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[January 18, 2004]
The University of Minnesota men's wrestling team (6-3) won seven of 10 matches in a 22-15 victory against Pennsylvania. Minnesota wrestled without All-Americans Damion Hahn and Jacob Volkmann. The Golden Gophers claimed seventh place at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cleveland, Ohio.
Fifth-ranked Matt Valenti gave Penn an early 3-0 lead with a 4-1 decision against 10th-ranked Bobbe Lowe. Valenti broke a 1-1 tie with a takedown with 35 seconds to go in the match.
Minnesota's Quincy Osborn knotted the match at three with a 3-0 win at 133 pounds. In a scoreless tie against Matt Eveleth, Osborn got the escape with 25 seconds to go in the match and then extended his lead to 3-0 with a takedown with 10 seconds remaining.
Sophomore Tommy Owen extended the Golden Gopher lead with a pin of Penn's Shawn Protz. Owen dominated the match and held a 12-2 lead after the first period. He got the fall 57 seconds into the second period to give the Golden Gophers a 9-3 lead.
True freshman Jeremy Anderson boosted the lead with his first career victory at Minnesota. Anderson trailed Penn's Rob Hitschler 4-1 entering the third, but registered a pair of takedowns and a near fall to claim an 8-5 win.
Sophomore Matt Nagel pushed the win streak to four with a 9-0 major decision against Brett Vanderveer. For Nagel, it was his sixth victory in his last seven matches.
The Quakers got back on the winning side at 165 pounds as Rich Ferguson posted a 6-3 decision against Minnesota's Casey Flaherty. The Golden Gophers' Jon Duncombe responded with a 7-2 decision over Greg Hallahan to put the lead back to 13 at 19-6.
With Minnesota forfeiting six team points at 197 due to the injury to Hahn, Josh McLay clinched the match at 184 with a 2-1 decision in overtime against Ethan Bullock. In the second 30-second overtime, McLay got the deciding escape with 10 seconds remaining to seal the win.
Heavyweight featured a matchup of top-10 wrestlers. Fourth-ranked Matt Feast of Penn defeated No. 9 Cole Konrad, 3-2, to close out the dual meet.
Minnesota begins Big Ten action next Friday at Michigan State and will wrestle Michigan on Saturday in Ann Arbor, Mich.
[January 17, 2004]
The University of Oklahoma wrestling team won the first four matches en route to a 37-9 victory against Minnesota in the consolation round of the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cleveland, Ohio. The Golden Gophers (4-3) will meet either Hofstra or Penn for seventh place tomorrow morning at 11 a.m.
Minnesota wrestled without its two senior All-Americans due to injury. Defending NCAA Champion Damion Hahn sat out the match after suffering an injury in an earlier match with Northern Iowa. Jacob Volkmann is sitting out the National Duals after suffering an injury last week.
Seventh-ranked Sam Hazwinkle got the Sooners on top early with a pin against 10th-ranked Bobbe Lowe. Hazwinkle got the reversal in the third period and got Lowe on his back to give OU the 6-0 lead.
Oklahoma extended its lead at 133 pounds as Mimi Miller posted a 13-6 decision against Quincy Osborn. Defending NCAA Champion Teyon Ware gave the Sooners a 13-0 lead with a 10-1 decision against Minnesota's Tommy Owen.
The Sooners' Jeff Eckloff shocked the crowd with a pin of true freshman Jeremy Anderson in just 15 seconds to put Oklahoma ahead 19- 0.
Sophomore Matt Nagel stopped the Sooner streak with a come-from- behind 3-2 decision against Charles Jones. Jones led 2-0 before Nagel registered the takedown with two seconds to go. He was awarded a bonus point for riding time to claim the win.
Minnesota was unable to capitalize on the victory though, as OU's Rafael Maturino pinned Casey Flaherty 36 seconds into the 165 pound match to make it 25-3. 13th-ranked EK Waldhaus followed with a 6-2 decision against Jon Duncombe at 174 pounds.
Oklahoma's Justin Dyer got three points for a near fall as time expired to break a 4-4 tie and claim an 8-4 decision.
After the Sooners were awarded six team points on Damion Hahn's forfeit, Minnesota's Cole Konrad secured the team's second win of the night with a pin at 4:59 against OU's Jake Hager.
