2001-02 College News - Brackets set for 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships

March 18, 2002

Brackets set for 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships

The brackets for the 2002 NCAA Wrestling Championships have been announced. Nine of Minnesota's ten qualifiers are seeded in their respective weight class in the national tournament. The three-day event is set for Thursday-Saturday, March 21-23, at Pepsi Arena in Albany, N.Y.

Minnesota's first round match-ups are below. The full brackets for the 2002 NCAA Championships can be viewed at www.intermatwrestle.com.

125 - No. 2 seed Leroy Vega vs. Jared Opfer (Kent State)
133 - No. 1 seed Ryan Lewis vs. Joe Cristaldi (Drexel)
141 - No. 8 seed Chad Erikson vs. Chad Caros (Edinboro)
149 - No. 2 seed Jared Lawrence vs. Greg Austin (Rutgers)
157 - No. 3 seed Luke Becker vs. Gabe Webster (Cornell)
165 - Nate Baker vs. Pierre Pryor (NC State)
174 - No. 8 seed Jacob Volkmann vs. Luke Moore (Ohio)
184 - No. 2 seed Damion Hahn vs. Ali Abri (Boston U.)
197 - No. 3 seed Owen Elzen vs. Nick Ciarcia (Brown)
Hwt - No. 4 seed Garrett Lowney - BYE - will face the winner of Boe Rushton (Boise State) vs. Craig Tefft (Binghamton) in the second round

Schedule of Events (all times Eastern)
Thursday, March 21
Session I -- First Round 11 a.m.
Session II -- Prelims/wrestleback prelims/wrestleback first rounds 6:30 p.m.
Friday, March 22
Session III -- Quarterfinals/wrestleback second and third rounds 10 a.m.
Session IV -- Semifinals/wrestleback fourth and fifth rounds 5:30 a.m.
Saturday, March 23
Session V -- Wrestleback semifinals/Third through eighth place matches 8 a.m.
Session VI -- Championship matches 2 p.m.

The top-ranked and defending NCAA Champion Golden Gophers head to Albany with a full lineup. Minnesota enters the national meet as defending champs and the prohibitive favorite in 2002. The Maroon and Gold is aiming to become the first back-to-back national champions in school history since the 1940 and 1941 Minnesota football teams won consecutive national titles. Minnesota closed out its first-ever unbeaten dual meet season at 19-0 overall and captured its second consecutive Big Ten Dual Meet Championship with an 8-0 record in the conference. The Golden Gophers then won their second consecutive Big Ten Championship with 174 points to second-place Iowa's 129. Five Minnesota wrestlers won their first individual conference titles in the tournament.