Northwestern University Athletics
Four 'Cats March to St. Louis for NCAA Championships
3/17/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 17, 2009
2009 NCAA Championships Complete Brackets
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Over the past two years, only two schools in the country -- Northwestern and perennial powerhouse Iowa -- have come away from the NCAA Wrestling Championships boasting at least one individual national champion. Now, NU hopes to make it three in a row when four Wildcats, including 2007 champion Jake Herbert, head to the Scottrade Center in St. Louis for the 2009 NCAA tournament March 19-21.
"We're very proud of the success we've had the past several years at NCAAs, both individually and collectively as a team," said head coach Tim Cysewski, now in his 19th year as the top man at Northwestern. "I expect our guys to have another good showing this season, whether it's a very experienced wrestler like Jake or a true freshman like Jason Welch."
Competition gets underway at 11 a.m. Thursday with the opening round on eight mats. Beginning with the quarterfinals at 11 a.m. Friday, ESPN's family of networks (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU and ESPN360.com) will provide complete coverage of the action in HD from St. Louis, with coverage of the finals beginning at 5:30 p.m. Saturday on ESPN. The complete broadcast schedule is available at the bottom of the page.
Northwestern fans can also log on to the wrestling page at NCAA.com at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday to watch streaming video of the pre-tournament press conference with selected student-athletes live from the Scottrade Center. NU's national championship hopeful Jake Herbert will be among the student-athletes participating in the press conference.
Northwestern, which has placed in the top 15 as a team in each of the past four years, features one senior, junior, sophomore and true freshman in this year's qualifying group.
Herbert is the favorite at 184 pounds after amassing a 29-0 record through the regular season and Big Ten Championships, leaving him just two wins shy of tying former Wildcat Steve DePetro for second in school history. The three-time All-American, who has 10 wins this season against the other qualifiers in his weight class, opens his 2009 tournament against John Barone, a junior from Duke with a 36-6 record.
Junior Brandon Precin, seeded fourth at 125 pounds, is poised to improve on his seventh-place All-American finish last season when he went 4-2 at NCAAs. Precin has suffered just three losses by the narrowest of margins this season, all of which came to former national champions Angel Escobedo of Indiana and Paul Donahoe of Edinboro, seeded third and first at this year's NCAA Championships.
Precin will face Anthony Mustari of Northern Colorado in the first round.
Sophomore Keith Sulzer, ranked No. 16 nationally at 141, enters his second NCAA Championships with a 19-12 overall record. He is third on the team in active career wins with 43 and begins his tournament against Iowa State's sixth-seeded Nick Gallick.
Welch finished just outside the seeded wrestlers in the rankings (No. 13) at 157 pounds and is prepared for a first-round bout with freshman Jedd Moore of Virginia. The California native is coming off an impressive second-place showing at the Big Ten Championships where he won three matches before a loss to Mike Poeta of Illinois, who is seeded second at the NCAAs.
NCAA Div. I Wrestling Championships Broadcast Schedule
Scottrade Center, St. Louis
Fri., March 20--11 a.m. CT--Quarterfinals--Live ESPNU HD / ESPN360.com
Fri., March 20--6 p.m. CT--Semifinals--Live ESPNU HD / ESPN2 HD / ESPN360.com
Sat., March 21--9:30 a.m.--Championship Medal Round--Live ESPNU HD / ESPN360.com
Sat., March 21--5:30 p.m.--Finals--Live ESPN HD / ESPN360.com
