Northwestern University Athletics
'Cats Battle on First Day of Midlands Championships
12/29/2008 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Dec. 29, 2008
2008 Midlands Championships Info Center
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Day one of competition at the 46th edition of the Midlands Wrestling Championships is underway at Welsh-Ryan Arena as nearly 375 wrestlers entered the event looking to wrap up the 2008 calendar year with a title. Following third-round championship competition, three Northwestern wrestlers have landed spots in the quarterfinals.
Iowa leads the field in team scoring with 43.0 points followed by Iowa State (38.5) and Purdue (37.0). Northwestern is currently in seventh with 31.5 points.
Junior All-American Brandon Precin, seeded second at Midlands, got off to a promising start with a 10-0 major decision against Drew Hammen of Wisconsin and a 13-5 major decision over Jordan Keller of Cleveland State.
In the quarterfinals, Precin posted his third major decision of the day against Eric Olanowski of Michigan State to improve to 13-1 in 2008.
Freshman Jason Welch, seeded fourth at 157 lbs., is 1-0 on the morning with a tech fall win (17-2) against Cole Garcia of Nebraska-Kearney. He then pinned his second-round opponent, Bryce Lumzy of Lincoln College, in 1:57, and advanced to the quarterfinals with a 13-4 major decision against Nate Carr, wrestling unattached for Iowa State.
A year ago, Welch placed sixth at Midlands as a high school senior.
At 174 lbs., Robert Kellogg won by fall against Tyler French of Air Force but dropped a tightly contested 4-3 decision to Kyle Vandenhyde of Olivet.
After a 4-2 win against Purdue's Jason Martin, NU's Frank Battaglia, wrestling unattached, fell to Big Ten foe Roger Smith-Bergsrud at 165. Wildcat freshman Brian Roddy, also wrestling unattached, remains in the championship bracket at 174 after a pin in 4:44 against JT Miller of Cleveland State.
Senior Jake Herbert, the No. 1 seed at 184, began his quest for a third Midlands title late in the afternoon with a quick pin of Indiana's Eric Cameron. Herbert now has eight pins in his 13 wins in 2008.
While it was not exactly a day of upsets in Evanston, there were two notable underdog wins in the heavyweight division. Ed Bordas of Rider scored a 6-5 decision against fourth-seeded John Wise of Illinois, while Missouri's Dom Bradley recorded a 6-5 victory in two tiebreakers against top-seeded David Zabriskie of Iowa State.
Complete updated results are available throughout the day at the 2008 Midlands Information Center.
