Indiana University
NCAA Championships
Three Hoosiers Earn All-America Status
3/17/2007 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 17, 2007
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Sophomore Andrae Hernandez (133) and redshirt freshmen Angel Escobedo (125) and Matt Coughlin (149) all finished eighth or higher at the 2007 NCAA Championships to earn their first All-America selections. Escobedo led all Hoosiers by finishing fourth at the event, while Coughlin took seventh and Hernandez was eighth. The Hoosiers finished 14th at the Championships with 41.0 points, marking the second time in the last three years that IU has finished in the top 15 and the third straight season Indiana has been in the top 20.
Escobedo started Saturday with a bout against Jayson Ness, the Big Ten champion, with a spot in the third-place match on the line. After a scoreless first, Escobedo started on top and quickly earned a two-point near fall to take a second-period lead. After Ness scored a reversal, Escobedo started down in the third and earned an escape to hold a 3-2 lead. The Griffith, Ind., native scored two more takedowns to clinch a 7-3 victory.
In the third-place match, Escobedo drew Cornell's Troy Nickerson, who defeated Escobedo in the championship bracket. Once again, Nickerson held Escobedo at bay with a 3-0 shutout victory as he scored a second-period takedown and a third-period escape. Escobedo finished the season 39-7, and his fourth-place finish at nationals is the highest finish by an IU freshman since the 1930s.
In the seventh-place match, Coughlin drew fourth seed Jordan Leen, who he defeated in the third-place match at the Cliff Keen Las Vegas. Coughlin got the better of the Cornell wrestler again at NCAAs, scoring an 11-6 victory with five takedowns and a riding time point to earn All-America status in his NCAA debut. In an up-and-down year for the redshirt freshman, Coughlin finished his season 31-16, one of five Hoosiers to finish the year with 30 wins.
At 133, Hernandez went face-to-face with Penn State's Jake Strayer for seventh in a battle between unseeded wrestlers. Strayer made the suspense go away quickly though, as he scored a first-period takedown and fought for a fall at the 2:48 mark of the first to give Hernandez an eighth-place finish. He finished his sophomore campaign 30-16.
The Indiana wrestling team finished its 2006-07 dual-meet campaign with a 13-5 record including a 4-4 mark in the Big Ten. IU finished fifth at the Big Ten Championships, its second top-five finish in the last three years.
Players Mentioned
