Three Gophers Earn All-American Honors at NCAA Wrestling
March 20, 2009
Three Minnesota wrestlers will earn All-American honors following their performances at the NCAA championships on Friday in St. Louis.
Jayson Ness and Zach Sanders can finish as high as third place and are
assured of at least a sixth place finish entering Saturday’s final day,
while Tyler Safratowich will wrestle for seventh place. A wrestler
earns All-American status with an eighth place finish or higher.
The Gophers are currently in 17th place through the first two days with
29.5 points. Ohio State leads the meet with 84.5 points to hold a
3.5-point lead over second place Iowa.
Ness reached the semifinals at 133 pounds with a 6-1 victory over Dan
Mitcheff of Kent State in the quarterfinals and then suffered a 1-0
loss to second-seeded Reece Humphrey of Ohio State in the semifinals.
Humphrey earned the match’s lone point on riding time in the second
period. Ness started down and Humphrey rode him for the entire
two-minute period. Humphrey then chose neutral for the third period and
managed to hold off Ness for the third time this season in four
meetings.
Ness, seeded sixth with a 37-8 current record, will face third-seeded
James Kennedy of Illinois on Saturday in the consolation round in a
rematch of the third place match at the Big Ten championships that
Kennedy prevailed 8-2.
Sanders was seeded 11th at 125 pounds and reached the quarterfinals
where he lost to third-seeded and defending champion Angel Escobedo of
Indiana 8-1. Sanders responded with a pair of victories in the
consolation round, beating fifth-seeded Charlie Falck of Iowa 5-2 and
posting a major decision win over Nicholas Bedelyon of Kent State 9-0.
Sanders avenged a loss to Falck from the Big Ten championships and
pushed his record to 39-8. He will face 12th-seeded Anthony Robles of
Arizona State on Saturday.
Safratowich dropped his quarterfinal match at 157 pounds to
second-seeded Michael Poeta of Illinois 10-5, but responded with a
thrilling victory to earn his first career All-American status.
Safratowich defeated Adam Hall of Boise State in a consolation match
6-4 with a takedown as time expired to pull out the victory. Hall had
tied the match with a third period takedown of his own before
Safratowich’s last-second heroics.
Safratowich was defeated in his next match 13-5 by sixth-seeded Michael
Chandler of Missouri and will take a 32-14 record into a rematch with
Bloomsburg’s Matt Moley for seventh place on Saturday. Safratowich beat
Moley 7-4 in the second round on Thursday.
Earlier Friday, Minnesota’s Ben Berhow was knocked out of the
consolation bracket with a 6-4 setback to David Marone of Virginia Tech
to end the season at 27-11. The Gophers’ fifth national qualifier, Mike
Thorn, was eliminated on Thursday.
Saturday’s opening session begins at 9:30 a.m. at the Scottrade Center.
