Fittery the rest of the way to seal the verdict. It was the 22nd consecutive win for Evans, who finished the season 32-2 and ended with a 125-20 career record. That ranks eighth on UCO's win list, with the 86.2 winning percentage the fifth best in school history. The fourth-ranked Finn, who advanced to the finals with two overtime wins and a 3-1 decision, gave the top-rated Dlagnev all he could handle in a match that went to the wire. Finn broke a scoreless tie six seconds into the second period with an escape, but two stalling warnings gave Dlagnev a penalty point that tied it in the final 30 seconds of that stanza. Dlagnev escaped quickly in the third period to go ahead 2-1 and he added a clinching takedown with one second left off a desperation Finn takedown attempt. It was only the second time this season that an opponent had stayed within five points of Dlagnev, who finished 38-0 in winning his second straight title. Finn, a sophomore from Moore, finished 29-6 in joining his father (John) and brother (Chris) as a UCO All-American.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Cody Garcia and Todd Meneely each won their second national title Saturday night, helping to lead the Mavericks to a third place finish in the NCAA Division II National Championships at the U.S. Cellular Center. Nebraska-Kearney won the team scoring race by the narrowest of margins, topping second-place Minnesota State, Mankato by one-half point, 108.5-108. UNO (93.5) finished third for the second consecutive year, while Pittsburg Johnstown (87) and Adams State (68.5) rounded out the top five. Garcia claimed his second national title with a convincing 8-2 decision over Minnesota State's Nick Smith in the 125-pound title bout. Garcia, who missed last season due to injury, also won the 125-pound title in 2006. He finished the season with a 22-1 mark, his only loss being an injury default. "It was great to see what Cody accomplished," UNO Head Coach Mike Denney said. "Especially after the injury and everything he had to go through." Garcia was named the Most Outstanding Wrestler of the 2008 NCAA Division II National Championships and won the award for most falls in the least amount of time, pinning his first three opponents in a total time of 4:53. UNO only had to wait three matches to crank up the celebration again, crowning their second national champion at 149. Defending national champion Todd Meneely squared off against Western State's Camille DuPont in a battle of No.1 versus No. 2 at 149 pounds. Meneely suffered an early takedown and fell behind 2-0, but was able to recover and take control of the match, earning his second straight 149-pound title with a 9-3 decision. Meneely finished the year with a record of 23-2. Garcia and Meneely became the ninth and tenth Maverick wrestlers to win at least two national titles in their careers, joining an exclusive list of UNO wrestling greats such as; Sigman, Naig, and Washington. While Meneely, having also won the 2007 title, became only the seventh UNO wrestler to win back-to-back national titles. Taplin, the Mavs third finalist, lost the 174-pound final to Albert Miles of Pittsburg Johnstown, 5-2. Taplin, who posted a third-place finish in 2006, is a three-time national-qualifier and two-time All-American. Taplin's win in the semifinals over Mercyhurst's Josh Shield's was the 100th of his career, making him the twenty-second Maverick to reach the century mark. Joining Garcia, Meneely and Taplin as 2008 All-Americans were Aaron Denson, Jacob Marrs, and Tony Lewis. Denson and Lewis finished seventh at 165 and 285, while Marrs placed third at 197. "I am really proud of how we competed, we overcame adversity and made the best of things," said Coach Denney. "Every guy we brought with us won at least one match this year." The Mavericks lose just one person out of their starting lineup heading into next year. Every 2008 All-American will be back next season, as will 2007 All-American Sim Bribieseca, giving UNO a very optimistic view of things to come.

Division II National Championships at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, but finished in second place in the final team standings. The Mavericks finished with 108 points, finishing half a point behind Nebraska-Kearney. Claiming the individual championships were seniors Jason Rhoten (Mantorville, Minn.) and Andy Pickar (Brainerd, Minn.), becoming the first Mavericks to win the title since four-time All-American Matt Petsinger in 2001. It is also the first time the Mavericks have had two champions since 1967 when two-time champion Bob Soulek and Bob Wendel. Rhoten met up with two-time and defending national champion Antonio Guerra of Findlay who won at 157-pounds in 2007 and at 149-pounds in 2006. Guerra also became his schools wins leader at 123 in his semifinals match. He came into the match with a record of 35-9. The two started off the match trying to feel each other out and finished the first period scoreless. Rhoten chose to start the second period in the down position and worked himself free to score the first point of the match, 13-seconds into the period. Rhoten extended his lead in the period with a takedown at the 4:27 mark. Guerra got on the board with an escape point to start the third period while adding a point when Rhoten was penalized for stalling. Rhoten would hold on to claim the championship, 3-2. Rhoten ends his careers at MSU as the career wins leader with a record of 136-23, as a national champion and a four-time All-American. He finishes his senior campaign with a record of 40-2 with both losses coming to Division I wrestlers. Pickar was challenged by first-time All-American Hudson Harrison of Mercyhurst College. He is a four-time national qualifier. The two also wrestled to a scoreless first period before Pickar jumped out in front with an escape point two-seconds into the the second stanza. Harrison escaped at 5:33 