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Brackets Announced For 2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships
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CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. – The brackets for the 2010 NCAA Wrestling Championships were announced Wednesday night. The 2010 competition will be contested March 18-20 at Qwest Center Omaha in Omaha, Neb. A school-record eight Virginia wrestlers automatically qualified for the championships by virtue of their finishes at the ACC Championships last Saturday. Five Cavaliers will be making their NCAA debuts.
All first-round matches will be held Thursday morning, March 18. The second round and first round of wrestlebacks will be on Thursday night. Quarterfinal action begins Friday morning, while the semifinals will be held Friday evening. Wrestlebacks will be contested through Saturday morning, with the championship matches slated for Saturday evening.
Chris Henrich (Jr., Lansdale, Pa.), making his third NCAA appearance, earned the No. 3 national seed at 174 pounds – the highest UVa seed at the national championships since Scott Moore was tabbed as the No. 1 seed at 141 pounds in 2004. Henrich finished seventh at 174 pounds last year to earn All-America honors and is aiming to become the first two-time All-American in Virginia history. He will wrestle David Rella of Ohio State in the first round on Thursday, March 18.
Ross Gitomer (R-Sr., Flemington, N.J.), in his second NCAA Championships, opens against No. 4 seed Anthony Robles of Arizona State in the 125-pound weight class.
At 141 pounds, Derek Valenti (So., Newton, N.J.) will make his NCAA debut against Ivan Lopouchanski of UNC Greensboro.
At 149 pounds, Shawn Harris (R-So., Cleveland, Ohio) starts his first NCAA Championships against No. 11 seed Desmond Green of Buffalo.
At 157, Danny Gonsor (R-So., Cleveland, Ohio) also will be making his first NCAA appearance. He starts the championships against Northern Iowa’s Tyson Reiner.
At 184 Mike Salopek (R-Fr., North Huntingdon, Pa.) becomes the first Cavalier freshman since Henrich in 2008 to compete at the NCAA Championships. Salopek will wrestle the No. 9 seed, Philip Keddy of Iowa, in the opening round.
Brent Jones (R-Sr., Burke, Va.) will make his second-consecutive NCAA Championships appearance. He is slated to wrestle No. 5 seed Trevor Brandvold of Wisconsin in the first round.
Heavyweight Jack Danilkowicz (R-Jr., Green Oaks, Ill.) also is making his first NCAA appearance. He will wrestle Tucker Lane of Nebraska in the first round.
Virginia will be looking to build upon its ACC Championship performance from last Saturday. It was UVa’s first ACC crown since 1977.