"We have a number of guys in our lineup that experienced this atmosphere for the first time," head coach J Robinson said. "We can't use that as an excuse though. We didn't wrestle the way we are capable of. We have to finish strong tomorrow and get ready for our Big Ten opener next week."
Following tomorrow's seventh-place match against either Hofstra or Penn, Minnesota will begin Big Ten play at Michigan State and Michigan next Friday and Saturday.
[January 17, 2004]
Redshirt freshman Cole Konrad pinned Richard Shedek in overtime to preserve a 24-16 win for Minnesota against Northern Iowa at the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cleveland, Ohio. The Golden Gophers advance in the consolation bracket and will face Oklahoma tonight at 8:30 p.m. Eastern.
Minnesota got off to a strong start as All-American Bobbe Lowe posted a 3-1 decision against the Panthers' Chris Helgeson. Redshirt freshman Quincy Osborn then posted his second pin of the day at 1:46 vs. Pat Garcia at 133 pounds.
Trailing 9-0, Northern Iowa stormed back as seventh-ranked Dylan Long pinned sophomore Tommy Owen at the 4:24 mark. The match was tied after 15th-ranked Jon Garvin pinned Minnesota true freshman Jeremy Anderson, 7-0.
Minnesota moved back into the lead as 15th-ranked Matt Nagel pulled out a 7-6 decision against Nick Baima at 157 pounds.
Northern Iowa claimed the next two matches to take its first lead of the day. No. 20 Hesston Johnson defeated junior Casey Flaherty, 3-0, at 165 pounds to knot the match at 12. Flaherty was filling in for the injured Jacob Volkmann, a two-time All-American for Minnesota.
Fourth-ranked Eric Hauan then earned a 12-3 major decision against junior Jon Duncombe. Northern Iowa led 16-12 with three matches remaining.
Junior Josh McLay pulled the Golden Gophers to within one with a 3-1 decision against Eric Pedretti. McLay took a 2-1 lead with a takedown in the first and increased his lead with a third-period escape.
The pivotal match took place at 197 pounds between three-time All- American Damion Hahn for Minnesota and All-American Sean Stender of Northern Iowa. In typical Hahn fashion, he took control of the match early and held a 6-3 third-period lead. In a stunning turn of events, Stender posted a takedown with just over a minute to go to pull within one at 6-5. In a moment of confusion, UNI thought the match was stopped because of a Stender pin, while the Minnesota bench thought it was an injury timeout. Hahn suffered a blow to the head which caused the match to be stopped. Stender was awarded three points for a near fall to take an 8-6 lead with 55 seconds to play.
After Hahn was cleared by the Minnesota staff to continue, he earned one point for the escape with 40 seconds to play and then won the match with a takedown with four seconds to go. The decision put Minnesota ahead at 18-16 with the heavyweight match remaining. Hahn improved to 17-1 on the season.
Konrad and Shedek advanced to overtime tied at one and neither scored in the first minute of sudden-death overtime. In the second 30-second overtime session, Konrad earned the escape and followed with a takedown. He sealed the match with the pin with eight seconds remaining.
The win extended Minnesota's streak of consecutive matches without two straight losses to 133. The Golden Gophers have not lost two in a row since the spring of 1997.
The winner of the Minnesota-Oklahoma match will move on in the consolation bracket and will wrestle tomorrow morning at 9 a.m.
[January 17, 2004]
The sixth-ranked Michigan Wolverines defeated No. 9 Minnesota, 30-6, in the second round of the NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals in Cleveland, Ohio. The Golden Gophers will move to the consolation round to face Northern Iowa at 5 p.m.
Minnesota wrestled for the second straight match without two-time All- American Jacob Volkmann at 165 pounds. Volkmann will miss the National Duals with an injury suffered a week ago.
Michigan took the lead at 125 and never looked back. No. 8 Mark Moos defeated No. 10 Bobbe Lowe, 9-3, to give the Wolverines an early 3-0 lead. No. 7 Foley Dowd followed for Michigan with a 6-1 decision against Quincy Osborn at 133.