but Pick was quick to add to his lead adding another takedown two-seconds later which ended scoring in the second period. Having a bit more of a comfortable lead, Pickar tried to add to his lead to get to a major decision to help the Mavericks team score. Pickar secured his riding time before releasing Harrison for the escape, attempting to go for the major decision to help the team with bonus points. Pickar would add a late takedown at the 6:57 mark and get Harrison in nearfall position as time expired not reaching the full two seconds needed for nearfall points. In his second attempt in as many years, Pickar ends his Maverick career as a national champion and three-time All-American. Pickar finishes with a career record of 73-17 and a season campaign mark of 27-2. Senior Nick Smith (Yankton, S.D.) matched up against top-ranked Cody Garcia of Nebraska-Omaha in the first match of the championship round at 125 pounds. Smith fell behind early as Garcia executed a takedown 27-seconds into the first period. Smith worked his way free to cut the lead in half at the 1:19 mark but Garcia shot in again for another takedown at 2:04. Garcia would start the second period in the down position and shot out only four-seconds into the second period to extend his lead to 6-1 which would stick for the rest of the period. In the third period Smith would try to cut into the lead by starting in the neutral position but it was Garcia that got a hold of Smith's leg to work a takedown. Smith would work out a final escape but with riding time Garcia would hold on to the 8-2 decision. Smith's season and career comes to an end for the Mavericks with a 23-6 season record and career record of 109-45.

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- Limestone's No. 2-ranked Dan Scanlan (Leesburg, Va.) defeated No. 3 Mike Corcetti of the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown to become the 2008 NCAA Division II Champion in the 184-pound weight class. He is the first Limestone wrestler to win a national championship. The 2008 NCAA Division II Wrestling Championship was hosted by Upper Iowa University at the U.S. Cellular Center. Scanlan and fellow Saint Trey Moss (Red Bank, S.C.) also earned All-American honors for their performances at the national tournament. Moss finished eighth at 285 lbs. Scanlan started the day with a 10-4 decision over No. 5 Heath Jolley (Central Oklahoma) before defeating Corcetti in the tournament finals. Moss won his first match in the morning's consolation round as he beat the University of Indianapolis' Lynn Panko 3-2. Moss lost to Zach Majocha of the University of Pittsburgh-Johnstown in the next bout, 3-1, to finish in eighth place.

You've been anticipating the NCAAs all year long. You've been picturing yourself in St. Louis, dreaming about the much-anticipated match-ups in your sleep … But you wake up and realize you're not in the familiar arena that is now named Scottrade Center (formerly known as Kiel Center and Savvis Center) that has hosted the NCAAs more than once in the past decade. Instead, you're sitting on bleachers in what looks like a big metal shed with an arching roof. You try to get your bearings and feel a bit more comfortable when you see the familiar foam-core wrestling mats on the floor. But where are the electronic scoreboards? And, after the wrestlers finish their warm-ups and peel off their sweatsuits, they're wearing trunks over tights … a good number of them without shirts. Not a singlet in sight. You think you've entered The Twilight Zone. But, no, you've traveled back in time … a half-century back, to be exact. You're at the 1958 NCAAs … Planes, trains and automobiles Most wrestlers and fans at the 1958 NCAAs at the University of Wyoming didn't use time-travel to get there; they took the train … or arrived by car. A half-century ago, rail passenger service was the most common way to travel great distances in the U.S. (According to interviews and research, Oklahoma State, Iowa State and the University of Iowa all went west by car, while the four wrestlers competing for Kent State University took the train.) If you drove to Laramie, it was a long, long trip on two-lane roads; the Interstate highway system we take for granted today was launched in 1956. Today's familiar roadside sights such as fast-food restaurants, shopping malls and national chain motels were rare in the late 1950s (though, according to an ad in the student paper, there was a McDonald's in Laramie in 1958); Wal-Mart and Starbucks had yet to be invented. At least gas was cheap! For the price of one gallon of gas in 2008, you can buy about ten gallons in 1958. Unlike today, flying was a big deal 50 years ago -- an expensive, time-consuming, noisy proposition on a propeller-driven aircraft. (Passenger jets were just being introduced on cross-country and international routes.) There was limited air service to Laramie, and all flights went to Denver. And … according to the pocket brochure about the 1958 NCAAs put out by the host school, if you wanted a taxi to take you from the airport into town, you had to make prior arrangements! The world was a very different place in many other ways. In 1958, credit cards were rare… and debit cards were far in the future. There were no ATMs. No cell phones. No iPods. (Transistor radios were state-of-the-art for on-the-go entertainment.) No laptop or desktop computers. No Internet. No cable TV -- just three major broadcast networks. Color TV was just coming into American homes. Missed a favorite program? You'd have to wait until reruns; no VCRs or DVRs. Want to see a movie? No DVDs; you had to go to the movie theater. The 1958 NCAAs, by the numbers Let's take a look at the site of the 1958 NCAAs. The University of Wyoming –- the only four-year public university in the state –- is located in the Rocky Mountains, with an elevation of 7,000 feet above sea level. Fifty years ago, according