Northwestern University Athletics
The 1999-2000 Wrestling Season in Review
3/22/2000 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 22, 2000
The Northwestern wrestling team finished the regular season with a 6-12-1 record, going 1-7 in the Big Ten Conference. At the Big Ten Wrestling Championships -- hosted by Purdue in West Lafayette, Ind. -- the Wildcats finished sixth, the best finish since 1990 when the Wildcats placed third.
Seniors Scott Schatzman (Chesterfield, Mo./Parkway Central) and Mark Bybee (Chicago, Ill./St. Laurence) led the way for the Wildcats all year long. Schatzman had a 23-1 regular season and finished second to Doug Schwab of Iowa at the Big Ten meet. Bybee, on the other hand, went 19-9 in the regular season and, after being seeded fourth for Big Tens, defeated third-seeded Gabe McMahan of Iowa to win the Big Ten title at 174 pounds.
The `Cats had six wrestlers place at the 2000 Big Ten tournament, with four qualifying for the NCAA tournament -- Schatzman at 141, Bybee at 174, Tom Ciezki (Evergreen Park, Ill./St. Laurence) at 184 and sophomore Matt Huebner (Woodstock, Ill./Woodstock) at 197.
At the NCAA Championships, Schatzman won his first three matches and advanced to the 141-pound semifinal round before losing to No. 2 Michael Lightner of Oklahoma. Schatzman moved into the semifinals of the consolation bracket where he again fell to Schwab, the man with whom he shared the nation's top ranking all year. Schatzman rebounded to defeat Michigan's Damian Logan, 17-4, for the fourth time this season in the fifth-place match.
In other action at the NCAA meet, Bybee collected one win at 174, while Huebner earned a consolation-bracket win at 197 and Ciezki went 0-2 at 184. As a team, NU finished 29th at the NCAA meet with 15 points.
