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*****************UPDATE***********************
See the comments for updates and final standings.
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Going into the final session, here are the standings:
TEAM | PTS | |
1 | Penn St. | 91 |
2 | Minnesota | 90.5 |
3 | Oklahoma St. | 87.5 |
4 | Iowa | 67 |
5 | Ohio St. | 52 |
6 | Edinboro | 48.5 |
7 | Cornell | 46.5 |
8 | Virginia Tech | 45.5 |
9 | Oklahoma | 45 |
10 | Illinois | 37 |
11 | Iowa St. | 35.5 |
11 | Missouri | 35.5 |
11 | Northwestern | 35.5 |
11 | UNI | 35.5 |
15 | Wisconsin | 35 |
The scoreboard was in constant flux on Saturday, with the top 3 teams all holding a lead at some point.
Penn State and Minnesota both carry 7 wrestlers into tonight's final session, while OSU brings 5. The big difference in those numbers, however, is that the Cowboys have 4 in the finals. Penn State and Minnesota only have 2. Two of OSU's finals are matches with either Penn State or Minnesota, so that will be a great opportunity for the Cowboys to make up ground.
ESPN has been doing an excellent job with the coverage and tonight will be no exception, with the final session being carried live in primetime at 8pm Eastern.
The finals look like this:
125 Pounds
Jesse Delgado (Illinois) vs Nahshon Garrett (Cornell)
133 Pounds
Tyler Graff (Wisconsin) 31-4 vs Tony Ramos (Iowa)
141 Pounds
Devin Carter (Virginia Tech) vs Logan Stieber (Ohio St.)
149 Pounds
Jason Tsirtsis (Northwestern) vs Joshua Kindig (Oklahoma St.)
157 Pounds
Dylan Ness (Minnesota) vs Alex Dieringer (Oklahoma St.)
165 Pounds
David Taylor (Penn State) vs Tyler Caldwell (Oklahoma St.)
174 Pounds
Chris Perry (Oklahoma St.) vs Andrew Howe (Oklahoma)
John Smith goes nuts celebrating Perry's 4-0 win over Howe to repeat as NC...
184 Pounds
Jimmy Sheptock (Maryland) vs Ed Ruth (Penn State)
197 Pounds
Nick Heflin (Ohio St) vs J'Den Cox (Missouri)
285 Pounds
Anthony Nelson (Minn) vs Nick Gwiazdowski (NC State)
The Cowboys are underdogs in 3 of the 4 finals, and Caldwell faces a pretty tall task against Taylor of Penn State. The marquee matchup will be Bedlam at 174 pounds with Chris Perry facing Andrew Howe. That oughta be fun in OKC. Most of the matches feature at least the #1 and/or #2 seeds, but 149 pounds provides a drastic detour from that blueprint with Jason Tsirtsis of Northwestern (#5) battling Joshua Kindig of OSU (#11). The bottom half of that bracket would have been a mess if it was March Madness, as none of the single digit seeds made it to the quarterfinals.
While both Penn State and Minnesota have only 2 in the finals, they have 3 and 4 wrestling for 3rd/4th place respectively. OSU will likely need to win at least 3 out of 4 finals to have a shot, and beating the Nittany Lions and the Gophers in the head-to-head matchups will be mandatory.
The lone remaining Cowboy wrestler is Mardsen, who will be fighting for 7th place at 285 pounds. You can see all the brackets here.
Make sure to tune in for what should be a pretty entertaining evening.
GO POKES!!!