to the student newspaper, The Branding Iron, total campus enrollment was 3,276 students (up from 2,968 the year before) in Laramie, a city with a population of nearly 20,000 at the time. It was the first time that Wyoming had hosted an NCAA championship event in any sport. The 1958 NCAAs also took the prize as being the most western location for the wrestling tournament at the time. (The 1949 and 1952 NCAAs, held at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, were almost as far west.) In 1965, the NCAAs returned to Laramie … and, since then, the NCAAs have been held even further west, in Arizona and Washington State. The 1958 NCAAs were held in the Memorial Field House, a World War II era structure with an arching roof, located at the heart of the campus of the University of Wyoming.The 1958 NCAAs were held in the Memorial Field House, a World War II era structure with an arching roof, located at the heart of the campus of the University of Wyoming. According to the brochure sent to wrestling programs prior to the event, the Field House seated approximately 9,500 fans … about half as many seats as found in recent-vintage NCAA venues such as Oklahoma City's Ford Center, the Palace at Auburn Hills, and the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The event itself was held on just two days -- Friday, March 28, and Saturday, March 29. The preliminaries started on Friday at 1:00 p.m.; the quarterfinals began at 7:30 that evening. On Saturday, the semifinals started at 1:00 p.m., with the finals at 7:30. By today's standards, ticket prices were a bargain. What was called a "season ticket" -- a reserved seat for all four sessions -- could be purchased in advance for $6.00 for adults, and $3.00 for students and children. Adult tickets for individual sessions cost $1.50 for the first three sessions, and $2.50 for the finals. Hungry? Dinner at the University of Wyoming was a bargain, too. The campus cafeteria served up a multi-course meal for wrestlers and guests, including head lettuce salad, steak, potato, vegetable, honey and toast, ice cream, and coffee, tea or milk for only $1.50. If you were really watching your pennies, the same meal was available with poached eggs instead of steak for one dollar! 1958 vs. 2008 The NCAA wrestling championships was a significantly smaller event fifty years ago. According to Jay Hammond's book The History of Collegiate Wrestling, 51 schools sent 187 wrestlers to the 1958 NCAAs. By comparison, according to the pre-event brochure produced by the University of Wyoming, the 1957 NCAAs held at the University of Pittsburgh welcomed 62 programs with a total of 217 grapplers competing in ten weight classes. Hammond points out that, at the 1958 NCAAs, there were fewer than sixteen wrestlers in the 115-pound and heavyweight brackets. (By comparison, recent NCAAs have at least 32 wrestlers per weight class, with approximately 320-330 wrestlers competing in the ten weight classes.) While on the subject of weight classes… just like today, the 1958 NCAAs featured competition in ten weight classes. The weights were somewhat different than today's; fifty years ago, the classes were 115, 123, 130, 137, 147, 157, 167, 177, 191 and unlimited. (At the time, there was no top weight limit for heavyweights.) Interestingly, back in the Fifties, two of the weight classes -- 115 and 191 -- were added specifically for the national championships, and were not wrestled in dual meets in most college conferences. "It was an open tournament -- anyone who wanted to wrestle, just showed up," according to Shelby Wilson, who wrestled at 137 pounds for Oklahoma State. "A team could bring anyone at the last minute. There were no qualifying events as there are now." Shelby continues, "Teams weren't as 'deep' as they are now. One year I remember we took eight guys to the NCAAs from a team of only fifteen. There are more guns on a team nowadays than back then." "We did have more scholarships back then. I think there were twenty at Oklahoma State when I was there; most were full rides. The program tried to give scholarships to the guys who needed help the most. There just wasn't as much financial aid in those days." "A typical season for us was 11-12 dual meets." Les Anderson, who wrestled at 130 for Iowa State, says, "There weren't many schools that showed up with full teams. I remember that Cliff Keen brought only a few of his Michigan guys. (Coach Harold) Nichols took a full team." "Iowa State was re-emerging as a national contender for the first time in 10-15 years." Wrestling surfaces, scoreboards and more One of the aspects of the 1958 NCAAs that Les Anderson remembers very clearly was the wrestling mats. "They were the new foam mats, Resilite, round ones. Iowa State had purchased one that year, and we used it for our home meets. Most guys were used to wrestling on the old horsehair mats." Indeed, the small pocket brochure mailed to schools before the national championships shows a layout of the main floor of the Memorial Field House, featuring five round mats spaced closely together, arranged almost like the five-ring Olympic symbol. These non-digital scorekeepers -- one for each mat -- used cards to keep participants and fans informed about the score, the period, and how many minutes remained in the periodThe official program, sold to spectators at the event, highlights another "first" -- new scoreboards. These non-digital scorekeepers -- one for each mat -- used cards to keep participants and fans informed about the score, the period, and how many minutes remained in the period. Each wrestler was assigned a number; at the top of the scoreboard were the two numbers of the contestants during that bout. Speaking of scoring … the 1958 NCAAs were only the second to include provisions for overtime. For nearly a decade after World War II, for matches tied at the end of regulation, the referee had determined the