Indiana University Athletics
2002-03 Hoosier Wrestling: A Season In Review
3/31/2003 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Bloomington, Ind. - The Big Ten is perennially the toughest wrestling conference in the country and for the Hoosiers this season it lived up to its reputation. With 16 dual meet victories, the Hoosiers tied a school record for wins in a season. In 1995-96 the Hoosiers went 16-2. This season, Indiana ends with a 16-9 dual meet record. After going 12-3 in dual meets prior to the Big Ten season, including an upset of then-No. 9 Missouri, the Hoosiers went just 1-6 in conference dual meet action.
"All of our Big Ten losses were to teams that finished in the top 15 at the national tournament," said Goldman. "We started five freshmen and two sophomores and we tied a school record with victories. There were a lot of positives in our season."
Individually, junior Coyte Cooper and senior Ty Matthews each owned 18-match undefeated streaks throughout the season as Cooper won the first individual title of his collegiate career by winning the Northern Iowa Open.
Cooper, Matthews and senior Greg Schaefer each advanced to the NCAA Championships after solid performances at the Big Ten Championships. Cooper made a run for the second collegiate individual title of his career and second title of the season as he was the lone Hoosier to advance to the Big Ten championship finals in Madison, Wisconsin. Cooper faced Penn State's Scott Moore. Moore and Cooper squared off in the regular season, where Moore ended Cooper's 18-match winning streak by pinning him in 2:48. After a 2002 season where Moore won the regular season battle and Cooper took third place honors in the conference championship by pinning Moore, the `03 season did not play out the same as the year before. It was not to be a repeat of the 2002 season, though, as Moore took the Big Ten 141-pound title over Cooper.
For the two Hoosier seniors, Schaefer and Matthews, it was all or nothing, the last chance for All-American honors. Schaefer advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third straight year. Although in 2001 and `02 he competed at 125 pounds and moved to 133 pounds for the 2003 season, Schaefer had his best-ever finish at the conference championships this season. By finishing seventh, he earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, the first time he had earned the berth on the mat. In both previous seasons, Schaefer was selected as one of the Big Ten's wild card entries.
Matthews began the season struggling with a critical decision - what weight to wrestle. After wrestling at 184 in his freshman campaign, moving to 197 in his sophomore outing and grappling with injury throughout the 2002 season, he came back healthy in 2003 only to find his starting spot at 197 pounds in jeopardy. In 2002, Pat DeGain became the Hoosiers' 197-pound starter, earning a spot at the NCAA Championships in his freshman outing. 2003 began as a battle for the starting 197 spot. Matthews wrestled the early open tournaments at 197, but DeGain dominated early, defeating the same competitors Matthews struggled with. Matthews did, however, earn a third place spot at the Eastern Michigan Open early in the season at 197 pounds. In the first dual meets against Rider and Rutgers at heavyweight, Matthews went 1-1 on the east coast swing. It couldn't be 197 and it wasn't working at heavyweight, so Matthews dropped to 184, filling a critical weight for Indiana. Until Matthews faced Iowa's top-ranked Jessman Smith, he was undefeated at his weight class.
Pat DeGain ended the season disappointed as he dropped his final three Big Ten matches for a season record of 29-7. He headed to the Big Ten Championships prepared to move on to the national championships, in search of All-American honors. In the championship quarterfinals against Ohio State's Anton Talamantes, the wrestlers headed to sudden victory overtime. When Talamantes went for the winning takedown, DeGain went to shoot and grimaced in pain. Talamantes got the win while DeGain clutched his ankle. The high-ankle sprain left DeGain without much hope. Needing two wins to get an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships, the IU training staff got DeGain ready to go. It was not enough as DeGain wrestled, quite literally, on one leg. He was eliminated from the championships and headed back to Bloomington without earning a spot at the national finals. Despite the disappointing finale to the 2002-03 season, DeGain ends with the 2002 Missouri Open, 197-pound title and a third place finish at the Northern Iowa Open.
The Hoosiers finished 10th at the Big Ten Championships, but were forced to wrestle without 125-pound grappler Joe Dubuque. Dubuque struggled with a knee injury throughout the regular season and suffered a concussion against Northwestern on Feb. 14. After another concussion in the season-ending dual against Minnesota, Dubuque was dropped awkwardly on his head. Tests two days before the Big Ten Championships began showed that Dubuque would not be medically cleared to wrestle in the conference championships.
"DeGain and Dubuque were sorely missed at the Big Ten Championships and Coyte did a good job getting to the national finals," said Goldman. "Greg and Coyte had good showings at nationals and fell just short of All-American.honors. While we may not have reached our ultimate goals, the season presented challenges we didn't see when it began and I think that we competed well."
