University of Minnesota Athletics
3/18/2002 12:00:00 AM | Athletics
Minnesota's first round match-ups are below. The full brackets for the 2002 NCAA Championships can be viewed at www.intermatwrestle.com.
125 pounds - No. 2 seed Leroy Vega vs. Jared Opfer (Kent State)
133 - No. 1 seed Ryan Lewis vs. Joe Cristaldi (Drexel)
141 - No. 8 seed Chad Erikson vs. Chad Caros (Edinboro)
149 - No. 2 seed Jared Lawrence vs. Greg Austin (Rutgers)
157 - No. 3 seed Luke Becker vs. Gabe Webster (Cornell)
165 - Nate Baker vs. Pierre Pryor (NC State)
174 - No. 8 seed Jacob Volkmann vs. Luke Moore (Ohio)
184 - No. 2 seed Damion Hahn vs. Ali Abri (Boston U.)
197 - No. 3 seed Owen Elzen vs. Nick Ciarcia (Brown)
HWT - No. 4 seed Garrett Lowney - BYE - will face the winner of Boe Rushton (Boise State) vs. Craig Tefft (Binghamton) in the second round
The top-ranked and defending NCAA Champion Golden Gophers head to Albany with a full lineup. Minnesota enters the national meet as defending champs and the prohibitive favorite in 2002. The Maroon and Gold is aiming to become the first back-to-back national champions in school history since the 1940 and 1941 Minnesota football teams won consecutive national titles. Minnesota closed out its first-ever unbeaten dual meet season at 19-0 overall and captured its second consecutive Big Ten Dual Meet Championship with an 8-0 record in the conference. The Golden Gophers then won their second consecutive Big Ten Championship with 174 points to second-place Iowa's 129. Five Minnesota wrestlers won their first individual conference titles in the tournament.