winner. In 1958, overtime consisted of two, two-minute periods, with each wrestler starting one overtime period on top. Regular matches were nine minutes long, consisting of three, three-minute periods; consolation round bouts lasted six minutes. Not only were the matches longer, so were the pins. To get a fall, a wrestler had to hold his opponent's shoulders to the mat for a full two seconds. College wrestling gear was also significantly different fifty years ago. Headgear was not required, and, in fact, was a very rare sight. Today's one-piece singlets were nowhere to be found on a college wrestling mat; in fact, they were actually prohibited by NCAA rules. In 1958, the standard uniform consisted of trunks worn over tights, with a sleeveless shirt optional. Wrestlers from many Midwest and western colleges -- including the University of Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, Iowa, Iowa State and Kent State -- usually competed bare-chested. It was up to the host school to determine whether shirts were required; however, the host could not force a team that traditionally competed in shirts to strip off their jerseys. Rocky Mountain highs One concern about having the NCAAs at the University of Wyoming was its location high in the Rocky Mountains. When asked about the altitude, Shelby Wilson immediately said, "It's only a problem if you're not in shape." He quickly followed, "Recovery was an issue. We took portable oxygen with us. It helped us recover faster after a match. If you don't recover, it might affect you in the next match. Altitude will cut your wind." "The high altitude didn't affect us," says Les Anderson. "We had wrestled a dual meet out there earlier in the season." Ask the defending champ at 147 pounds for the University of Iowa, Simon Roberts, about the altitude and he responds, "I know I ran out of gas in my first match, but, for me, getting started in any tournament was always tough. The altitude may have been a factor." "(Iowa head coach) Dave McCuskey always worked us hard in the wrestling room. I don't remember going out any earlier than normal, or changing our workouts before the trip." "However, we took a western trip that year, right around Christmastime, wrestling at schools in Wyoming and Colorado," Simon recalls. "That may have been with the idea of preparing for the NCAAs." Leading up to the 1958 NCAAs … In the weeks preceding the 1958 NCAA wrestling championships, the University of Iowa won its first-ever Big Ten conference team title, edging out host school, University of Illinois, by three points. In the Big Eight (predecessor to the Big Twelve), the Iowa State Cyclones ended the University of Oklahoma's eight-year reign as conference champs, beating the Sooners and the Oklahoma State Cowboys -- who tied for second -- by just two team points. Cornell University claimed the EIWA (Eastern Intercollegiate Wrestling Association) team title, with Lehigh placing second. In the Atlantic Coast Conference, the University of Maryland ran way with the team championship, winning nine out of ten individual titles. Virginia Tech easily took the Southern Conference team title, with West Virginia a distant second. In the Pacific Coast Intercollegiate championships, Cal Poly edged out the University of Oregon, with expected team champs Oregon State placing fourth. Unlike today, how well a team did at the conference championships did not determine how many of its wrestlers could compete at the NCAAs; a team could bring as many wrestlers as it could afford. (As Les Anderson says, "An individual could hitchhike to the NCAAs by himself, if his team wasn't planning to go.") The March 24, 1958 issue of Amateur Wrestling News provided an extensive preview of the upcoming NCAAs. The main cover story's subhead said a lot: "Big Eight Team Slated to Win; Iowa and Cornell Strong." The lengthy article said that the team title would probably go to Iowa State, Oklahoma State or Oklahoma… however, the defending team champs, the Sooners, lost four of their wrestlers to graduation, including Dan Hodge, the three-time NCAA champ at 177 pounds (1955-1957). Six of the individual champs crowned at the 1957 NCAAs at Pittsburgh were still in school: Oklahoma's Dick Delgado, 115-pound champ; 130-pound titlewinner John Johnston of Penn State; Lehigh's Joe Gratto, champ at 137; Iowa's 147-pounder Simon Roberts; Pitt's Tom Alberts, the 167-pound champ; and heavyweight Bob Norman of Illinois. However, Alberts was unable to defend his title because of a shoulder injury sustained during the 1958 season. When the seeds were determined and brackets drawn up, Iowa State had the most seeded wrestlers, with six; Oklahoma State had five. Oklahoma, Iowa, and Cornell University each had four seeds. Let's wrestle! The crystal ball the writers at Amateur Wrestling News consulted before crafting their 1958 preview issue seemed to have been working… at least in terms of predicting the top teams. According to Jay Hammond's The History of Collegiate Wrestling, at the end of the quarterfinals, Iowa State and Oklahoma State were battling for the team title, with only two points separating the two Big Eight schools. The Oklahoma Sooners were in third place. It was a rough national championship for three of the individuals defending their titles at Laramie. The champ at 130, Penn State's John Johnston, had dropped down to 123… where he lost in the semifinals. Joe Gratto, 137-pound titlewinner, had moved up to 147, but lost in the semifinals, too. The top seed in that same weight class, Iowa's Simon Roberts was knocked out of title contention in his first match. Now, let's look at the highlights of each weight class: 115 pounds Only twelve men competed in a bracket set up for sixteen. Defending champ Dick Delgado of Oklahoma was the top seed; the Sooner pinned his way to the finals, getting falls over opponents from Utah State, Minnesota State-Mankato, and