University of Minnesota Athletics
Nebraska Beats Gophers 24-13 in National Duals Semifinal
1/13/2008 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
The No. 6 Golden Gophers' quest for a third-straight National Duals title came to an end Sunday at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls, Iowa, as Minnesota was upset by No. 10 Nebraska 24-13 in the semifinals. Despite a dramatic win by No. 3 Jayson Ness over defending national champion Paul Donahue at 125 pounds, the Gophers were done in by key losses at 174 and 184 pounds.
The Cornhuskers advanced to face Iowa in the championship (which will get underway at 3 p.m.) while Minnesota now takes on Michigan in the third-place meet, beginning at 1 p.m.
Check out gophersports.com's match-by-match description of Sunday's semifinal meet:
125 Pounds:
The day's most highly anticipated match also happened to be the first, as two top-three wrestlers (Minnesota's Ness and Nebraska's Donahue) meet to open the action. Ness is awarded a point for Donahue's stalling with about a minute remaining in the first, but the rest of the period goes by scoreless. After Donahue earns an escape to start the second, the duo locks horns for the remainder of another scoreless frame. With the matched tied at one entering the third period, Ness is nearly taken down (the referee nearly even signals so), but instead earns an escape to go up 2-1. A roar erupted from the Minnesota crowd with approximately a minute to go when Ness earned a dramatic takedown to go up 4-1. After Donahue escaped Ness' hold, Donahue earned his first takedown with only 24 seconds remaining to tie the match at four and send it to sudden death.
In the overtime period, Ness quickly gained position on top of Donahue, and after 30 seconds of posturing, was able to get free and take down the nation's top wrestler for the 6-4 win.
133 Pounds:
The dual's next match is between No. 5 Mack Reiter of the Gophers and eighth-ranked Kenny Jordan of Nebraska. These two had an epic battle Dec. 6 in Minneapolis, with a last-second Reiter takedown deciding the outcome of the match. Today, the pair sparred through a scoreless first period until Jordan took a 2-0 lead with a nifty reversal to open the second period of wrestling. Jordan did not relinquish his position on top of Reiter for nearly the entire second period, building up 1:55 worth of riding time. Reiter earned an escape with only one second to go in the middle period to make the score 2-1 entering the third.
Jordan tried a shot with 1:20 to go in the third, but was corralled and taken down by Reiter. The Gopher senior allowed an escape to make the score 3-3, but Reiter pulled out the late heroics once again - he took Jordan down with about 15 seconds to go and even picked up a three-point nearfall, making the final score 8-4.
141 Pounds:
Minnesota’s lightweight dominance continued at 141 pounds, as Manny Rivera took on unranked Mike Rowe of Nebraska. Rowe upset No. 2 Jake Strayer of Penn State yesterday but could not duplicate the effort Sunday against Rivera. Manny led 4-2 after one period and opened up a 9-3 edge after two on the strength of a takedown and two-point nearfall, holding on for the 10-6 win with the riding time point.
149 Pounds:
True freshman Luke Mellmer faced a tall order in No. 6 Jordan Burroughs at 149 pounds, the same wrestler that nearly beat top-ranked Dustin Schlatter when the pair met in December. Mellmer did his best to avoid the pin and succeeded in that regard down 18-9 after one period (surrendering 8 takedowns and a nearfall), he was quickly beaten via tech fall with 1:36 remaining in the second period, making the final score 24-9 and making the dual meet score 9-5.
157 Pounds:
Minnesota needed a bounce-back effort from No. 6 C.P. Schlatter at 157 pounds, and he delivered with a 10-2 win over No. 17 Chris Oliver. Schlatter got on the board first with a takedown at the 2:12 mark, and then picks up another 2:40 in to make the score 4-1 after a period. The pair locked each other up for most of the middle period before Schlatter took Oliver down again with 30 seconds left in the second (making the score 6-1 and pushing Schlatter’s riding time advantage to a full two minutes). Oliver didn’t escape until 1:30 was left in the third, but by then it was too late a stalling point, takedown and riding time point gave Schlatter the 10-2 major decision.
165 Pounds:
In a match-up between two 2007 NCAA qualifiers, Minnesota’s Tyler Safratowich faced off with No. 8 Stephen Dwyer of Nebraska (who beat Scott Glasser in the Gopher-Cornhusker dual in December). An illegal hold gave Safratowich in the only point in an otherwise-scoreless first. Safratowich was forced to take an injury time-out halfway through the second period and could not must an escape, keeping the score 1-0 after two frames. Dwyer started down in the third and tied the score with an escape, and eventually wore down Safratowich enough to score a takedown with 20 seconds left to win 4-1 (including a riding time point).
174 Pounds:
Tenth-ranked Gabe Dretsch looked to build off his impressive upset win yesterday in his match against No. 5 Brandon Browne. Browne beat Dretsch 5-2 in their match earlier this season, and ended up on top once again today. The two gangly wrestlers sized each other up during a scoreless first, and Browne went ahead 1-0 with an escape after starting down in the second. Dretsch tied the score with an escape of his own to open the third, but Browne finally got hold of Dretsch and took him down with only 20 seconds remaining. Browne earns his second win of the year over Dretsch by a score of 3-2.
184 Pounds:
In desperate need of a win, the Gophers turned to senior captain and two-time All-American Roger Kish at 184 pounds. Kish defeated his opponent, No. 10 Vince Jones, by a 6-2 decision earlier this season and jumped out to an early lead Sunday as well. Kish’s takedown was followed by a somewhat-lengthy injury time out. Neither wrestler was able to mount much offensively in the second period, making the score 2-1 entering the third.
The Gopher senior appeared to tire as the match neared an end, and Jones was able score a dramatic takedown with only four seconds remaining to pick up the 3-2 upset win and give Nebraska a 17-13 lead in the dual.
197 Pounds:
The Gophers needed an upset win by Justin Bronson to salvage their hopes of winning the dual, as he took on No. 4 Craig Brester. However, Bronson quickly fell behind 6-1 after a period and was overpowered by the top-five wrestler. Bronson could not manage an offensive point and was beat by major decision, 13-4, to give Nebraska an insurmountable 21-13 lead in the meet.
Hwt:
The Gopher coaching staff gave Yura Malamura another shot at heavyweight with the meet’s outcome already decided, this time against No. 19 Jon May. May narrowly defeated Ben Berhow 6-5 on Dec. 6, but used his 75-pound weight advantage to beat the Gopher junior 5-1 and make the final score 24-13.
#6 Minnesota 13, #10 Nebraska 24
125: #3 Jayson Ness (MN) dec. #1 Paul Donahue (NEB), 6-4 (OT)
133: #5 Mack Reiter (MN) dec. #8 Kenny Jordan (NEB), 8-4
141: #4 Manuel Rivera (MN) dec. Mike Rowe (NEB), 10-6
149: #7 Jordan Burroughs (NEB) tech. fall Luke Mellmer (MN), 24-9
157: #6 C.P. Schlatter (MN) maj. dec. #17 Chris Oliver (NEB), 10-2
165: #8 Stephen Dwyer (NEB) dec. Tyler Safratowich (MN), 4-1
174: #5 Brandon Browne (NEB) dec. #10 Gabe Dretsch (MN), 3-2
184: #10 Vince Jones (NEB) dec. #2 Roger Kish (MN), 3-2
197: #4 Craig Brester (NEB) maj. dec. Justin Bronson (MN), 13-4
Hwt: #19 Jon May (NEB) dec. Yura Malamura (MN), 5-1
Players Mentioned
