Indiana University
NCAA Championships
Three Hoosiers Advance at NCAA Championships
3/16/2007 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 16, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Three Indiana wrestlers have clinched All-America status at the 2007 NCAA Championships, as redshirt freshmen Angel Escobedo (125) and Matt Coughlin (149) and sophomore Andrae Hernandez (133) advanced at the Championships on Friday. Brandon Becker (157), Marc Bennett (184) and Josh Buuck (HWT) all were eliminated on Friday.
Escobedo topped Tyler Shinn of Oklahoma State with a 9-3 decision in his first match in the wrestlebacks to earn All-American status in his first run at the Championships. He continued his run with a victory over third seed Tanner Gardner of Stanford, jumping out to an early lead and cruising to a 9-3 victory. Escobedo's run at the title ended with a 2-0 loss to Troy Nickerson of Cornell. The second seed at 125 rode Escobedo out in the second period and posted an escape in the third to take the 2-0 victory and send Escobedo to the wrestlebacks. The redshirt freshman will wrestle for a shot at third place on Saturday morning.
Coughlin fell to the wrestlebacks with a tight match against Lance Palmer of Ohio State, the 10th seed at 149. Palmer got a quick second-period escape, then held Coughlin down until the closing seconds to take a 2-1 decision on riding time. In the wrestleback, Coughlin faced Penn State's Dan Vallimont and scored a key five points in the second period to score an 8-1 victory in the fifth round of consolations. He then ran into Harvard's J.P. O'Connor, who topped the redshirt freshman in their meeting earlier this season, and O'Connor once again got the better of his opposition, taking a 4-3 victory in the second tiebreak period after riding Coughlin out to garner the victory. He will wrestle in the seventh-place match on Saturday.
In one of the most exciting matches of the Championships, Hernandez edged OSU's T.J. Enright in the third consolation round, 2-1, but it took two overtimes to end. Each wrestler postegd an escape in regulation, but neither could do the same in the first tiebreak period. After a second fruitless sudden victory period, Hernandez held Enright down in his portion of the second tiebreak, then scored an escape in the opening 10 seconds to post the 2-1 win.
Hernandez followed that up with a hard-fought 7-5 victory over Navy's Joseph Baker. The sophomore scored a second-period takedown to take a 6-5 lead, then rode Baker for the remainder of the contest to score a 7-5 win. He followed that up with another overtime victory, this one a 4-3 win in the first tiebreak over Illinois' Jimmy Kennedy. In the sixth round of the consolation bracket, Hernandez squared off with UT-Chattanooga's Matt Keller, and Keller scored a 9-2 victory to force Hernandez to the seventh-place match, where he will square off with fellow unseeded wrestler Jake Strayer of Penn State.
Becker faced Ryan Morningstar in his first consolation match and scored a 2-0 decision to stay alive in his bid for a third straight All-America selection. Becker rode Morningstar out in the second, then escaped in the first 15 seconds of the third and sprawled off a good shot by Morningstar to hold on for the win. Becker then scored a 7-1 victory over Seth Martin of Lock Haven, fighting through injury time and scoring a three-point near fall in the third period. With All-America status on the line, Becker drew old nemesis CP Schlatter of Minnesota, who bested Becker for the Big Ten title two weeks prior. Schlatter scored the victory over Becker, 3-2, using a first-period takedown to walk away with the victory and deny Becker All-America status. He finished his junior season with a 30-8 record for his second 30-win season.
At 184, Marc Bennett started his day in the consolation brackets with a pair of falls, pinning Joseph Rovelli of Hofstra at the 4:25 mark and then dropping Jack Jensen of Oklahoma State at 2:22 to face Joshua Armone of Cornell for his first All-America nod. Unfortunately, Bennett's championship run ended when Armone returned the favor by pinning the junior in 1:24 and stopping Bennett one match shy of being an All-American for the first time. Bennett finished his junior campaign with a 33-13 mark and eight pins.
Heavyweight Josh Buuck's second day at the NCAA Championships ended on a sour note, as Buuck was downed by injury default in the first period of his match against UT-Chattanooga's Matt Koz.
Session 5 of the NCAA Championships will begin at 10 a.m. EDT on Saturday, March 17.
Players Mentioned
