University of Minnesota Athletics
GOLDEN GOPHER WRESTLERS PREPARE FOR THE NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS
3/15/2000 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
TOP 15 TOURNAMENT TEAMS: The top 15 tournament teams ranked according to the latest NWCA poll include: Iowa, Minnesota, Iowa State, Oklahoma, Illinois, Oklahoma State, Michigan State, Michigan, Northern Iowa, Edinboro, Nebraska, Lehigh, Arizona State, Cal-State Bakersfield and Pennsylvania.
MINNESOTA'S RISE TO THE TOP AT NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: The Golden Gopher wrestling team has never won the NCAA title. The previous two years Minnesota has placed second including last year's second place finish to Iowa by 1.5 points. The past two years Minnesota has also recorded a school record with six All- Americans. The nine qualifiers for Minnesota is not a school record. Three years ago the team qualified all 10 weight classes for the championships. The past two years Minnesota has also had a NCAA Champion, in Tim Hartung. This year the Golden Gophers hope to add at least one more name to that pretigious list.
THE PRESTIGIOUS ALL-AMERICA HONOR: The top eight places at the NCAA Championships are awarded All-America honors. The past two years, Minnesota had a school-record six All-Americans, this weekend the Golden Gophers will look to break that record. In 1997, Minnesota had a previous school-record five All- Americans. In 1993, the Golden Gophers had four All-Americans. Dating back to 1937, Minnesota has had six years with three All- Americans, nine with two All- Americans and 12 years with a single All-American. There have also been 25 years mixed in that span when Minnesota has not produced any All-Americans.
NATIONAL CHAMPIONS: Minnesota has had 10 individual national champions in its history dating back to 1937. Two wrestlers have won back-to-back national championships in Verne Gagne and Tim Hartung. Gagne won the title at 191 pounds in 1948 and also won it in 1949, while Hartung won titles in 1998- 99 at 197 pounds.
MINNESOTA FINISHES SECOND AT BIG TENS: `At the Big Ten Championships, Minnesota came close to defending its title, but was short finishing second with 132.5 points to Iowa's 140.5 points. The Golden Gophers had five wrestlers reach the title match: Jared Lawrence (149), Luke Becker (157), Brad Pike (165), Brandon Eggum (184) and Brock Lesnar (HWT). Seniors Eggum and Lesnar successfully defended their individual titles, while the other three placed second. Lawrence received the Big Ten Freshman of the Year award, the first Golden Gopher to earn such honors since Keith Nix in 1988. Four other wrestlers placed in the meet. Sophomore Leroy Vega placed third at 125 points, Brett Lawrence placed fifth at 133 pounds, senior Delaney Berger placed fifth at 174 pounds and sophomore Owen Elzen placed fifth at 197 pounds.
HEAD COACH J ROBINSON: Minnesota Head Coach J Robinson has built quite the wrestling dynasty at Minnesota. In his 14th season, Robinson has one of his best teams ready to make a run at a first-ever NCAA Championship. The past five years, the Golden Gophers have finished at least third in the NCAA Championships. The past two years Minnesota placed second, the highest finish ever in the wrestling program. Along with winning the Big Ten Championships in 1999, the first time in 40 years, Robinson has led Minnesota to four second place finishes at the conference meet. Robinson has won Big Ten Coach of the Year four times in his career: 1989, 1994, 1997 and last year. He currently has compiled a 202-80-3 overall record and 68-41-2 in the Big Ten. Robinson has coached two NCAA Champions (Tim Hartung and Marty Morgan) and has coached 23 All-Americans in his tenure.
DOMINANACE: Minnesota senior All-American heavyweight Brock Lesnar finished the season with a near flawless record of 26-1 overall and led the team with 12 pins. Lesnar is currently ranked No. 1 in the nation according to Amateur Wrestling News and second according to Intermat. He is also 19-1 in dual meets and 7- 1 in the Big Ten. He has won three matches by major decision and one by technical fall. In 23 dual matches, Lesnar has scored 93 points. Lesnar's lone loss occurred in the final meet of the season to No. 3-ranked Wes Hand of Iowa, a 5-3 decision. Two weeks ago, Lesnar successfully defended his Big Ten title defeating Hand 2-1 in the title match.
A TALE OF TWO BROTHERS: Minnesota like several other wrestling programs, has several sets of brothers on the team. This year, two of them are both starters for the Golden Gophers. Junior Brett Lawrence starts at 133 pounds, while redshirt freshman Jared Lawrence is the starter at 149 pounds. Both are from Sandpoint, Idaho. Brett is ranked 14th nationally with an overall record of 27-12 and is 11-8 in dual meets with five pins. Jared, ranked fourth, is 29-6 overall and 15-4 in dual meets with nine pins. Jared finished the season undefeated in the Big Ten, while Brett was 5-3 in conference meets.
Two weeks ago, Brett and Jared both qualified for their first NCAA Tournament. Brett placed fifth at 133 and Jared placed second at 149, earning Big Ten Freshman of the Year honors.
ROBINSON REACHES WIN NO. 200: The Golden Gophers and head coach J Robinson reached win No. 200 with a 32-6 victory over No. 9 Michigan in Ann Arbor, Mich. Robinson's career mark 202-80- 3 overall.
