University of Minnesota Athletics
NO. 2 WRESTLERS CRUSH NORTHWESTERN 35-6
2/18/2000 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
The evening began at 184 pounds with No. 3-ranked senior All-American Brandon Eggum against senior Tom Ciezki. After one period, Eggum led the match 8-3. In the second period, Eggum increased his lead to 16-6 and ended the match with a 23-9 major decision to give the Golden Gophers an early 4-0 lead. At 197 pounds, sophomore Owen Elzen was leading Matt Huebner 2-1 at the end of the first period. After scoring two nearfalls, Elzen increased his lead to 9-2 with 3:01 minutes of riding time. Elzen defeated Huebner with a 14-2 major decision.
Heavyweight All-American Brock Lesnar came out and scored a quick five points before pinning Josh Saul in 1:15 to give Minnesota six team points and increase the lead to 14-0. Sophomore All-American Leroy Vega scored several quick takedowns and defeated Rob Potashnick with a technical fall decision 20-4 in 4:04. At 133 pounds junior Brett Lawrence, ranked 11th nationally, wrestled a close match with John Giaache.k At the end of two periods the score was tied at two with 1:37 minutes of riding time for Lawrence. After regulation, Lawrence and Giaache were tied at four. Lawrence scored a quick takedown to win the match 6-4 in overtime.
At 141 pounds, sophomore Chad Erikson, ranked 12th nationally, had the toughest challenge of the night against No. 1-ranked Scott Schatzman. After one period, Erikson scored a takedown and a nearfall to lead 5-1. At the end of the second, Erikson held on to a 7-5 lead. A takedown late in the third period was the difference in the third as Schatzman won the match with a 12-10 decision.
Redshirt freshman Jared Lawrence, ranked fifth nationally, took care of Nick Scacco at 149 pounds with a quick pin in 2:00 to increase the Golden Gopher lead to 28-3. Next up was redshirt freshman Luke Becker at 157 pounds. Becker, ranked ninth nationally, wrestled Drew Pariano to a 4-4 tie at the end of second period. Becker scored a takedown and two more points on the nearfall to increase his lead to 9-5. Becker won the match with a 15-6 major decision.
At 165 pounds, junior Brad Pike faced Will Marcantel. Pike, ranked 11th nationally, defeated Will Marcantel with a 10-4 decision. Finishing out the match was senior Delaney Berger, ranked 14th nationally at 174 pounds against No. 12-ranked Mark Bybee. Bybee came away with the victory defeating Berger with a 7-2 decision.
No. 2-ranked Minnesota will wrestle No. 1 Iowa Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. in Williams Arena.
No. 2 Minnesota 35, Northwestern 6 Fairmont, Minn. 184 - No. 3 Brandon Eggum (MINN) maj. dec. Tom Ciezki (NW) 23-9 197 - No. 9 Owen Elzen (MINN) maj. dec. Matt Huebner (NW) 14-2 HWT - No.1 Brock Lesnar (MINN) pinned Josh Saul (NW) 1:15 125 - No. 3 Leroy Vega (MINN) tech. fall Rob Potashnick (NW) 20-4; 4:04 133 - No. 11 Brett Lawrence (MINN) dec. John Giaache (NW) 6-4 OT 141 - No. 1 Scott Schatzman (NW) dec. No. 12 Chad Erikson (MINN) 12-10 149 - No. 5 Jared Lawrence (MINN) pinned Nick Scacco (NW) 2:00 157 - No. 9 Luke Becker (MINN) maj. dec. Drew Pariano (NW) 15-6 165 - No. 11 Brad Pike (MINN) dec. Will Marcantel (NW) 10-4 174 - No. 12 Mark Bybee (NW) dec. No. 14 Delaney Berger (MINN) 7-2
