Third session colsolation wrap - NCAA National Championships
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Gary Abbott (USA Wrestling)
03/22/2002
Friday morning consolation wrapup There are two ways to score team points at the NCAA Championships, through the championship bracket and through the consolation bracket. In some years, wrestling back for All-American honors has been a key to team victory. Last year, Minnesota won the team title without a finalist. The only Western team to ever win a NCAA team title, Arizona State, did the trick through successful wrestleback performances. This year, with a number of teams bunched near the top, these matches mean so much in the final standings. And, as always, for each kid in the consis, this is gut-check time in the quest for All-American honors. Minnesota, which had 10 All-Americans last year, did not survive the morning will its entire team. In fact, they lost three athletes this morning. In the first consolation round, Nate Baker lost to Chris Vitale of Lehigh 8-3 at 165 pounds. In the following consolation round, No. 2 Leroy Vega was knocked out of the meet in a 3-2 loss to Chris Rodrigues of North Carolina. Vega was attempting to be a four-time All-American, but fell short in his senior season. Also going down in this round was Jacob Volkman at 174 pounds, a loser 5-3 to Terry Parham of Air Force. Like Vega, Volkman was one of the 10 Gopher All-Americans last year. There are some key battles between contending teams. In the first consolation round, Mark Knauer of Iowa State scored in the last few seconds to beat James Huml of Oklahoma State, 5-4 at heavyweight. In the next round, Knauer scored a last-second takedown to tie Kevin Hoy of Air Force at 3-3, but lost the match on a locked hands call in the tiebreaker. In the second consolation round, Oklahoma's Michael Barger edged Oklahoma State's Ty Wilcox, 3-1 at 174 pounds. Barger scored a takedown in the last 10 seconds for the win. The Cowboys also lost a match at 197 pounds (Willie Gruenwald), a big downer for after a very strong quarterfinal performance. The 174 class was also fatal for Iowa State, where Nick Passalano was knocked off by Oregon State's Nathan Coy, 2-0 Oklahoma did not survive unscathed, as Tom Grossman was taken out at 197 pounds by Steve Schenk of Cal Poly, 6-4. Iowa showed some pride, with wins from Luke Moffitt (141) and Matt Anderson (157). Michigan's meltdown continued in this round after the quarterfinal disappointment, as AJ Grant (125) Foley Dowd (133) and Charles Martelli (165) were all eliminated. Last year's NCAA heavyweight champion John Lockhart of Illinois kept his career alive with another consolation win, and will live to see another session. That scary part about this round is that the winners of these very tough bouts have still not earned All-American honors. They will be facing the losers from this morning's quarterfinals. This