Western State. Oklahoma State's Bobby Taylor seeded second. The Cowboy drew a bye in the first round, got an 8-5 victory over Iowa State's Frank Altman in the quarterfinals, and a referee's decision over third-seeded Ray Osborne of Maryland. Dick Delgado (Photo/1958 NCAA Championships Program)The finals at 115: Delgado and Taylor -- the top two seeds from fierce rival schools in the state of Oklahoma -- faced off in the title bout. Quoting The History of Collegiate Wrestling: "Dick Delgado had no difficulty repeating as champion at 115 pounds and easily defeated Bobby Taylor of Oklahoma State 8-3. Delgado was named Outstanding Wrestler of the tournament." Joining Delgado and Taylor as All-Americans at 115: Gene Williams of Western State, who placed third… and the Cyclones' Frank Altman, finishing fourth. (In 1958, only the top four placers in each weight class earned All-American honors.) 123 pounds The 1957 champ at 130, Penn State's John Johnston, was the top seed in his new weight class, with 1953 champ Dick Mueller of the University of Minnesota the second seed. Neither man made it to the finals. The Golden Gopher lost his first match to unseeded Don Bernard of Iowa State, 5-0. Johnston got a 5-1 win over Kansas State's Jim Miller, and a 4-2 victory over Maryland's Ray Haney in the quarterfinals before being upset by fourth-seeded Bobby Herald of Oklahoma State, 4-3, in the semifinals. Herald defeated his first opponent, Portland State's Alvin Christie, 10-4, and won his next two matches by the same 4-3 margin to find himself in the finals. His finals rival, Pittsburgh's Paul Powell, was unseeded, having beaten Cal Poly's Harold Simonek 5-3 in his first match, Iowa State's Don Bernard in the quarterfinals, 7-4, and sixth-seeded Joel Neusschwander of Oregon State 9-4 in the semifinals. The finals at 123: It was Cowboy vs. Panther, fourth seed vs. unseeded. According to the April 7 issue of Amateur Wrestling News, "Paul Powell, Pittsburgh's unbeaten sophomore, who missed the Eastern Intercollegiates because of the flu, was very impressive in beating Bobby Herald, Oklahoma State, by 11-4." The four All-Americans at 123 (in this order): champ Paul Powell, runner-up Bobby Herald, third-place finisher John Johnston, and fourth place's Don Bernard. 130 pounds Big Ten champ Max Pearson of the University of Michigan earned the top spot in the 130-pound bracket. The senior Wolverine got a 10-3 win over Colorado's Garth Rogers, but had to go into overtime in the quarterfinals to beat freshman Stan Abel of Oklahoma, 7-7, 4-0. In the semifinals, Pearson got a 5-1 win over fourth-seeded Carmen Molino of Cornell University. Seeded second was Big Eight champ Les Anderson of Iowa State. The Cyclone sophomore got a 9-6 victory over unseeded Jerry Headington of Utah, a 4-2 win over Oklahoma State's Ted Pierce (also unseeded) in the quarterfinals, and, in the semifinals, defeated Pittsburgh's sixth-ranked Vic DeFelice by the same score. Max Pearson (Photo/University of Michigan Media Guide)The finals at 130: Almost true to expectations, the top two seeds made it into the finals in a showdown of Big Ten vs. Big Eight champs. Here's how Les Anderson remembers it: "I fell behind Max; it was one of the few matches where this had happened. (Coach) Nichols thought I was going to lose. At one point I came out from underneath and held Pearson in a half-Nelson." The native of Clarion, Iowa capped off his perfect 18-0 season with a 7-5 win over the Michigan veteran. (Les Anderson also won the 130-pound title at the 1960 NCAAs, then later became long-time assistant coach at Iowa State.) "I actually thought my toughest match of the tournament was against the guy from Utah. Somehow, a short guy like me ended up with more points than him." Les Anderson and Max Pearson both took home All-American honors, as did third-place finisher Stan Abel, and Oklahoma State's man in fourth, Ted Pierce. 137 pounds Big Eight champ Shelby Wilson of Oklahoma State was the top seed. The Cowboy got a 12-4 victory over Cornell of Iowa's Tom Winder, defeated Iowa State Teachers College's (now Northern Iowa's) Jerry Lane 8-3, and, easily handled Lock Haven's Joe Hammaker 14-5. (All three opponents were unseeded.) In the semifinals, Shelby Wilson faced off against fifth-seeded Dean Corner of Iowa State, and shut out the Cyclone 5-0. Lehigh's Dick Santoro was seeded second, making it all the way to the semifinals… where he lost to Paul Aubrey of Oklahoma. Before his upset win in the semifinals, the sixth-seeded Aubrey got a 7-3 decision over Portland State's Wilbur Bauer, shut out Northern Colorado's Max Mitchell (5-0), and beat third-ranked Tom Hall of Cal Poly 5-3 in the quarterfinals. The finals at 137: For the second time of the evening, it was an Oklahoma vs. Oklahoma State finals, with Cowboy Shelby Wilson going up against a very familiar foe, the Sooners' Paul Aubrey. Here's how the Oklahoma State grappler from Ponca City remembers their rivalry: "I wrestled Paul five times. I pinned him in high school and then he beat me in the (Oklahoma) state tournament in the finals. I wrestled him in my first college match at O.U. and won 12-2. I was hurt the rest of the year and did not meet him again until the finals of the Big Eight and I won again 17-10. A week later, beat me in the finals at the '58 NCAAs." Amateur Wrestling News described the title bout this way: "Paul Aubrey, Oklahoma, furnished one of the big upsets of the tournament when he edged Shelby Wilson of Oklahoma State, 11-9." (After college, Aubrey flew for the Marines in Vietnam, then, according to Shelby Wilson, was a pilot for United Airlines out of Dallas, and was instrumental in fostering high school wrestling in Texas. He has since passed away. Shelby went on to win the gold medal at the 1960 Rome Olympics, then coach high school and college wrestling. To read his Rev.Wrestling.com profile, click HERE.) In addition to the finalists, also earning All-American honors at 137 were two Eastern wrestlers: Lehigh's Dick Santoro (third), and Joe Hammaker of Lock Haven (fourth). 