Indiana University Athletics
Hoosiers Head to Midlands Championship
12/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Dec. 26, 2006
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SETTING THE SCENE
Indiana will travel to Evanston, Ill., for the prestigious Midlands Championship on Dec. 29-30. The Hoosiers will look to end Illinois' run for a third straight title at Midlands, where IU finished eighth a year ago. Five grapplers placed in 2005 at Midlands, led by a third-place finish from Brady Richardson at 197. Current Hoosiers Andrae Hernandez (fifth, 133), Brandon Becker (fourth, 157), Max Dean (sixth, 165) and Justin Curran (seventh, 174) placed at the event a year ago. Ten teams ranked in the latest NWCA/Intermat poll will be at the event.
LAST TIME OUT
The Indiana wrestling team upped its dual-meet record to 8-0-0 on the 2006-07 season by sweeping a trio of meets at the F.I.T.E. Duals on Sunday, Dec. 17, at Rich East High School. The Hoosiers dominated their three opponents, allowing each adversary to take just one of the 10 matches, as IU bested Southern Illinois-Edwardsville (45-3), Eastern Michigan (33-3) and Harper (49-6).
Redshirt freshman Angel Escobedo continued his dominant season, pinning all three of his opponents in an average time of 3:58. Escobedo, ranked seventh in the most recent poll by RevWrestling.com, began his day with a pin of SIUE's Tommy Hill in 3:21, and Andrae Hernandez and Scott Kelly followed with pins of their own to vault the Hoosiers to an early 18-0 lead in the meet that they would not relinquish. The lone blemish for IU was a 7-5 loss by Ryan Pribble in his dual-meet debut.
Indiana went on to dominate both Harper and Eastern Michigan, allowing just nine dual points to the two squads. Against EMU, Matt Coughlin topped No. 15 Jermain Thompson for the second time this season, taking a 7-6 decision despite trailing 6-3 heading into the third period. Marc Bennett and Andrae Hernandez also had solid performances, taking 16 and 15 dual points, respectively, on the day.
MEDIA INFORMATION
Indiana Athletic Media Relations Staff Assistant Matt Brady is the primary media relations contact for the wrestling team. He can be reached at his office (812-856-0215), via cell phone (413-222-2788) or e-mail (mlbrady@indiana.edu).
EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS
Redshirt freshman Angel Escobedo has posted an impressive debut season for the Hoosiers in 2006-07, carding a 17-2 record and a team-leading eight pins on the season. Escobedo went 3-0 at the F.I.T.E. Duals on Dec. 17, pinning all three of his opponents in an average 3:58. Escobedo has notched top-three finishes at both the Michigan State Open (11/12) and the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational (12/2) to vault him into the ranks of the national elite.
Midlands will give him an opportunity to climb up those rankings, as several of the nation's top wrestlers at 125 will be at the event. The top seed will likely by No. 4 Franklin Gomez of Michigan State, who has a 17-1 record on the season with his only loss in the finals of the Penn State Open. Others who should provide a challenge include No. 13 Luke Smith of Central Michigan, No. 14 Gabe Flores of Illinois, No. 15 Matt Eveleth of Penn and No. 20 Charlie Falck of Iowa.
Escobedo has gained national recognition for his performance this year, and is now ranked in the top 12 in all of the five polls, with his highest rating of eighth coming from RevWrestling.com. The NWCA/Intermat poll has Escobedo at No. 12. This season, Escobedo is 17-2 with eight pins, and his only two losses have come to the wrestlers currently ranked fifth (Lock Haven's Obenson Blanc) and 11th (Nebraska's Paul Donahoe) in the nation, by a combined 4-1 score.
KNOCKING THEM OFF
Through five events in the 2006-07 wrestling season, Indiana University grapplers are already making waves on the national scene. Members of the Hoosier team have totaled 17 victories over opponents ranked in the top 20 of their weight classes on the year.
Redshirt freshman Matt Coughlin (149) has been leading the charge, as he already has five victories over top-20 competition this season and is ranked as high as fifth in the country. In Las Vegas (12/2), Coughlin toppled three wrestlers in the top 20, posting victories over No. 4 Tyler Turner (Wisconsin), No. 5 Jordan Leen (Cornell) and No. 11 Jermain Thompson (Eastern Michigan). Coughlin added another victory over Thompson on Dec. 17, and has also topped No. 19 Jason Johnstone of Ohio State. Coughlin's only losses this year have come to No. 3 Gregor Gillespie (Edinboro) and No. 7 J.P. O'Connor (Harvard).
Marc Bennett sits just behind Coughlin on the list, besting four ranked opponents with his 20-2 record. Kurt Kinser has three wins over top-20 wrestlers this season while competing unattached, while Max Dean and Brandon Becker have combined for three more wins.
DOUBLED UP
Junior Marc Bennett (184) went 3-0 at the F.I.T.E. Duals, giving him a 20-2 record with four pins. His 20 wins are tops on the Hoosiers, and the Martinsville, Ind., native has more than doubled his career win total this year. Entering this season, Bennett had a 19-20 mark for the Hoosiers, but has seen drastic improvement this season after moving up from 174 to 184. Bennett has jumped all the way to seventh in the latest Amateur Wrestling News poll.