The Hoosiers struggled through the middle-weights throughout the season. While Dubuque was a solid presence at 125 and Schaefer had the experience at 133 and Coyte Cooper held things up at 141, Matthews and DeGain were also solid at 184 and 197, respectively. That left five other weight classes where the Hoosiers faced a struggle with inconsistency. At 149, 157 and heavyweight, true freshmen reigned. Matt Cooper, younger brother to Coyte went 17-22 at 149 in his inaugural campaign while fellow classmate Isaac Knable went 12-15 while wrestling at 157 and 165 in the Big Ten season. Knable filled an imperative spot for the Hoosiers, coming out of his redshirt season to fill the 157-pound spot when Mike Engberg left the team early in the January. Before wrestling in the starting lineup, Knable finished second at the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division. Another true freshman, Joel Powers filled the heavyweight spot going 20-17 with 10 pins on th year. Rounding out the middle-weight lineup was junior 165 pounder, Alex LaPointe who finished 13-27.
The Hoosiers finish the dual meet season with a 16-9 record and a 1-6 mark in the Big Ten conference.
Hoosier non-starters also placed well throughout the season in open competition. Following are some performances of note:
Jack Barnhisel placed fourth at the Roger Denker Open, his only title of the year.
"Our non-starters and redshirts showed a lot of promise for our future with positive results in their open competition," said Goldman. "We're still developing as a team and we still have a lot of new faces. We're anxious to continue building and we're anxious to see what a new season brings."
True freshman Josh Buuck wrestled unattached throughout the 2003 season, finishing third at the Ashland Open and the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division. He improved and finished second at the Denker Open at 184 pounds. He finished the season strong, winning the 197-pound title at the USA Collegiate National Championships.
Another true freshman, Kevin Kennedy wrestled unattached at the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division and finished third in his only outing of the season.
Another freshman, Matt McIntire came to IU a highly-decorated wrestler out of Cincinnati, Ohio's Lakota West High School as a 2001 national champion and a four-time All-American. He won two championships. The first came at the Cleveland State Open at 165 pounds while the second came to close out the season at 157 pounds at the USA Collegiate National Championships. He added to these accomplishments with a fifth place finish at the Ashland Open.
Redshirt freshman Andy Rios wrestled one Big Ten match for the Hoosiers but spent the majority of the season in open competition. He finished second at the Roger Denker Open and by pinning three consecutive competitors, Rios earned champion honors at the USA Collegiate National Championships at 197 pounds. Classmate Cameron Sakon had solid outings at many open competitions as well, earning second place honors at 133 pounds at the Ashland Open. He also placed third at the same weight in the Roger Denker Open.
"All of our Big Ten losses were to teams that finished in the top 15 at the national tournament," said Goldman. "We started five freshmen and two sophomores and we tied a school record with victories. There were a lot of positives in our season."
Individually, junior Coyte Cooper and senior Ty Matthews each owned 18-match undefeated streaks throughout the season as Cooper won the first individual title of his collegiate career by winning the Northern Iowa Open.
Cooper, Matthews and senior Greg Schaefer each advanced to the NCAA Championships after solid performances at the Big Ten Championships. Cooper made a run for the second collegiate individual title of his career and second title of the season as he was the lone Hoosier to advance to the Big Ten championship finals in Madison, Wisconsin. Cooper faced Penn State's Scott Moore. Moore and Cooper squared off in the regular season, where Moore ended Cooper's 18-match winning streak by pinning him in 2:48. After a 2002 season where Moore won the regular season battle and Cooper took third place honors in the conference championship by pinning Moore, the `03 season did not play out the same as the year before. It was not to be a repeat of the 2002 season, though, as Moore took the Big Ten 141-pound title over Cooper.
For the two Hoosier seniors, Schaefer and Matthews, it was all or nothing, the last chance for All-American honors. Schaefer advanced to the NCAA Championships for the third straight year. Although in 2001 and `02 he competed at 125 pounds and moved to 133 pounds for the 2003 season, Schaefer had his best-ever finish at the conference championships this season. By finishing seventh, he earned the automatic bid to the NCAA Championships, the first time he had earned the berth on the mat. In both previous seasons, Schaefer was selected as one of the Big Ten's wild card entries.
Matthews began the season struggling with a critical decision - what weight to wrestle. After wrestling at 184 in his freshman campaign, moving to 197 in his sophomore outing and grappling with injury throughout the 2002 season, he came back healthy in 2003 only to find his starting spot at 197 pounds in jeopardy. In 2002, Pat DeGain became the Hoosiers' 197-pound starter, earning a spot at the NCAA Championships in his freshman outing. 2003 began as a battle for the starting 197 spot. Matthews wrestled the early open tournaments at 197, but DeGain dominated early, defeating the same competitors Matthews struggled with. Matthews did, however, earn a third place spot at the Eastern Michigan Open early in the season at 197 pounds. In the first dual meets against Rider and Rutgers at heavyweight, Matthews went 1-1 on the east coast swing. It couldn't be 197 and it wasn't working at heavyweight, so Matthews dropped to 184, filling a critical weight for Indiana. Until Matthews faced Iowa's top-ranked Jessman Smith, he was undefeated at his weight class.