147 pounds In this weight class, the two top seeds were both defending champs: Iowa's Simon Roberts, 147-pound titlewinner, was seeded first in the bracket… while 137-pound champ Joe Gratto of Lehigh was the second seed. Simon Roberts – who made history at the 1957 NCAAs by being the first African-American national wrestling champ – lost his opening-round match to Earl Dearing of Oregon in overtime, 2-2, 4-0. Recalling the loss of fifty years ago as if it were yesterday, the Hawkeye says, "My opponent was a real tall, lanky guy. I always had trouble with that kind of wrestler. I had been leading during regulation and then he reversed me. That sent it into overtime. I started running out of gas -- not sure if it was the altitude. In the last seconds of overtime he put it out-of-reach." Joe Gratto shut out his first opponent 4-0, pinned his second, and got an 8-5 win in the quarterfinals… but was denied another shot at an NCAA title in the semifinals by third-seeded Ron Gray of Iowa State, who beat the EIWA champ 5-2. Leading up to that match, Gray had pinned his first opponent (Cal Poly's Jerry Canfield), the shut out his second and third opponents (Carleton's Jim Miller, 6-0, and Indiana's sixth-ranked Nick Petronka, 3-0, respectively) to make it to the finals. The man Gray would wrestle for the title: Unseeded Dick Vincent of Cornell University, who upset fourth-seeded Jack Anderson of Minnesota State-Mankato, 7-4, in his first match, and Illinois' Werner Holzer, the fifth seed, 7-3, in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Vincent pinned Oregon's Dearing. The finals at 147: It was Ron Gray's second straight trip to the finals, having lost to Simon Roberts the year before. This time, Gray got what The History of Collegiate Wrestling described as a "workman-like" 6-2 decision over Dick Vincent, making him the second Cyclone to win a title that night. (Gray went on win a second NCAA crown in 1959, then became long-time head wrestling coach at Kent State University in Ohio.) All-American honors at 147 were awarded to champ Ron Gray, runner-up Dick Vincent, Minnesota State-Mankato's Jack Anderson (placing third), and Indiana's Nick Petronka (fourth place). 157 pounds In what the NCAA preview issue of Amateur Wrestling News described as "probably the toughest weight class," the top seed was Oklahoma State's Dick Beattie, recently crowned Big Eight champ. Beattie held his first opponent (South Dakota State's Gusav Gleiter) scoreless 8-0, got a 4-2 win over Colorado's Stan Lampe, and, in the quarterfinals, beat Oklahoma's Sid Terry 7-3. However, the Cowboy's title quest was nearly derailed when fifth-seeded Dick Heaton of Iowa State Teachers College took the match into overtime… but Beattie prevailed, 4-0 OT. Seeded second was Dave Johnson of Pittsburgh, the three-time EIWA champ. His title quest was over pretty much before it began; in his first bout, he lost in overtime to unseeded John Doyle of Kansas State, 3-3, 1-0. So who was the wrestler who faced Beattie in the finals? Dale Ketelsen, the third-seeded wrestler from Iowa State. The Cyclone got a 6-2 win over Illinois' Bill Gabbard, defeated Wyoming's Frank Brownlee 3-2 in the quarterfinals, and, in the semis, got a 7-1 victory over Oregon's Jim Beaton (all unseeded opponents). Dick Beattie (Photo/Amateur Wrestling News)The finals at 157 pounds: It was a rematch of the Big Eight 157-pound title bout between Dick Beattie and Dale Ketelsen. Two weeks earlier, the Cowboy had defeated the Cyclone 3-2 at Iowa State. Apparently, the two familiar foes wrestled cautiously; in what Amateur Wrestling News described as "the dullest match of the finals," each man got one escape during regulation to tie the score at 1-1. In overtime, same scoring pattern, same 1-1 result. Beattie was awarded the title on a referee's decision. (Dick Beattie went on to win a second title at the 1959 NCAAs.) In addition to Dick Beattie and Dale Ketelsen, All-American honors went to Illinois' Bill Gabbard (third) and ISTC's Dick Heaton (fourth). 167 pounds The top seed at 167 was home-crowd favorite, Dick Ballinger of the University of Wyoming; the Cowboy pinned his first opponent (Pittsburgh's Alex Skirpan), got a 8-2 victory over Minnesota's Bill Wright in the quarterfinals, and edged Michigan State's unseeded Jim Ferguson 2-1 in the semifinals. Roy Minter of Minnesota State-Mankato was seeded second. He made it all the way to the semifinals, where he lost to Duane Murty, the third-seeded wrestler from Oklahoma State, 4-3. Duane Murty -- recently crowned Big Eight champ, and twin brother of Cowboy teammate Wayne -- had won two of his matches decisively (7-1 over Southern Illinois University-Carbondale's Gary Burdick, and 9-3 over Springfield's sixth-seeded Ralph DiMuccio), while two were closer (4-2 over Oregon's George Krupicka, and 4-3 over Minter). The finals at 167: It was a battle of Cowboy vs. Cowboy: Lanky sophomore Dick Ballinger, the first Wyoming Cowboy wrestler ever to reach the NCAA finals, was riding in on a perfect season… but the senior-class Oklahoma State Cowboy wrecked perfection with a 4-2 win. Duane Murty became the second wrestler from the Stillwater school to win an individual championship at the 1958 NCAAs, hot on the heels of teammate Dick Beattie. (Ballinger won the 167-pound title at the 1960 NCAAs.) The All-Americans at 167: Duane Murty (champ), Dick Ballinger (runner-up), Michigan State's Jim Ferguson (third), and Minnesota State-Mankato's Roy Minter (fourth). 