Minnesota got on the board at 141 as Tommy Owen held on for a 3-2 upset of 15th-ranked Clark Forward. Leading 6-3, the Wolverines pulled away with five straight victories.
No. 7 Ryan Churella posted a 14-4 major decision against true freshman Jeremy Anderson at 149. Trailing 10-3, the Golden Gophers had a golden opportunity to get back into the match. No. 15 Matt Nagel was tied at three with defending NCAA Champion Ryan Bertin of Michigan with time winding down. With one second left in the match, Bertin posted the takedown to hold off the upset bid, 5-3.
At 165, Casey Flaherty filled in for the injured Volkmann. He was defeated by No. 6 Pat Owen by technical fall, 15-0.
The Wolverines kept the roll going as R.J. Boudro handed Jon Duncombe his first loss of the dual season by an 11-6 decision. Michigan put the match away with Josh Weitzel's pin of Josh McLay at 5:18 at 184 pounds.
Defending NCAA Champion Damion Hahn improved to 16-1 on the season with a 6-2 decision against Chase Verdroon at 197.
"We got off to a slow start and it seemed like we all just lost our focus," Hahn said. "Michigan came out and wrestled hard right from the beginning. We're going to have to have a much better effort to stay alive against Oklahoma."
The match finished with an overtime duel at heavyweight. Sixth-ranked Greg Wagner prevailed in double overtime against Minnesota's Cole Konrad. Wagner earned the escape and a takedown to post a 5-2 victory.
Minnesota and Northern Iowa will meet at the Convocation Center at 5 p.m. with the winner advancing in the consolation bracket, while the loser will be eliminated. The Panthers eliminated Iowa State, 22-21, in the consolation bracket.
[January 17, 2004]
The University of Minnesota wrestling team won nine of 10 matches in a 35-3 win against Cleveland State on Saturday morning in the National Duals. The fifth-seeded Golden Gophers will face No. 4 Michigan on Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m.
In his first match in over a month, All-American Bobbe Lowe defeated DeAngelo Penn, 10-2, at 125 pounds. Lowe wore down Penn and scored the majority of his points in the second and third periods.
"I felt really good out there," Lowe said. "I was able to get under my weight earlier this week so by the time the third period came around, I felt stronger than I have in the past."
Redshirt Quincy Osborn followed Lowe with an impressive pin over Kevin Linich at the 1:46 mark. Sophomore Tommy Owen continued the strong showing at the lighter weights for Minnesota with a 5-3 decision against Anthony Coleman.
True freshman Jeremy Anderson made his first career start for Minnesota at 149. Seeing his first action of any kind for the Golden Gophers, Anderson trailed CSU's Matt DePolo, 3-0, late in the third period. Anderson got the takedown with 35 seconds to go to make it 3- 2, but he was unable to register another takedown and fell by the score of 5-2.
Sophomore Matt Nagel got Minnesota back on track with a pin of Jason Effner at 6:54 at 157 pounds. The Golden Gophers led 16-3 at the midway point.
At 165 pounds, junior Casey Flaherty was filling in for two-time All- American Jacob Volkmann. Volkmann was injured last week and will miss the entire National Duals. Flaherty was taken to overtime by Matt Klinger, but he won the match with a takedown early in the extra period, 3-1.
Jon Duncombe improved to 5-0 on the season in dual meets with a 7-2 decision against the Vikings' Matt Kallai. Junior Josh McLay registered the 12-1 major decision against Ron Howard at 184.
Defending NCAA Champion Damion Hahn was tested at 197, but improved to 15-1 on the season with a 2-0 decision against Joe Phillips. Hahn got the escape early in the third and was awarded the bonus point for riding time.
In a matchup of top-10 heavyweights, ninth-ranked Cole Konrad moved to 20-3 on the season with a 2-1 decision in overtime against eighth- ranked Russ Davie.
With the 35-3 win, the Golden Gophers move to the second round of the National Duals. Minnesota will face Big Ten rival Michigan at 1 p.m. The Wolverines topped West Virginia, 29-16.
"It will be important for us to get off to a strong start like we did in the first match today," Lowe said. "Getting bonus points will be key against the Wolverines."
The other half of the bracket will be a Big XII showdown between Oklahoma State and Oklahoma.