Virginia Finishes Day 2 at NCAA Championships
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March 21, 2014
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OKLAHOMA CITY – The Virginia wrestling team finished the second day of competition Friday at the 2014 NCAA Championships at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City. Third-seeded Nick Sulzer (R-Jr., Cleveland, Ohio) earned All-America honors Friday and remains alive in the consolation bracket after reaching the 165-pound semifinals.
Sulzer will wrestle No. 8 Michael Moreno (Iowa State) in the consolation semifinals on Saturday morning. Virginia currently is tied for 26th place in the team standings with 14 points.
The medal round begins at 11 a.m. ET and will air on ESPNU. ESPN3 will have separate feeds of each mat. A link to live brackets also will be available at VirginiaSports.com, while live updates will be provided on the Virginia Wrestling Twitter account, @UVaWrestling.
Seeded third at 165, Sulzer (35-2) fell 5-0 in the semifinals to second-seeded Tyler Caldwell of Oklahoma State. Both of Sulzer’s losses this year have come to Caldwell. After a scoreless first period, Caldwell opened the scoring by quickly escaping in the second. He took Sulzer down and posted two back points to open up a 5-0 lead.
“I’m really proud of Nick Sulzer,” Virginia head coach Steve Garland said. “He out-shot Caldwell and wrestled his heart out. In the first period he was hand fighting hard and dictating the pace. He made one mistake – he hesitated on one of his best moves, and that’s not like him. When he did that, Caldwell was able to finish to a position where he got stuck on his back and it was 2 and 2. Instead of it being 1-0, it’s 5-0 and that made all the difference in the match. He kept battling and kept shooting and did everything he could.
“This tournament is such a grind, there’s a badge of honor when you come back to take third. He’s an All-American – that goal is met. He didn’t reach the goal of being a national champion, but the third-place medal is still in reach and that’s a big deal to us.”
Sulzer clinched All-America honors for the second straight year. He is the second Virginia wrestler to earn All-America honors on multiple occasions. Chris Henrich was a three-time All-American at 174 pounds from 2009-11.
Sulzer advanced to the semifinals by grinding out a 4-3 quarterfinal win over 11th-seeded Turtogtokh Luvsandorj of The Citadel, 4-3 in the first tiebreaker period. Sulzer tied the match, 3-3, in the third period when Luvsandorj was penalized a point for his second stall warning. After a scoreless sudden victory period, Sulzer held Luvsandorj down for the first 30 seconds of the tiebreaker. Sulzer immediately escaped in the second 30 seconds and held off Luvsandorj in the waning seconds to secure the win.
Sulzer is the lone Cavalier remaining in the tournament after three teammates were eliminated in the first session Friday.
Seeded 10th at 157 pounds, Blaise Butler (R-So., Belvidere, Ill.) defeated Columbia’s Markus Scheidel, 9-3, Friday morning in the wrestlebacks but gave up an early takedown to NC State’s Tommy Gantt in and never recovered in his next match, falling 3-2 to finish his season with a 22-8 record.
Stephen Doty (R-Sr., St. Louis, Mo.), the No. 11 seed at 174, earned a 6-0 win over Brian Harvey of Army in his first match Friday before dropping a 7-1 bout to CSU Bakersfield’s Bryce Hammond. Doty concludes his UVa career with a 29-10 record this year.
Nick Herrmann (So., Amarillo, Texas) saw his season come to a close with a 7-3 loss to 12th-seeded Tim Lambert of Nebraska on Friday morning. Herrmann finishes 18-12 on the year after going 1-2 in his first NCAA Championships.
The No. 7 seed at 149, Gus Sako (R-Jr., Cleveland, Ohio) was eliminated from the tournament following a 5-2 defeat Michael Depalma of Kent State. He finishes his season with a 19-5 record.
Virginia Results – double elimination
Nick Herrmann (125 pounds)
1st Round – No. 6 Jarrod Patterson (Oklahoma) dec. Herrmann, 7-5
Conso Rd. 1 – dec. Cory Stainbrook (West Virginia), 8-2
Conso Rd. 2 – No. 12 Tim Lambert (Nebraska) dec. Herrmann, 7-3
No. 16 Joe Spisak (141 pounds)
1st Round – Laike Gardner (Lehigh) dec. Spisak, 9-8
Conso Rd. 1 – Gabe Moreno (Iowa State) pinned Spisak, 1:09
No. 7 Gus Sako (149 pounds)
1st Round – dec. Robert Jillard (Northern Illinois), 7-4
2nd Round – No. 10 Zach Neibert (Virginia Tech) dec. Sako, 3-2
Conso 2nd Rd. – Michael Depalma (Kent State) dec. Sako, 5-2
No. 10 Blaise Butler (157 pounds)
1st Round – dec. Anthony Perrotti (Rutgers), 7-6
2nd Round – No. 7 Brian Realbuto (Cornell) dec. Butler, 3-1 (SV)
Conso 2nd Round – dec. Markus Scheidel (Columbia), 9-3
Conso 3rd Round – Tommy Gantt (NC State) dec. Butler, 3-2
No. 3 Nick Sulzer (165 pounds)
1st Round – dec. Chris Moon (VT), 9-3
2nd Round – dec. No. 14 Dylan Palacio (Cornell), 12-6
Quarters – dec. No. 11 Turtogtokh Luvsandorj (The Citadel), 4-3 (TB-1)
Semis – No. 2 Tyler Caldwell (Oklahoma State) dec. Sulzer, 5-0
Conso Semis – No. 8 Michael Moreno (Iowa State)
No. 11 Stephen Doty (174 pounds)
1st Round – dec. Austin Gabel (VT), 3-2
2nd Round – No. 6 Logan Storley (Minnesota) dec. Doty, 5-4
Conso 2nd Rd. – dec. Brian Harvey (Army), 6-0
Conso 3rd Rd. – Bryce Hammond (CSU Bakersfield) dec. Doty, 7-1
Jon Fausey (184 pounds)
1st Round – Jack Dechow (Old Dominion) dec. Fausey, 7-5
Conso 1st Rd. – Clint Morrison (Rider) dec. Fausey, 7-5
Zach Nye (197 pounds)
1st Round – No. 4 Scott Schiller (Minnesota) dec. Nye, 10-3
Conso Pigtail – dec. Blake Rosholt (Oklahoma State), 7-3
Conso 1st Rd. – Daniel Mitchell (American) dec. Nye, 7-6