177 pounds An entire weight class put up a huge sigh of relief when Dan Hodge graduated from the University of Oklahoma in the spring of 1957 after pinning his way to a perfect record in three years of varsity competition. (Back then, NCAA rules prohibited freshmen from competing at varsity.) The top seed at 177 was Iowa State's Frank Powell, Big Eight champ and undefeated all season… while Big Ten champ Tim Woodin of Michigan State was second. After drawing a bye, the Spartan Woodin pinned Russ Camilleri of San Jose State at 5:04… then put Kansas State's Gary Haller's shoulders to the mat at 3:52 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Woodin shut out third-seeded John Dustin of Oregon State 3-0. As expected, Frank Powell won his first three bouts rather convincingly, by the scores of 5-0, 8-2, and 9-3. However, his title dream was derailed by the University of Iowa's Gary Kurdelmeier. The fourth-seeded Hawkeye upset the Cyclone 6-4 in the semifinals to find himself up against Tim Woodin. The finals at 177: Talk about familiar foes: Woodin and Kurdelmeier had just wrestled each other two weeks earlier in the 177-pound finals at the Big Ten championships. In the conference title bout, the strapping Spartan put Kurdelmeier's shoulders to the mat at 8:21 using a half-Nelson and body scissors, according to Amateur Wrestling News. Tim WoodinRevenge may have been on Gary Kurdelmeier's mind as he faced off against Tim Woodin in the title bout. The Iowa senior "pulled an upset by out-horsing" (to use AWN's words) the Big Ten champ from Michigan State, who "found it impossible to break Kurdelmeier's leg ride." Final score: 6-2. (Kurdelmeier went on to become head coach of the Iowa Hawkeyes in the early 1970s, laying the foundation for the Dan Gable dynasty by hiring the Cyclone wrestler as an assistant coach after Gable won the gold medal at the 1972 Munich Olympics. Woodin found himself in the 191-pound finals at the 1959 NCAAs but lost to Syracuse's Art Baker; after graduation, he went on to become masked professional wrestler Mr. Wrestling. Both finalists are deceased.) The top four placers at the 1958 NCAAs at 177, in order of finish: Gary Kurdelmeier, Tim Woodin, Iowa State's Frank Powell, and Oregon State's John Dustin… all earning All-American honors. 191 pounds This light-heavyweight weight class, added for the NCAAs and not usually wrestled in most conferences, featured wrestlers who dropped down from heavyweight or up from 177. The two top-ranked 191-pounders usually wrestled heavyweight: #1 seed Dave Dunlop of Cornell University, EIWA champ… with Iowa State's big man Roger Pohlman seeded second. However, neither man made it to the finals. Dunlop lost his second match 8-4 to unseeded Adnan Kaisy of Oklahoma State, a native of Iraq and college roommate of Shelby Wilson. Pohlman made it as far as the semifinals, where he lost to third-seeded Ken Maidlow of Michigan State, 4-1. Maidlow, who usually wrestled heavyweight for the Spartans, had some close bouts on his way to the title match, defeating Oklahoma's Gene White and Iowa's sixth-seeded Jim Craig by the same 3-2 score before upsetting the Cyclones' Pohlman. The other man in the finals? Fifth-seeded Pete Newell of Colgate, who had traveled to Laramie as the sole representative of his team. Newell had won his first match 5-2, then pinned fourth-seeded Dick Kubes of Minnesota State-Mankato at 8:56 of the quarterfinals… then beat Adnan Kaisy in overtime, 4-0 OT. The finals at 191: Ken Maidlow made up for any the disappointment Michigan State fans may have been feeling after the 177-pound finals by pinning Colgate's Pete Newell at 4:52… the only title bout to end in a fall at the 1958 NCAAs. The All-Americans at 191: Champ Ken Maidlow … runner-up Pete Newell… third-place finisher Jim Craig of Iowa… and Oklahoma State's Adnan Kaisy, placing fourth. Heavyweight The bracket for the big men was a bit light, with only fourteen grapplers in a sixteen-man bracket. The top seed was the defending champ, Bob Norman of Illinois, who, two weeks before the NCAAs, had defeated eventual 191 NCAA champ Ken Maidlow in the Big Ten heavyweight finals in overtime. (That conference did not normally have wrestlers at 191.) Seeded second was the NCAA heavyweight champ from two years earlier, Gordon "Goose" Roesler of the University of Oklahoma, who grew up in the same town as Dan Hodge -- Perry, Oklahoma. Bob Norman pinned his first opponent, Utah State's Bob Steinke, at 7:36. In the quarterfinals, he got an 8-3 win over Oklahoma State's Earl Lynn; in the semifinals, the Illini big guy beat fifth-ranked Dave Hanks of Brigham Young 6-2 to find himself in the finals the second straight year. In his first match, Gordon Roesler edged Iowa's Barron Bremner 4-3, shut out Northern Colorado's Walter Goltl 4-0 in the quarterfinals, and got a 2-0 overtime win over Nebraska's third-seeded Dan Brand in the semis. Bob Norman (Photo/Big Ten Century of Excellence)The finals at heavyweight: It was a Battle of the Champs – the Big Ten vs. Big Eight heavyweight titlists who were both once NCAA champs, too. Long and lean 1956 national champ Gordon Roesler scored the first takedown… but Bob Norman managed to come back from that deficit to win his second consecutive title with a 5-3 win over the Sooner… becoming only the second 1957 NCAA champ to repeat in Laramie. (Bob Norman's grandson Jake Norman is a 197-pound sophomore wrestler at Illinois.) In addition to Bob Norman and Gordon Roesler, All-American honors went to third-place finisher Earl Lynn of Oklahoma State, and Nebraska's Dan Brand, who placed fourth. 