After a first-round loss in Las Vegas, Bennett showed his mettle and refused to go quietly, working his way through the wrestleback to earn a fifth-place finish. After the loss, Bennett won six consecutive bouts, the last of which was a fall of No. 17 Rocco Caponi of Virginia in 5:05. Bennett was stripped of a chance to wrestle for third by No. 7 Joe Rovelli, but rebounded with a 4-3 decision over No. 4 Raymond Jordan of Missouri in the fifth-place bout.
IMPRESSIVE CLASS
IU's incoming freshman class in 2006-07 has put together a solid season so far, both from wrestlers who have participated in dual meet competition and those that have only competed unattached. Indiana's freshmen have compiled an aggregate 91-54 record so far this season.
Three Hoosiers have stood out enough to crack the starting lineup on a regular basis so far this year, led by 141-pounder Nick Walpole. Walpole has gone 13-5 on the season with a 5-1 record in dual meets for IU. The Indianapolis native leads the squad with five major decisions on the year and is tied for second with five pins.
Another standout has been Nathan Everhart at 197 pounds. The Tinley Park, Ill., native participated in his first attached competition in Las Vegas (12/2) and posted a 2-2 record, nearly defeating the top wrestler in the country, Missouri's Ben Askren. Everhart, a pre-dentistry major, is also a standout in the classroom, and has already been named IU Scholar Athlete of the Week this year. Everhart has a 13-5 mark on the season with two technical falls, two major decisions and one pin on the season.
Nick Avery competed as an attached wrestler for the first time at the F.I.T.E Duals, and the Foxboro, Mass., native went 2-1 at the competition. Avery is now 8-4 on the year for the Hoosiers overall on the season.
True freshman and Bloomington South product Kurt Kinser has turned some heads in the young season. Kinser has competed unattached for the Hoosiers at 149 pounds this year, but has already knocked off three grapplers ranked in the top 20, including a 13-2 major decision over No. 7 John Cox at the Penn State Open on Dec. 9. Kinser took third at the Open, falling in the semifinals in sudden victory to VMI's Sam Alvarenga. The freshman has pinned six of his 19 opponents and has posted a pair of major decisions.
Kinser's former high school teammate, Paul Young, has also put together a solid season while competing unattached. Young has competed at both 157 and 165 this year, and has amassed an aggregate 12-5 record. He finished fourth at the Michigan State Open in his first competition against collegiate wrestlers, and took a second-place finish at the Cleveland State Open on Saturday, Dec. 16. Young, who had a 99-1 record in his final two years for Bloomington South, has a pair of pins and two major decisions on the year. Both Kinser and Young are expected to redshirt for the Hoosiers this season.
HOOSIERS INK THREE RECRUITS
The Indiana wrestling team has signed three grapplers to National Letters-of-Intent, Head Coach Duane Goldman announced on Friday, Dec. 8. The Hoosiers will add Joe Fagiano (Chicago, Ill./St. Patrick), Matt Ortega (Rio Rancho, N.M./Rio Rancho) and Reece Freeman (Bloomington, Ind./South) for the fall of 2007.
"All three of these individuals are great wrestlers and exceptional students," Goldman said. "They are dedicated, hard-working student-athletes with high goals - exactly the kind of people who we want representing Indiana."
Fagiano was the 2006 Illinois state champion at 215 pounds in 2006 and will be gunning for his second straight championship in 2007. He was named the 2006 East Suburban Catholic Conference Most Outstanding Wrestler after winning the conference title, and was most recently ranked seventh in the nation at 215 by Wrestling International Newsmagazine.
Ortega is a three-time New Mexico state champion and will seek a school-record fourth title in as many years in 2007. He helped Rio Rancho to a fourth-place finish at the Reno Tournament of Champions in December 2005, finishing seventh at 119 pounds in the event. Ortega won his first championship at 103 pounds and his second at 112 before moving up to 119 for his junior campaign. Ortega is currently the 12th-ranked wrestler in the 125-pound class by W.I.N.
Freeman was a teammate of current Hoosier freshmen Paul Young and Kurt Kinser at Bloomington South, helping the team to two sectional, regional and semi-state championships in his first three years. Freeman is the top-ranked wrestler in the state at 119 after going 46-2 and placing fifth in Indiana last year. He entered his senior campaign with a career record of 134-10 over three weight classes.
ANDRAE THE GIANT
In an up-and-down year for the returning NCAA qualifier, sophomore Andrae Hernandez (133) posted a strong performance for IU at the F.I.T.E. Duals, going 3-0 and taking 15 dual points. Hernandez pinned Larry George of SIUE, scored an 18-0 technical fall of Harper's Mike Ryan, then posted a major decision over EMU's Chris Jenkins. Hernandez also took a second-place finish at the Missouri Open for his only place of the year. He now sits at 13-6 with three technical falls, four major decisions and four pins in 2006-07, a year after going 28-11 and qualifying for the NCAA Championships.
