Michigan State University
Big Ten Championships
Wrestling in Fourth After Day One at Big Ten Championships
3/4/2000 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 4, 2000
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - The Michigan State wrestling team is in fourth place with 66 points after the first day of competition at the 2000 Big Ten Wrestling Championships. Iowa leads the team standings with 116.0 points, followed by Minnesota (109) and Illinois (72). The Spartans also qualified two wrestlers for the finals, and overall eight MSU grapplers remain in the draw.
Junior Pat McNamara (Jordan, Minn.) earned a berth in the 133-pound final with a 10-8, last-second victory over Joe Warren of Michigan. McNamara, the No. 2 seed at 133, used a technical violation and a reversal to score three points in the final 20 seconds and pull out the win against the No. 3 seed Warren.
"That was a little too, close for me," said McNamara. "I wasn't really thinking about anything at the end, I was just wrestling. He and I have built up a little rivalry, and every time we wrestle I know we're both going to go hard."
"Pat and Joe are always up there in the rankings together, and they've had some great battles," said MSU Head Coach Tom Minkel. "They wrestled a great match, lots of scrambling and lots of excitement, and it was nice that Pat came out on top."
McNamara will take on No. 1 seed Eric Juergens of Iowa in Sunday's championship match.
Senior 197-pounder Nick Muzashvili (Unadilla, N.Y.), the No. 1 seed at 197, also advanced to the finals in style. Muzashvili pinned No. 5 Owen Elzen of Minnesota in 1:50 and will be seeking the first Big Ten title of his career when he faces Nick Preston of Ohio State in the final on Sunday.
Meanwhile, redshirt freshman Karl Nadolsky (Holland, Mich) at 149, redshirt freshman Gray Maynard (Holland, Mich.) at 157 and junior Matt Lamb (East Lansing, Mich.) at heavyweight earned automatic bids to the NCAA Championships by assuring themselves of finishing in the top seven of their weight classes.
Junior Mike Castillo (Rochester, Mich.) at 149, senior Greg DeGrand (Saline,Mich.) at 157 and senior Will Hill (Commonwealth, Ind.) at 174 will all continue fighting for spots in the top seven when wrestling resumes tomorrow.
"Overall the team had a solid day," said Minkel. "We have to finalists and that's big. It was nice to see Nick pick up the extra team points with the pin, and Karl Nadolsky had two huge falls. We've also got two freshmen in the finals and it's been a long time since that happened, and definitely not since I've been here."
Consolation brackets will begin wrestling at 11 a.m. Sunday, and the conference finals will begin at 3 p.m.
Team Standings1. Iowa 116.0 pts.2. Minnesota 109.03. Illinois 72.04. Michigan State 66.05. Northwestern 42.06. Michigan 41.07. Ohio State 40.08. Penn State 36.59. Wisconsin 31.010. Indiana 30.011. Purdue 14.5
MSU Matches
Semifinals133 - No. 2 Pat McNamara (MSU) dec. No. 3 Joe Warren (UM), 9-8157 - No. 2 Luke Becker (MIN) pinned No. 3 Gray Maynard (MSU), 6:48197 - No. 1 Nick Muzashvili (MSU) pinned No. 5 Owen Elzen (MIN), 1:50HWT - No. 2 Wes Hand (MIN) dec. No. 5 Matt Lamb (MSU), 3-2
2nd Consolation Round141 - James Torres (IU) dec. No. 6 Mike Castillo (MSU), 5-3149 - No. 5 Karl Nadolsky (MSU) pinned Jimmy Hawthorne (PU), 4:12165 - No. 5 Greg DeGrand (MSU) No. 8 Butch Hildebrand174 - Charles Martelli (UM) dec. No. 5 Will Hill, 6-5