1958 team standings By the time the finals were concluded on Saturday night, Oklahoma State had earned top team honors, with 77 team points, two individual champs (Dick Beattie, and Duane Murty), and six All-Americans. In second place was Iowa State, with 62 points, two champs (Les Anderson and Ron Gray) and six All-Americans. The University of Oklahoma, team titlewinners in 1957, placed third, with 50 points, two champs (Dick Delgado and Paul Aubrey) and three All-Americans. The Class of '58 weighs in on today's college wrestling Ask today's wrestlers, coaches and fans whether they think college wrestling was better fifty years ago… and it's likely that most would say the quality of wrestling today far surpasses what was on display at the 1958 NCAAs. But at least two of the wrestlers who competed in Laramie would disagree. "It's kind of disheartening to see how (college wrestling) has turned into a brawl," asserts Shelby Wilson, 137-pound finalist in 1958. "You should want to out-fox opponents, not brawl with them. At Oklahoma State, we moved around, circled -- what was called 'run, Aggie, run' by some." Individual NCAA champions in 1958"As a society today, we like gladiators -- two guys banging into each other. In the past, wrestling was more an art." "Nowadays, wrestlers keep making the same mistakes week after week," continues Shelby, who had a long career as a high school and college coach. "We had plenty of time to work on technique." "The last guy who really had technique was Cael Sanderson." Les Anderson, 1958 NCAA 130-pound champ from Iowa State, seems to be of a similar mind: "There was more fundamental wrestling back then. There was more chain wrestling, less willingness to settle for the easiest thing – for example, going for a reversal instead of just an escape." "The style back then was less 'clinging' -- not as much latching onto your opponent, and pushing him around for a stalemate." "Our style today is killing fan interest," continues Les, a long-time assistant coach at his college alma mater. "We need to award guys who are aggressive, who take shots, who stay active." When told of his fellow wrestlers' not-so-positive perspective on today's college wrestling, 1957 NCAA 147-pound champ Simon Roberts responds, "I differ with Shelby and Les. There's so much more to the sport now -– more sophistication in the training, especially in weight work, diet, and in the strategy during matches." Perhaps the only way for those of us who didn't wrestle at the Memorial Field House at the University of Wyoming in late March 1958 to see for ourselves would be to travel back in time … or watch films of the wrestling action. DVD copies of the original silent films of the 1958 NCAAs are available for purchase direct from the host school. For contact information for the University of Wyoming archives, email mark@RevWrestling.com. Bringin' it home During our phone interview for this article, Shelby Wilson shared an amusing story about the trip home from Laramie back to Stillwater that he prefaced with the words, "Hardly anyone knows this story." "On returning from Wyoming, there were four of us the car: Coach Roderick, my roommate Adnan Kaisy (the Cowboys' man at 191 pounds, originally from Iraq), and 115-pounder Bobby Taylor." "The car was a Plymouth station wagon with a six-cylinder engine, from the Oklahoma State motor pool." "We're driving all night long, with Myron (Roderick) behind the wheel. He got tired, and asked if I would take the wheel. I wanted to see how fast that Plymouth would go; I took it up to 97 miles per hour." "Myron woke up, took the wheel, and we noticed there was a clicking sound coming from under the hood. Not too much longer, the engine locked up. We were stuck in a tiny little town, Slapout, Oklahoma. I'll never forget the name." "We had the national (team) trophy with us. We were ready to hitchhike, with that trophy." "We found a local guy with a pickup with a tow bar -- he hooked up the Plymouth to his truck, and towed us to Stillwater with us riding in the car." "When we got back to town, he put the car back in its parking space at the OSU motor pool lot." Thanks for coming along for the ride! In addition to the invaluable information from Jay Hammond's "The History of Collegiate Wrestling" and 1958 issues of Amateur Wrestling News, thanks to the University of Wyoming for sharing a wealth of source material, including newspaper articles, photos, the pocket brochure mailed to schools before the tournament, and the event program for the 1958 NCAAs. And, of course, special thanks to Les Anderson, Shelby Wilson and Simon Roberts for sharing their stories. To see more photos of wrestlers at the 1958 NCAAs -- and look at the pocket brochure and event program -- visit this photo album at the Vintage Amateur Wrestling Yahoo group: Click HERE. Fun Facts from the 1958 NCAAs According to Amateur Wrestling News … • There were 25 falls, 22 overtime matches, and nine referee's decisions • Speaking of referees… two of the on-the-mat officials at Laramie are names that may be familiar to InterMat Rewind readers: Bob Siddens, long-time head coach at Waterloo West High School in Iowa (Dan Gable wrestled for him) … and his college roommate at Iowa State Teachers, Bill Koll, head coach at Iowa State Teachers College (now Northern Iowa) and Penn State, and father to Cornell University coach Rob Koll. (To read a profile of Rob and Bill Koll, click HERE.) • The only full squad at Laramie was Oklahoma State. Iowa State, Iowa, and Oklahoma State had nine entries in ten weight classes. Colorado State had eight wrestlers, while Cal Poly and Wyoming each had seven. The biggest team to travel the greatest distance: University of Maryland, with six wrestlers. Born in '58 • The Chevy Impala was introduced as a 1958 model … and is still one of the most popular cars sold in America • The Toyota first rolled onto American soil in 1958 • Bankamericard, the first nationally-accepted credit card not tied to a specific retailer (predecessor to today's VISA and MasterCard), first charged its way into America's purses and wallets • The first Daytona 500 was run in 1958 • The first Grammy Awards for excellence in recorded music were handed out in 1958 • The first Marriott hotel opened in suburban Washington, D.C. in 1958 • The Boeing 707 and other U.S.-made passenger jets first took flight in 1958 • Pop music icons Madonna, Prince and Michael Jackson were all born in 1958