Wrestling Ready for Midlands Championships
12/28/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Dec. 28, 2009
PREVIEWING THE MIDLANDS CHAMPIONSHIPS
The Michigan State wrestling team will travel to Evanston, Ill., for the 47th Midlands Championships Dec. 29-30 at Northwestern's Welsh-Ryan Arena. The Spartans will join 30 other schools competing at the event, including five other Big Ten teams. Competition will begin at 10:30 a.m. EST on Tuesday (Dec. 29) and will start at 1 p.m. on Wednesday (Dec. 30).
The finals of the of Midlands Championships will be broadcast by the Big Ten Network on tape delay on Jan. 3, 2010 at 7 p.m. EST.
LAST TIME OUT
MSU last competed at the Nittany Lion Open on Dec. 6 at Penn State where Joe Rizqallah (Hwt.) and Kyle Bounds (165) each placed sixth and seventh, respectively. Eric Olanowski (125) was nearly the Spartans' third top-eight finisher but fell in the eighth-place match in a tie-breaker.
2008 MIDLANDS RECAP
Anthony Jones Jr. (157) and David Cheza (149) led the Green and White at last year's Midlands tournament as each placed sixth in their respective weight classes. An injury forced Jones to miss his final two matches but he still came away with a sixth-place finish. Cheza wrestled unattached, thus preventing him from scoring any points for MSU, and won his final five matches to claim the sixth spot.
As a team, MSU took 23rd overall at the meet, despite Franklin Gomez not participating and Cheza wrestling unattached.
GOMEZ NO. 1
Spartan senior Franklin Gomez (133), ranked No. 1 in the nation, has won his last 22 consecutive matches. Gomez is 8-0 this season with three tech. falls and one major decision. He also captured his fourth career MSU Open title this season.
Last season, Gomez became the 19th different Spartan to claim a National Championship and it was the 25th individual championship in school history. This season, Gomez will look to join Pat Milkovich (1972, 74), Greg Johnson (1970, 71, 72), Dale Anderson (1967, 68), Merle Jennings (1941, 42) and Burl Jennings (1941, 42) as the only other wrestlers in MSU history to capture more than one national title.
OSTERMAN MAKES IMPACT
True freshman Dan Osterman has gotten off to fast start this season as he enters the Midlands Championships with an overall record of 13-2, going 8-0 at 133 pounds and 5-2 at 141 pounds. Osterman began the year by winning the freshman/sophomore division title at the Eastern Michigan Open on Nov. 7. He followed up the next weekend by going 4-0 and claiming the freshman/sophomore division title at the MSU Open.
SPARTANS ADD NATIONALLY RECOGNIZED RECRUITS FOR 2010-11
Michigan State coach Tom Minkel announced the signing of six student-athletes to National Letters of Intent on Nov. 17. Sean McMurray (Portage, Ind.), Kamron Jackson (Southaven, Mich.), Nick McDiarmid (Hartland, Mich.), Nick Proctor (Neuqua Valley, Ill.), John Rizqallah (Allegan, Mich.), and Nick Humes (Stevensville-Lakeshore, Mich.) will all join the Spartans for the 2010 season.
The Spartans' recruiting class, which features three high school state champions, was ranked 19th in the nation by InterMat.
CRAFT TAKES MSU OPEN TITLE
Red-shirt freshman Bryant Craft captured his first open title this season when he took first place at the MSU Open in the freshman/sophomore division at 174 pounds. The Clarkston native went undefeated (4-0) and defeated JT Jenkins of Indianapolis, 4-2, in the finals.
Players Mentioned
