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12/27/2001
The top-ranked Golden Gophers come off their three-week break for the holidays at the 39th Annual Midlands Wrestling Championships in Evanston, Ill., Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 29-30.
Minnesota will be fielding a full lineup at the huge tournament. Seven of the top 10 teams in the nation, according to InterMat, will be on hand at this year's Midlands. The holiday competition is generally considered an early indicator as to how a team will fare in postseason competition. It is not uncommon for a team to win the Midlands before going on to win their respective conference title and eventually become NCAA Champions, as Minnesota did last year.
Teams Competing at Midlands: Intercollegiate teams: Adams State, Air Force, American, Anderson College, Arizona State, Bloomsburg, Cal-State Bakersfield, Carson-Newman, Central Michigan, Chicago, The Citadel, Cleveland State, Cornell, East Stroudsburg, Eastern Illinois, Eastern Michigan, Harper, Harvard, Hofstra, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa Central, Iowa State, James Madison, Lassen College, Lehigh, Lincoln College, Luther, MacMurray, Manchester, Maranatha, Michigan State, Minnesota, Montana State Northern, Montclair State, Navy, North Carolina, North Carolina-Greensboro, Northwestern, Ohio State, Old Dominion, Oregon, Oregon State, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh-Johnston, Princeton, Purdue, Rider, Rutgers, Slippery Rock, Stanford, Triton College, VMI, Wheaton, Wisconsin-La Crosse; Club Teams: Cyclone WC, Dave Schultz WC,Hawkeye WC, New York AC, Ohio International WC, Sunkist Kids, Team Excel, Wildcat WC.
2001 Midlands Pretournament Rankings
Last Year at Midlands: Jared Lawrence captured the 149-pound championship at the Midlands Wrestling Championships, leading the top-ranked Golden Gopher grapplers to the 2000 team title in Evanston, Ill. Lawrence, seeded fourth in the tournament, defeated No. 2 Dave Esposito of Lehigh 6-3 in the title match.
The Golden Gophers took the team title with 144 points with Iowa State in second with 133 points. The Maroon and Gold cruised to the team championship as four Minnesota grapplers advanced to their respective title matches. At 125 pounds, Leroy Vega went 4-1, losing to 2000 Big Ten Champion Jody Strittmatter of Iowa 12-4 in the title match. No. 5 seed Brett Lawrence defeated top-seeded Teague Moore 2-1 en route to the 133-pound championship match, where he fell to Cody Sanderson 2-1. At 165 pounds, third- eeded Brad Pike lost to top-seed Joe Heskett of Iowa State 4-0 in the title match.
The Golden Gophers also were helped to the team title as Luke Becker, Matt Kraft and Damion Hahn placed in the top eight. Becker, seeded fourth at 157 pounds, took third place, defeating Cole Sanderson of Iowa State 9-4 in the third-place match. At 174 pounds, Kraft captured fifth place, going 4-2 with a pin at 1:56 of Princeton's Greg Parker in the fifth-place match. Hahn, seeded third, took third place at 184 pounds, defeating Victor Sveda of Indiana in a 5-3 sudden victory decision in the third-place match.
Former Golden Gopher Tim Hartung, a two-time NCAA champion, captured second place at 197 pounds, forfeiting to Lee Fullhart in the title match.
Midlands On the Web: The Amateur Wrestling Show will be providing live audio coverage of the Midlands Wrestling Tournament on Saturday-Sunday, Dec. 29-30, from Northwestern University. For more details, go to http://members.citynet.net/sites/taws. Results from Midlands can be obtained at http://nusports.fansonly.com/sports/m-wrestl/nw-m-wrestl-body.html.