NCAA Wrestling Preview
March 16, 2004 02:13 PM | General
March 16, 2004
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Seven West Virginia University wrestlers will make the journey to St. Louis to compete in the 2004 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships set to get underway Thursday afternoon.
 |
||
| Greg Jones is making his third NCAA championship appearance this week. (All-Pro Photography/Dale Sparks) |
Two WVU grapplers are making repeat visits to the national tournament in 157-pounder Matt Lebe and 184-pounder Greg Jones. Jones, a 174-pound national champion in 2002 as a freshman, notched a 2-2 record at that weight last year as a sophomore. Lebe also posted a 2-2 record at the NCAA tournament championships held in Kansas City.
Five Mountaineers will make their first trip to NCAAs: Casey Brewster (125), Joe Clarke (141), Mike Torriero (149), Zac Fryling (165) and Matt Daddino (197). Torriero and Fryling received wild card bids while the other three posted runner-up finishes at the 2004 Eastern Wrestling League Championships in Bloomsburg, Pa.
This year’s seven qualifiers were the most among Eastern Wrestling League institutions and tied for 11th overall among all NCAA schools. Over the past three seasons, West Virginia has sent 23 different wrestlers to the NCAA championships.
Mountaineer coach Craig Turnbull has developed three NCAA champions and 16 All-Americans including two last year in Shane Cunnanan and Brandon Lauer.
WVU is eyeing a top 15 finish in St. Louis this year after posting a 17th-place finish last season with nine qualifiers. In 1996, West Virginia posted a school-best sixth-place team finish.
The defending team champion is Oklahoma State with Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota and Nebraska challenging for the 2004 title. But expect a lot more twisting, turning and squirming before all is decided at the end of Saturday. A crowd expected in the range of 18 to 20,000 of the most loyal wrestling fans in the country will be on hand to witness the pressure of competing on the national stage.
Senior Casey Brewster assumes the 125-pound slot for WVU with an overall record of 16-11. In round one, Brewster will face No. 5-seed Sam Hazewinkel from Oklahoma. Hazewinkel won the Big XII as a freshman and has a record of 30-4 entering the tournament. There is no clear-cut favorite in the 125-pound weight class with last year’s NCAA champion Travis Lee of Cornell moving up to 133 pounds. The top four seeds: Jason Powell (Nebraska), Luke Eustice (Iowa), Matt Valenti (Penn) and Tom Clum (Wisconsin), along with Hazewinkel are the favorites.
Senior Joe Clarke enters a loaded 141-pound weight class that returns sophomore Teyon Ware, the defending NCAA champion as a No. 3 seed. Clarke awaits the winner of a pigtail bout between No. 9-seed Cory Cooperman from Lehigh and Michael Martin of Illinois. Cooperman, a junior, placed second at the EIWA Championships and is expected to advance to face Clarke. The top two seeds are Virginia’s Scott Moore and Iowa State’s Nate Gallick.
Senior Mike Torriero joins a 149-pound bracket dominated by two grapplers who received plenty of national attention. Harvard’s Jesse Jantzen and Oklahoma State’s Zack Esposito are the No. 1 and 2 seeds in what many expect will be a spirited finals match. Torriero faces No. 5-seed Trent Paulson from Iowa State in the opening round. Torriero will try to upset Paulson, who started the season with 20 straight wins in his freshman debut for the Cyclones.
Earning a tough No. 9 seed is Lebe. He enters a talented 157-pound pool that includes defending NCAA champion Ryan Bertin of Michigan as a No. 3 seed; Alex Tirapelle (Illinois) and Matt Gentry (Stanford) have claimed the top two positions.
Lebe, who leads the team in wins with a 28-7 mark entering the tournament, gets a revenge match against Iowa’s Joe Johnston. Johnston eliminated Lebe a year ago at NCAAs and could have possibly been seeded this year. An All-American finish from Lebe would be more than impressive in this bracket.
True freshman Zac Fryling makes his national debut in a senior-heavy 165-pound bracket. Seven of the projected top 10 seeds from this year are seniors including Oklahoma State’s Tyrone Lewis and Edinboro’s Matt King. Sophomore Troy Letters from Lehigh is the No. 2 seed. Fryling faces perhaps the toughest opening match of any Mountaineer wrestler squaring off against No. 4-seeded All-American Jacob Volkmann, from Minnesota.
Greg Jones makes his third trip to the national stage and his first moving up one weight class to 184 pounds. Jones, the tournament’s top-seeded 184-pounder, drew Frank Cornely from Duke as his round-one opponent. Jones is undefeated at 21-0 and has put the pressure on defending 184-pound champion Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State. Rosholt and Jones have not faced one another on the mat. Also challenging for the title will be Ben Heizer of Northern Illinois and Eric Bradley of Penn State, both of whom Jones has defeated this season.
Junior Matt Daddino enters the 197-pound bracket with a match against North Carolina State’s Zach Garren. The ACC runner-up, Garren owns a record of 15-12 as a freshman. The top three seeds in the 197-pound division include defending NCAA champion Damion Hahn of Minnesota, Chris Skretkowicz of Hofstra and Sean Stender from Northern Iowa. Stender, the No. 3 seed, could face Daddino should Daddino win his opening round match.
This year marks the second time St. Louis and the Savvis Center serve as hosts for the NCAA Wrestling Championships. In 2000, St. Louis set an NCAA Division I Championships all-time total attendance record of 96,994. That year the Mountaineers posted a 22nd-place team finish.
