Wrestling places third at Regionals, will send six to Division II National Championships in Houston |
| Posted by Administrator on Mar 04 2009 |
Photo by Josh Moody
Joey Morrison, a junior from Lincoln, made short work of rival Chadron St. grappler Ryan Zavala, a sophomore from Grand Island. Morrison defeated Zavala by pinfall, one of two pinfalls on the day for Morrison in the 133-pound weight class.
By Garrett Ritonya
Antelope Staff
Houston, we have a problem.
Actually, the problem might be for the University of Nebraska-Kearney Wrestling Team as they attempt to defend their 2008 National Championship this year at the NCAA Division II National Championships, which are being held in Houston on March 13 and 14.
UNK came into the RMAC Regionals on Saturday as seven-time defending regional champions and left partially empty-handed, qualifying only six wrestlers and finishing third overall in the eleven-team field.
Western State, ranked fourth in Division II, walked away with the team title for the first time since 1997 and will send a league-high eight wrestlers to Houston.
Leading the way for the Lopers were juniors Taylor May of Imperial and Marty Usman of Arlington, Texas, who came in as the top-seeds in their weight classes and wound up as the only two UNK champions.
"It's great to have two Regional champs because of the seeding in the national tournament," wrestling head coach Marc Bauer said. "Marty and Taylor have been huge all season for us and continued their dominance in the tournament."
With the victory, Usman eclipsed the 40-win milestone, becoming just the third wrestler in Loper history to reach that mark. The other two were All-Americans Tervel Dlagnev and Joe Ellenberger. Perhaps even more impressive than the victories is that Usman collected his 14th and 15th technical falls of the season. A technical fall is when a wrestler beats his opponent by more than 10 points in a match.
Other Lopers who punched their tickets to Houston were juniors Ryan Etherton of Lincoln, Matt Farrell of Omaha and Joey Morrison of Lincoln and senior Keenan McCurdy of Lincoln. Etherton, wrestling for the first time since Jan. 30, lost a closely contested championship bout 4-1 to take home second.
Farrell, entering the tournament as the third-seed, placed third at 197 pounds. Morrison at 133 pounds and McCurdy at 157 pounds each finished in fourth.
"We are taking six high-quality guys to the national tournament in Houston," Bauer said. "While we would have liked to have qualified more, the men that did make it will represent UNK well."
In other Regional news, top-seed and senior Paul Sutton of Wahoo tore his MCL in an early round match. He finished out the match in which the injury occurred and won miraculously. He attempted to finish the tournament, but couldn't continue, ending his UNK wrestling career.
UNK has their work cut out for them in Houston, but is hoping that the experience from last season will be a factor as they seek success.
"It's not impossible, but it will definitely be tough in repeating as champions," Bauer said. "We need six national champions, and the guys that qualified all have that potential to make it quite far in the tournament."
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