Boise State's wrestling team came into the NCAA National Championships in St. Louis hoping for a top ten finish. They might do better than that.
Coach Greg Randall's Broncos are in the thick of the race after one day of
competition. The Broncos are fifth in the country with 20.5 points, behind
Iowa State's 32, Iowa (30), Ohio State (24) and Nebraska (23). Illinois
sits in sixth place with 18, Hofstra and Missouri are tied with 16, Cornell and
Edinboro have 15.5 points each and Lehigh is in 11th with 15 points. Kent State has 14 points in the very tight race, Central Michigan and Penn State have
13 each, Oklahoma and Oklahoma State have 12 while Minnesota and Northern Iowa
have 11 points apiece. Those appear to be the teams with the strongest
chance to make the final top ten.
Six of nine Broncos advanced to the second round in St. Louis and then Boise
State won six of ten matches. Only Brian Owen (125 pounds) has been
eliminated so far. Iowa State still has all 10 wrestlers alive with five
each in the championship and wrestleback brackets. Iowa has six still in
the championships round and three on consolation. Ohio State has five in
championship and four in consolation while Nebraska has four in the championship
bracket and three in consolation.
Illinois still has nine wrestlers remaining (three and six), Hofstra eight
(3-5), Missouri eight (4-4), Cornell eight (2-6), Edinboro eight (3-5), Lehigh
seven (1-6), Kent State six (3-3), Central Michigan eight (1-7), Penn State six
(2-4), Oklahoma eight (2-6), Oklahoma State eight (1-7), Minnesota five (3-2)
and Northern Iowa six (1-5).
Andrew Hochstrasser (133 pounds), Kirk Smith (184) and Brent Chriswell (197)
are still alive in the winner's bracket for the Broncos. The trio will
wrestle in the quarterfinals tomorrow morning.
Hochstrasser (30-2) came out of the gate with a fall over Kyle Hutter (22-13)
of Old Dominion and then recorded a 9-2 decision over #12 Steve Bell (25-5) of
Maryland. He meets #4 Daniel Dennis (29-4) of Iowa tomorrow.
Smith coasted to a 3-1 win over Jerome Ward of Iowa State then blanked
Vincenzo DiDona of Central Michigan in the second round. Smith takes on
#12 Vince Jones (33-6) of Nebraska tomorrow morning.
Chriswell (15-1) at 197 pounds, blasted Illinois junior Patrick Bond 9-2
before beating Luke Feist of Stanford 8-4. Chriswell wrestles vs. Missouri
junior Maxwell Asken (28-5) in the quarters tomorrow. This is a very
important match not only for Chriswell but for the Broncos as Missouri is one of
the teams chasing Boise State.
Adam Hall (33-5) nearly joined them in the quarterfinals. Hall downed
Matt Dragon of Penn 8-5 at 157 pounds and then outpointed Andrew Jones of
Michigan State 9-7. He then faced #9 Cyler Sanderson of Iowa State but
lost 4-3. Sanderson got his points from a reversal and a takedown.
Late in the match, Hall took a shot but Sanderson scrambled out of bounds to
preserve the win.
Tyler Sherfey downed Paul Young of Indiana 3-1 in his opening match at 165
pounds before suffering a 10-3 defeat to #4 Moza Fay (27-4) of Northern Iowa,
who also is in the quarterfinals tomorrow.
Nate Lee (19-4) smacked Nate Rock of Buffalo 14-4 in the opening round of the
174-pound bracket but then ran into #3 seed Brandon Browne (28-3) of
Nebraska. Lee put up an excellent fight but was defeated 9-6.
Cory Fish won two wrestleback matches but will take on the #2 wrestler in the
country--Zach Tanelli of Wisconsin. Tanelli is 26-5 this season.
Fish lost a tough 5-2 decision to #12 Drew Lashaway of Kent State, who is now in
the quarterfinals. Facing elimination, Cory then pined #11 Cody Cleveland
of Chattanooga and shut out Richard Rappo of Penn State 7-0.
Jason Chamberlain lost 5-2 to Mitch Mueller (21-8) but rebounded with a 9-3
decision over Matt Cathell of Delaware State.
Owen lost 5-0 to the defending champion at 125 pounds, Angel Escobedo of Indiana.
Escobedo is in the quarterfinals tomorrow. Owen then suffered a 9-6 loss
to Nicholas Bedelyon of Kent State.
The quarterfinals will be televised nationally on ESPNU beginning and 9 a.m. Friday morning. The semifinals will be on ESPN2 beginning Friday at 5 p.m.