[OT] Wrestling cruising at NCAAs

After the QF round, Cornell sits in 2d place at the NCAA Championships. Four wrestlers (Travis Lee (133); Dustin Manotti (149); Joey Mazzurco (174); and Tyler Baier (184)) have advanced to the semifinals and are All-Americans. The semifinal round is tonight; the finals are tomorrow. All is being shown on ESPNU (check local listings).

Our other five wrestlers acquitted themselves well (all won at least their opening round match), but have been eliminated in the wrestlebacks short of All-America status.

Special note: Freshman Jordan Leen (141) had the misfortune of having to face the #1 ranked wrestler in his weight class in the opening round. He damn near beat him, falling 2-0.

For those of us that know nothing about wrestling, do we have a chance at the team title?

Almost certainly not. The team in 1st is way ahead of us and more likely to widen the gap than to see us narrow it. I'm not sure that we'll hold on to 2d.

To put it in perspective, the team expressed a desire to finish in the top 10, so this is outstanding.

Whos in first?

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

Almost certainly not. The team in 1st is way ahead of us and more likely to widen the gap than to see us narrow it. I'm not sure that we'll hold on to 2d.

To put it in perspective, the team expressed a desire to finish in the top 10, so this is outstanding.[/q]

What were we ranked going in? 11th?

lgr...

I don't remember the pre-tourney rankings. We were in the 12-14 range most of the year.

Oklahoma State is in first. Defending champs, I believe.

Here are the standings:
http://www.ncaasports.com/wrestling/mens/brackets/2005/2005_NCAA_Div_ITeamScore

Rank Points Team
1. 78.5 Oklahoma State
2. 55.5 Cornell
3. 47.5 Michigan
3. 47.5 Minnesota
5. 46.5 Illinois
6. 43.5 Oklahoma
7. 42.0 Iowa State
8. 36.0 Iowa
9. 33.0 Indiana
10. 32.0 Lehigh
11. 31.5 Arizona State
12. 30.5 Nebraska
13. 28.0 Wisconsin
14. 26.5 Michigan State
15. 24.5 Northern Iowa
16. 24.0 Missouri
17. 23.5 Northwestern
18. 21.5 Hofstra
19. 18.5 Central Michigan
19. 18.5 West Virginia

In the most recent team rankings I found, Cornell was 13th. http://www.usatoday.com/

[Q]ugarte Wrote:

In the most recent team rankings I found, Cornell was 13th. [www.usatoday.com][/q]

Thanks for doing the finger-work. I was at work and trying to sneak a peak at the CU-UVM chat, though that didn't stop me from wandering to a wrestling thread.

Travis Lee pins his opponent 2:55 into the match. In the SEMIFINALS!!! On to the title. Now I have to remember to set the TiVo to record the finals against Edinboro's Shawn Bunch. They swapped the #1 ranking back and forth all year.

Cornell has two finalists, Travis Lee and Tyler Baier. Baier wins 10-8 on takedown with a few seconds remaining.

Keep up the good posting.

I know next to nothing about wrestling, but living in Allentown, I have lots of friends who went to Lehigh. I can use some bragging rights.

Dustin Manotti won 6th place (All-American) in the 149lb class.
Joe Mazzurco won 5th place (All-American) in the 174lb class.

Travis Lee (133) and Tyler Baier (184) go for 1st place this afternoon. 3:30pm ET.
You can follow along at [www.ncaasports.com]

Updated team standings:

Rank Points Team 
1. 133.0 Oklahoma State 
2.  79.0 Michigan 
3.  73.5 Oklahoma 
4.  72.5 Cornell 
4.  72.5 Minnesota 
6.  70.5 Illinois 
7.  66.0 Iowa 
8.  60.0 Lehigh 
9.  57.0 Iowa State 
10. 54.5 Indiana 

The NCAA wrestling finals should be starting now on ESPN but apparently are being delayed while Davenport and Clijsters finish the third set of their irrelevant tennis match. The Lee-Bunch match should be the second match shown.

Lee-Bunch is on right now. Lee up 2-0.

Wow, how cool to go on Elynah, see this post, turn on the TV, and see Lee and CU Wrestling.

4-3 Lee, 3rd period.

Travis Lee wins NCAA 133 lb. title, 6-3.

Lee Wins 6-3!

I don't know if I've ever watched (real) wrestling on TV before. What a great first match to watch - individual National Championship for Cornell!

Lee had the only two take-downs of the match. Terrific performance. Bunch is one tough opponent, too.

--Bump--

Baier's up soon on ESPN.

Jones dominated Baier, the score was 5-3, but the points that Baier got, Jones pretty much gave to him.

But still, Baier ranked #7, ends up with 2nd place, behind a now 3 time NCAA champion.

He loses 5-3.

[Q]Jason L Wrote:

Jones dominated Baier, the score was 5-3, but the points that Baier got, Jones pretty much gave to him.

But still, Baier ranked #7, ends up with 2nd place, behind a now 3 time NCAA champion.[/q]

Jones has never lost at 184. The run Baier made to get to the finals was very special, knocking off the #2 and #3 wrestlers--both from Big 12 powers--in the quarters and semis. Don't let the loss to Jones take anything away from that. Wonderful wrestling by a determined senior.

Can anyone tell me which, if any, of the red's current wrestlers at the NCAAs are from New Jersey high schools? Thanks.

There are a number of wrestlers from NJ. This roster lists their highschools and hometown in a pretty convenient format.

[cornellbigred.collegesports.com]

Thanks, Rinaldi from Lodi is the one I couldn't remember.

Cornell finishes in 4th place, only 1 pt behind Oklahoma

[Q]Luke 05 Wrote:

Cornell finishes in 4th place, only 1 pt behind Oklahoma[/q]Led by former Cornell head coach Jack Spates.

And speaking of coaches, congratulations to our own Rob Koll who was named NWCA Division I Coach of the Year.

[Q]KenP Wrote:
Dustin Manotti won 6th place (All-American) in the 149lb class.[/q]While obviously very impressive, that had to be a disappointment for Manotti. He came in as the #3 seed and, starting with the semifinals lost three straight matches. After losing to Phillip Simpson (Army, 2 seed) in the semifinals (who he was a second from beating in the EIWA conference finals), he fell to Joe Masa (Hofstra, 9 seed) and Ty Eustice (Iowa, 6 seed) in the wrestlebacks. He beat Masa twice this year and Eustice the day before. It probably also hurts a little that if he had won any of those matches, Cornell would have moved up to third in the team standings. He finished higher in 2004 than he did this year and I expect he will be really hungry for a national title next year.

[q]Joe Mazzurco won 5th place (All-American) in the 174lb class.[/q]Fantastic. He came in as the #5 seed and finished in 5th. He lost to the eventual winner Chris Pendleton (Ok. State, 1 seed) and the 3d place finisher Jake Herbert (Northwestern, 4 seed).

Both of the wrestlers Mazzurco lost to were on spectacular runs. Prior to beating Mazzurco*, Pendleton had a pin and another 16-1 technical fall (as well as a 14-10 win over the eventual 8th place finisher). After a surprising loss in the 2d round to an unseeded wrestler, Herbert's run in the wrestlebacks was sick: pin, pin, pin, 15-0 (tf), 6-2 over Mazzurco and then 6-3 over the 3 seed in the 3d place match.


* And I mean beating. At 4:45 the "mercy rule," called a technical fall, was invoked when Pendleton went up 16-1.