BECKER IS ON THE RISE: Redshirt freshman Luke Becker is making a name for himself in his first season as a member of the starting lineup. Becker is ranked eighth nationally at 157 pounds. In the final meet of the season he faced No. 1-ranked T.J. Williams of Iowa. Becker led the match 10- 9 in the final seconds, but with not even one second remaining the official signaled a reversal for Williams, giving him the 11-10 decision. It was Becker's lone loss in the Big Ten. The rematch came in the Big Ten title match at 157 pounds. This time Williams was too much defeating Becker with a 10-4 decision. Becker qualified for his first NCAA Tournament.
EMERGING ELZEN: Sophomore Owen Elzen has also made his name become well-known over the past month. Elzen, ranked 10th at 197 pounds, beat Iowa's Lee Weber, ranked 11th, 8-4 in the final match of the season. Elzen finished the year with a 28- 13 overall record, a 10-7 dual meet record and a 4-4 mark in the Big Ten. At the Big Ten Championships, Elzen went 3-2 placing fifth and qualifying for his first NCAA Tournament.
LAWRENCE CONTINUES TO DOMINATE: Redshirt freshman Jared Lawrence is having a very successful season with a 29-6 overall mark, including a 15-4 dual meet mark and a flawless 8- 0 mark in the Big Ten. Lawrence, along with Brandon Eggum, were the only two Golden Gophers to finish the season with undefeated mark in the Big Ten. He finished the regular dual meet schedule with a 12-match win streak. The last match he lost was an 11-4 decision to Oklahoma State's Reggie Wright. Two weeks ago, Lawrence defeated No. 3-ranked Mike Zadick of Iowa with an 8-4 decision. He went 2-1 at the Big Ten Tournament and lost to Illinois' Adam Tirapelle 4-2 in the title match to place second and qualify for his first NCAA Tournament. Lawrence also earned Big Ten Freshman of the Year, the first time a Minnesota wrestler has received the award since 1988 with Keith Nix.
PIKE'S PEAK: Junior Brad Pike is in his first year with the starting lineup at Minnesota. The 165- pounder has made his way into the national rankings this year and will look to reach the title match of the Big Ten Championships this weekend. Of his four losses on the year, two of them are to Big Ten opponents. Pike lost to Peter Rogers of Ohio State 1-0 and to Wisconsin's Don Pritzlaff 7-3. Pike is currently 16-5 overall with a dual meet mark of 10-3. Two weeks ago Pike had his revenge with both Roger and Pritzlaff. Pike faced Rogers in the semifinals, defeating him with a 3-2 decision to advance to the championship match. In that match, Pike faced Pritzlaff but lost the match with a 6-2 decision. Pike, second at 165 pounds, qualified for his first NCAA Tournament.
VEGA ON A VENGEANCE: Sophomore All-American Leroy Vega has compiled a 32-4 overall record with a dual meet record of 17-3. His three losses all came within three points. Vega's first loss was to Jeremy Hunter of Penn State, a 4-1 loss at University Park, Pa. His second loss came at National Duals to Oklahoma State's Jeff Ragan, an 8-8 tie in two overtimes with Ragan winning the match. In the last dual meet of the year, Vega led his match with Iowa's Jody Strittmatter, but ended up losing with a 9-6 decision. Vega got his re-match with Strittmatter in the semifinals at the Big Ten Championships. Strittmatter edged Vega with an 8-5 decision bumping Vega into the consolation bracket. From there Vega placed third after defeating Pat Cassidy with a 3-2 decision and qualifying for his second NCAA Tournament.
DEFENDING HIS TITLE: Senior All- American Brandon Eggum is one of two returning Big Ten Champions from last year's Big Ten title winning team. Eggum has suffered only four losses on the year, three of which are to Cael Sanderson, the defending NCAA Champion and the No. 1-ranked wrestler at 184 pounds. Eggum finished the Big Ten season with an undefeated mark of 8-0. Two weeks ago, Eggum successfully defended his Big Ten title when Illinois' Nate Patrick could not compete due to injury handing Eggum the Big Ten title at 184 pounds. Eggum qualified for his fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament.
CLIMBING THE ALL-TIME CAREER MARKS: Senior Brandon Eggum is climbing the all-time career victories list tied for 13th place with a 110-22-0 with Marty Morgan (1988-91) with a career mark of 110-12-0. Eggum could move into tie for 12th place with just one more win with Brett Columbini (1991-95) with a career mark of 111-33-0.
STREAK ENDS: The Golden Gophers started the year with a 12-0 dual match undefeated streak before losing to Iowa State Sunday at the National Duals Tournament. Before the match, Minnesota was riding a 23-dual match win streak dating back to last season. The 23-dual match win streak was the longest in Golden Gopher history. Previously, Minnesota had put together two 18-dual match win streaks.
BREAKING THE MARK: The University of Minnesota broke the school record in attendance by packing Williams Arena with 13,128 people Sunday afternoon against No. 1-ranked Iowa. The previous school record was set January 23, 1998, against Iowa in Williams Arena.
