Iowa clinches NCAA wrestling championship

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By Jim Nelson | Saturday, March 22, 2008 |

ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Iowa stood over the rest of the field at the Division I National Wrestling Championships like Muhammad Ali over a defeated opponent.

Tom Brands and Hawkeyes, however, haven’t dropped their gloves.

Brands wouldn’t admit it, but barring disaster, Iowa had all but clinched its 21st national wrestling championship Friday at the Scottrade Center.

The Hawkeyes advanced three wrestlers into the finals and are guarenteed their most all-Americans (seven) since 2001.

Iowa holds a 31-point lead over Ohio State, 102-71, and if that lead stays, it would be the first title for the Hawkeyes since they won in 2000, in St. Louis.

The Buckeyes, mathmatically, can’t catch Iowa, and Iowa State, which is third with 68 points, would have to win every match it has left by fall while seeing the Hawkeyes lose all their remaining matches to catch up.

So, for all intensive purposes, the fat lady is ready to sing.

Brands sees it a little differently.

“The team race isn’t over as far as I am concerned. When I say that I’m not talking about mathmatically, I’m talking about letting your guard down,” Brands, Iowa’s coach said. “We have to keep our sense of urgency and keep our edge, keep competing.”

Joe Slaton at 133, Brent Metcalf at 149 and Mark Perry at 165 all will wrestle for the top of the podium tonight.

The Hawkeyes four other all-Americans — Charlie Falck, Jay Borschel, Phil Keddy and Matt Fields — can finish no worse than sixth.

Metcalf liked what he saw from his teammates.

“That’s our goal,” he said of his team’s mission to restore Iowa’s national championship tradition. “That’s my goal. That’s the entire program’s goal. We want to regain the dominating force that Iowa had in the past ... and we’re proving it here.”

Slaton advanced to the finals by avenging a Big Ten semifinal loss to Michigan State’s Franklin Gomez to move into the 133-pound final.

After the two wrestled to 1-all deadlock in regulation, Slaton scored a takedown 29 seconds into overtime to win.

“I had a tough time getting to him, but I stayed on the attack and it paid off,” Slaton said.

Slaton moves on to face Coleman Scott of Oklahoma State.

Metcalf gave up an early takedown to Nebraska’s Jordan Burroughs, but dominated the rest of the way out en route to a 8-4 victory.

“You get scored on early then you’ve really go to come on strong,” he said. “You can’t let the match go on longer and longer because he’ll get more comfortable.”

Metcalf will face Penn State’s Bubba Jenkins in the championship match.

Perry, the defending champion, scored a takedown with 14 seconds left to beat Missouri’s Nick Marable.

“I didn’t do a real good job of creating action ... didn’t wrestle the way I wanted,” Perry said. “He’s tough to wrestle ... I finally got him in a flurry ... got the takedown.”

Perry will get to a rematch with Michigan’s Eric Tannenbaum in the finals. Tannenbaum beat Perry in the Big Ten finals.

As much as his personal goal of repeating is alive, Perry said he’s happier for the team.

“My No. 1 goal coming into this season was to win a national team title,” he said. “To help out and contribute means the world to me.“

Iowa State, after suffering a dismal quarterfinal round when it saw five of six wrestlers lose, rallied in the night session to see seven Cyclones earn all-American honors, the most in program history since 1993.

“Yeah, we were down there for a while ... it wasn’t pretty,” said Cyclone coach Cael Sanderson. “We knew we would be able to comeback and score some points. We had a big round tonight, and we just need to keep our head up and keep plugging away.“

ISU sophomore Jake Varner will wrestle in his second consecutive 184-pound final after beating Central Michigan’s Christian Sinnott 4-2.

Nick Fanthorpe, Nick Gallick, Cyler Sanderson, Jon Reader, David Bertolino and David Zabriskie also earned spots on Saturday’s championship podium.

Northern Iowa’s Moza Fay overcame a disappointing quarterfinal loss to become the Panthers’ first all-American since Eric Hauan and Sean Stender in 2005.

A year after losing in the round of 12, one match short of all-American honors, Fay used that loss as motivation to overcome.

He stormed back in the consolation round with a major decision over Patrick Pitsch of Arizona State, 10-2, to earn his spot on the podium.

Fay, a junior, then capped off his night by pinning Nebraska’s Stephen Dwyer in 2:39 to guarentee himself of finishing no worse than sixth.

“I just kept on thinking about last year and being in that same situation,” said Fay. “I was just thinking ... about my time at UNI ... about all the great wrestlers who never became all-Ameircans and how frustrating that is to see.

“And I didn’t want that to happen to me, again. So this one, that win, is for all those guys.“

The Panthers nearly had two all-Americans, but Alex Dolly’s strong push on the backside fell one match short as he dropped a 7-4 decision to Brandon Sinnott of Central Michigan in the round of 12.

Dolly had rallied twice earlier in the day for dramatic victories pinning Stanford’s Luke Feist in 5:53 after trailing all of the of the match. He then was behind Minnesota’s Gabe Dretsch, 5-2, in the second period when he used a five-point lateral drop to storm back for a 10-6 victory.

“There is nobody I’m more proud of than Alex Dolly,” said UNI head coach Brad Penrith. “I’m hoping all of our guys watched and saw the way he competed today. He never stopped wrestling. He never quit. Alex left everything he had out on the mat.“

Fay, who has two major decisions and two pins in his four NCAA victories, will next wrestle third-seeded Nick Marable of Missouri.

The Panthers are in 19th place with 26 points and are eyeing their best NCAA finish since 2005 when it was 15th.