March 6, 2004
It will be a rematch of last year's NCAA Tournament Finals at 157 pounds as Illinois' top-ranked Alex Tirapelle advanced to the Big Ten Championship finals to meet defending national champion Ryan Bertin of Michigan. The Illini's 133-pounder Mark Jayne got the "Josh Moore" monkey off his back as he defeated the No. 2-seed from Penn State in dominating fashion with a 13-5 major decision to advance to the finals tomorrow afternoon in Columbus, Ohio. Illinois is fifth after two sessions, just 5.5 points behind Penn State and 6 behind Michigan. Iowa leads the team race with a dominating 115.5 points, while Minnesota is second with 97.5 points. With six wrestlers qualified, the Illini could look for a maximum of eight athletes with wins from Brian Glynn and Anton Dietzen in their placing matches.
Tirapelle earned his trip to the finals after a 3-2 win over fifth-seeded Brad Harper of Purdue. A tight match, Tirapelle had the only offensive points of the match with a takedown in the second period. Jayne will face Michigan's Foley Dowd, the tournament's No. 1-seed, in the finals. Jayne got five takedowns and scored near fall points in his win over Moore, allowing only escapes in the major decision.
The other two critical matches for the Illini on Sunday will be a pair of seventh-place matches, which determine NCAA qualification for 149-pounder Anton Dietzen and 184-pounder Brian Glynn. Glynn beat Joseph Gulotta of Northwestern, but was pinned by the fourth-seed Blake Kaplan of Ohio State to send him to the seventh-place bout to face No. 3-seed Brady Reinke of Wisconsin. Dietzen will have Josh Ballard of Northwestern in his qualifying match after losing an 11-8 decision to Darren McKnight of Michigan State.
Illinois' three additional semifinal matches were all lost in heartbreaking fashion. At 125 pounds, Kyle Ott and Tom Clum of Wisconsin were all notched at four apiece until Clum scored a takedown in the final 15 seconds to get the 6-4 win. Ott will move down to the consolations to meet Michigan's Mark Moos. Redshirt-freshman Michael Martin led 4-3 over Purdue's Doug Withstandley before a stalling point was awarded the Boilermaker to tie the match. Martin seemed to escape Withstandley's hold for a potential 5-4 win, but the point was taken back and the match went to sudden victory. Withstandley then got the winning takedown 20 seconds into the final period. Martin moves on to face Tyler Laudon of Wisconsin. At 174 pounds, sophomore Pete Friedl had a 3-1 lead on the No. 1-seeded Tyler Nixt of Iowa with 30 seconds remaining, but gave up a takedown and back points to see his lead turn to a 6-3 loss. Friedl will get Brady Richardson of Indiana in the consolation bracket.
Senior Jason Potter and Mike Behnke lost their consolation matches to be eliminated from the tournament. The third session of the Big Ten Championships will be held at Noon ET tomorrow with the finals, third and fifth-place matches to take place at 2 p.m. ET.
125: No. 3-seed #7 Kyle Ott (So., Huber Heights, Ohio) 18-4
Pigtail: Dec. Jermaine Jones (Ohio State), 5-2
Quarterfinals: No. 6-seed #11 Bobbe Lowe (Minnesota), 11-8
Semifinals: Lost to No. 2-seed #4 Tom Clum (Wisconsin), 6-4
Consolation Quarterfinals: No. 5-seed #5 Mark Moos (Michigan)
133: No. 3-seed #5 Mark Jayne (Jr., Elyria, Ohio) 27-2
Quarterfinals: Won by forfeit No. 6-seed Jesse Leng
Semifinals: Major dec. No. 2-seed #4 Josh Moore (Penn State), 13-5
Finals: No. 1-seed #2 Foley Dowd (Michigan)
141: No. 6-seed Michael Martin (r-Fr., Norfolk, Va.) 15-14
Quarterfinals: Dec. No. 3-seed #9 Coyte Cooper (Indiana), 10-8 SV
Semifinals: Lost to Doug Withstandley (Purdue), 6-4 SV
Consolation Semifinals: No. 5-seed Tyler Laudon (Wisconsin)
149: No. 5-seed Anton Dietzen (Jr., Elmhurst, Ill.) 18-8
Pigtail: Major dec. Cameron Sakon (Indiana), 12-2
Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 4-seed #11 Jeff Ratliff (Ohio State), 12-9
Consolation 1st Round: Dec. Tony Turner (Wisconsin), 6-2
Consolation Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 8-seed Darren McKnight (MSU), 11-8
7th-Place Match: No. 7-seed Josh Ballard (Northwestern)
157: No. 1-seed #1 Alex Tirapelle (So., Clovis, Calif.) 30-0
Quarterfinals: Pinned No. 8-seed Mike Kimberlin (Northwestern), 4:34
Semifinals: Dec. No. 5-seed #19 Brad Harper (Purdue), 3-2
Finals: No. 2-seed #5 Ryan Bertin (Michigan)
165: No. 7-seed Ben Hay (Sr., Sandwich, Ill.) 13-8
Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 2-seed #9 Pat Owen (Michigan), 5-2
Consolation Quarterfinals: Dec. Nick Hayes (Northwestern), 6-3
Consolation Semifinals: No. 4-seed Cole Pape (Iowa)
174: No. 5-seed #9 Pete Friedl (So., Orland Park, Ill.) 27-7
Pigtail: Dec. Andrew Curran (Northwestern), 8-2
Quarterfinals: Dec. Ralph DeNisco (Wisconsin), 5-3 SV
Semifinals: Lost to No. 1-seed #2 Tyler Nixt (Iowa), 6-3
Consolation Semifinals: No. 6-seed #13 Brady Richardson (Indiana)
184: No. 1-seed #5 Brian Glynn (Jr., Orland Park, Ill.), 29-6
Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 8-seed Josh McLay (Minnesota), 3-2
Consolation 1st Round: Major dec. Joseph Gulotta (Northwestern), 10-2
Consolation Quarterfinals: Pinned by No. 4-seed #15 Blake Kaplan (Ohio State)
7th-Place Match: No. 3-seed #13 Brady Reinke (Wisconsin)
197: No. 6-seed #15 Jason Potter (Sr., St. Charles, Ill.) 16-8
Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 3-seed #17 J.D. Bergman (Ohio State), 2-0
Consolation 1st Round: Lost to Nathan Moore (Purdue), 4-2 SV ... Potter eliminated
Hwt: No. 7-seed #10 Mike Behnke (r-Fr., Villa Park, Ill.) 20-11
Quarterfinals: Lost to No. 2-seed #4 Greg Wagner (Michigan), 6-2
Consolation 1st Round: Lost to Jareck Horton (Wisconsin), 3-1 ... Behnke eliminated