Pat DeGain ended the season disappointed as he dropped his final three Big Ten matches for a season record of 29-7. He headed to the Big Ten Championships prepared to move on to the national championships, in search of All-American honors. In the championship quarterfinals against Ohio State's Anton Talamantes, the wrestlers headed to sudden victory overtime. When Talamantes went for the winning takedown, DeGain went to shoot and grimaced in pain. Talamantes got the win while DeGain clutched his ankle. The high-ankle sprain left DeGain without much hope. Needing two wins to get an automatic berth into the NCAA Championships, the IU training staff got DeGain ready to go. It was not enough as DeGain wrestled, quite literally, on one leg. He was eliminated from the championships and headed back to Bloomington without earning a spot at the national finals. Despite the disappointing finale to the 2002-03 season, DeGain ends with the 2002 Missouri Open, 197-pound title and a third place finish at the Northern Iowa Open.
The Hoosiers finished 10th at the Big Ten Championships, but were forced to wrestle without 125-pound grappler Joe Dubuque. Dubuque struggled with a knee injury throughout the regular season and suffered a concussion against Northwestern on Feb. 14. After another concussion in the season-ending dual against Minnesota, Dubuque was dropped awkwardly on his head. Tests two days before the Big Ten Championships began showed that Dubuque would not be medically cleared to wrestle in the conference championships.
"DeGain and Dubuque were sorely missed at the Big Ten Championships and Coyte did a good job getting to the national finals," said Goldman. "Greg and Coyte had good showings at nationals and fell just short of All-American.honors. While we may not have reached our ultimate goals, the season presented challenges we didn't see when it began and I think that we competed well."
The Hoosiers struggled through the middle-weights throughout the season. While Dubuque was a solid presence at 125 and Schaefer had the experience at 133 and Coyte Cooper held things up at 141, Matthews and DeGain were also solid at 184 and 197, respectively. That left five other weight classes where the Hoosiers faced a struggle with inconsistency. At 149, 157 and heavyweight, true freshmen reigned. Matt Cooper, younger brother to Coyte went 17-22 at 149 in his inaugural campaign while fellow classmate Isaac Knable went 12-15 while wrestling at 157 and 165 in the Big Ten season. Knable filled an imperative spot for the Hoosiers, coming out of his redshirt season to fill the 157-pound spot when Mike Engberg left the team early in the January. Before wrestling in the starting lineup, Knable finished second at the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division. Another true freshman, Joel Powers filled the heavyweight spot going 20-17 with 10 pins on th year. Rounding out the middle-weight lineup was junior 165 pounder, Alex LaPointe who finished 13-27.
The Hoosiers finish the dual meet season with a 16-9 record and a 1-6 mark in the Big Ten conference.
Hoosier non-starters also placed well throughout the season in open competition. Following are some performances of note:
Jack Barnhisel placed fourth at the Roger Denker Open, his only title of the year.
"Our non-starters and redshirts showed a lot of promise for our future with positive results in their open competition," said Goldman. "We're still developing as a team and we still have a lot of new faces. We're anxious to continue building and we're anxious to see what a new season brings."
True freshman Josh Buuck wrestled unattached throughout the 2003 season, finishing third at the Ashland Open and the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division. He improved and finished second at the Denker Open at 184 pounds. He finished the season strong, winning the 197-pound title at the USA Collegiate National Championships.
Another true freshman, Kevin Kennedy wrestled unattached at the Missouri Open in the freshman/sophomore division and finished third in his only outing of the season.
Another freshman, Matt McIntire came to IU a highly-decorated wrestler out of Cincinnati, Ohio's Lakota West High School as a 2001 national champion and a four-time All-American. He won two championships. The first came at the Cleveland State Open at 165 pounds while the second came to close out the season at 157 pounds at the USA Collegiate National Championships. He added to these accomplishments with a fifth place finish at the Ashland Open.
Redshirt freshman Andy Rios wrestled one Big Ten match for the Hoosiers but spent the majority of the season in open competition. He finished second at the Roger Denker Open and by pinning three consecutive competitors, Rios earned champion honors at the USA Collegiate National Championships at 197 pounds. Classmate Cameron Sakon had solid outings at many open competitions as well, earning second place honors at 133 pounds at the Ashland Open. He also placed third at the same weight in the Roger Denker Open.
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