Michigan State University
Midlands Championships
Wrestling Wraps Up Day One of Midland Championships
12/30/2009 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
Dec. 29, 2009
Midlands Championships Session 2 Results
Midlands Championships Session 2 Team Standings
EVANSTON, Ill. - After one day of competition at the 47th annual Midlands Championships on the campus of Northwestern University, the Michigan State wrestling team stands in 12th place with 28 points. No. 1 Iowa currently leads the tournament.
The Spartans currently have three wrestlers still in contention for a top-eight finish, including: Eric Olanowski (125 pounds), David Cheza (149 pounds) and Nick Palmieri (184 pounds).
After falling in the first round at 125 pounds, Olanowski defeated Eduardo Dominguez of Harper, fellow Spartan Jeremiah Austin and then Ryan Mango of Stanford to advance in the wrestleback bracket. Olanowski will face the ninth-seed Anthony Zanetta of Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
At 149 pounds, sophomore Cheza upset ninth-seeded Mike Kessler of Rider, 5-0, and then won his next two matches before falling to the No. 1 seed, Iowa's Brent Metcalf, 12-3, in the quarterfinals. Cheza will resume action against Adam Nadhir of Northwestern on Wednesday.
After a first-round bye, Palmieri picked up his first win of the day by defeating Scott Hazen of Northern Iowa, 12-3, and then scored a 9-5 decision over Maryland's Corey Peltier. In the quarterfinal match, third-seeded Phil Keddy of Iowa defeated Palmieri, 8-3, sending him to the wrestleback bracket where he will begin tomorrow against Grant Gambrall of Iowa.
Also wresting at 184 pounds for the Spartans was Curran Jacobs, who, after falling to No. 4 Louis Caputo of Harvard in the second round, went on to win two consecutive in the wrestleback bracket before dropping a hard-fought match to No. 6 Mike Miller of CMU, 7-4.
The 2009 Midlands Championships will conclude on Wednesday (Dec. 30) with semifinal, consolation and seventh-place matches beginning at 1 p.m. ET. The first, third and fifth-place matches will begin at 8 p.m. ET. For complete Midlands Championship coverage, please visit the official webpage here.
Players Mentioned
