Northwestern
Big Ten Championships
Herbert Delivers on Third Career Big Ten Title
3/8/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 8, 2009
Final Brackets and Team Standings
UNIVERSTIY PARK, Pa. -- Fighting third-ranked Phil Keddy of Iowa as well as a bloodied lip from the first period on, Northwestern senior Jake Herbert became the first NU wrestler ever to win three Big Ten Championships with an 8-1 decision Sunday at the Bryce Jordan Center at Penn State. Northwestern has now had at least one Big Ten champion in five consecutive seasons for the first time in program history.
Herbert extended his collegiate winning streak to 60 matches and he did so in front of a large contingent of family and friends, wrestling just under 150 miles from his hometown of Wexford, Pa. In a vote by the league's coaches following the Big Ten Championships, Herbert was selected as the Big Ten Wrestler of the Year.
“There's really no time to celebrate, I have to get back to training,” Herbert said after the match. “I have two weeks until NCAAs and then there is an open meet after that so I still have a lot of work to do.”
Herbert dictated the pace of the match from start to finish, leading 4-0 after the first period. The action broke no less than three times throughout the match, however, to tend to his cut lip.
“It was just a nuisance to have to keep stopping and get cleaned up and give Keddy time to recover,” Herbert said.
But he never let up, beating Keddy for the third time this season by denying his every attempt to grab a solid hold of a leg. A late scramble resulted in two more takedowns for Herbert and his 29th win in an undefeated season.
Herbert's title gave Northwestern 73.5 team points, good for eighth in the standings.
Junior All-American Brandon Precin finished second on Sunday, marking the best finish of his career at the league championships. Meanwhile it was NU's Jason Welch, one of three true freshman to reach the finals of the 2009 Big Ten Championships, who claimed second place in the tightly contested 157-pound weight class.
In the 125-pound final, Precin met 2008 NCAA champion Angel Escobedo of Indiana in yet another low-scoring affair between the two. Trailing 2-1 to start the second, Precin started on top and racked up 1:12 of riding time before Escobedo escaped to go up 3-1. Escobedo executed his strategy in the third period to perfection, first negating Precin's riding time point before allowing him to escape and deflecting the Wildcat's ensuing attempts to take the lead.
Escobedo was content to win his second straight Big Ten title by a 3-2 decision.
Welch battled 2008 NCAA runner-up Mike Poeta of Illinois on Sunday and fell by an 8-2 decision. It was a rugged fight from the get-go as Poeta scored on a takedown 30 seconds into the match before Welch escaped near the one-minute mark of the first. Poeta tacked on a point for an escape to start the second and soon after, locked in a near-stalemate, picked up his second two of the match.
Welch escaped once more in the third but couldn't come up with the necessary takedowns as he moved to 24-8 going into his first NCAA Championships in two weeks in St. Louis.
Northwestern also featured in a pair of fifth-place matches beginning at 141 where No. 16 Keith Sulzer met Minnesota's eighth-ranked Mike Thorn. Sulzer worked to build a 3-1 lead as well as more than one minute of riding time. Thorn escaped in the third before notching a takedown with just 45 seconds to go to overtake Sulzer on the scoreboard. He rode out the match to eliminate Sulzer's riding time advantage and win the match, 4-3.
Nevertheless, Sulzer is still due to make his second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Championships.
Sophomore Andrew Nadhir came out of the gates strong in his bid to secure the fifth and final automatic NCAA bid against fifth-ranked Kyle Ruschell of Wisconsin. The native of Detroit picked up his first takedown just 30 seconds into the contest and extended his lead to 4-1 with a reversal from the bottom position to begin the second.
He allowed Ruschell out and battled throughout the period before Ruschell notched a takedown with 30 seconds remaining. Despite not having him on his back for long, Ruschell was granted back points and took the lead before extending the margin with back points in the third. He eventually won 13-6 as Nadhir placed sixth in his second trip to the Big Ten Championships.
In two weeks, the Wildcats will be at the ScottTrade Center in St. Louis for the NCAA Championships.
Northwestern Results
Finals
125: #3 Angel Escobedo (IND) dec. #1 Brandon Precin (NU), 3-2
157: #1 Mike Poeta (ILL) dec. #2 Jason Welch (NU), 8-2
184: #1 Jake Herbert (NU) dec. #3 Phil Keddy (IA), 8-1
Fifth-Place Matches
141: #4 Mike Thorn (MINN) dec. #6 Keith Sulzer (NU), 4-3
149: #4 Kyle Ruschell (WIS) dec. #6 Andrew Nadhir (NU), 13-6
Players Mentioned
