May 1, 2009
EVANSTON, Ill. -- Northwestern has recently grown accustomed to bringing home its share of hardware and the 2008-09 campaign was no different. Senior Jake Herbert cemented his place on the Big Ten's list of most accomplished wrestlers by winning the 2009 Hodge Trophy as the sport's top performer after winning his second NCAA crown. Herbert's title at 184 pounds left Northwestern as the only school in the country to have had an NCAA individual champion in each of the past three seasons.
NU entered this season's NCAA meet in St. Louis as one of only two programs with title-winners in 2007 and 2008 along with Iowa, which was shut out from having an individual champ in 2009 but still managed to take home the team crown.
After spending a year away from campus in an attempt to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Herbert came back to the team determined to defend his 2007 NCAA title. He did so by obliterating his competition en route to a 34-0 record--extending his collegiate winning streak to 66 matches--his third Midlands and Big Ten championships and a victory in the NCAA final over the 2008 title-winner, Mike Pucillo of Ohio State. Herbert concluded his career with a 149-4 record--good for the second-most wins in NU history--and a 135-4 varsity mark that represents the fifth-best winning percentage among all Division I wrestlers since the 1974-75 season.
In addition to winning its third individual title in three years, Northwestern also saw one of its competitors reach All-American status for the second time in his career. Junior Brandon Precin placed third in the country thanks to his win in the consolation final of the 125-pound weight class over Anthony Robles of Arizona State, who had defeated Precin 9-0 in the quarterfinal earlier in the tournament.
Redshirt sophomore Keith Sulzer made his second appearance in the NCAA Championships at 141 pounds while true freshman Jason Welch qualified after spending much of the year ranked in the top 15 at 157 pounds. The four Wildcat qualifiers posted a combined record of 14-5 at NCAAs, notching the highest team winning percentage (.737) for any school at this year's event.
NU also landed a trio of wrestlers in the finals of the Big Ten Championships in Herbert-- the top seed at 184--and Precin and Welch, who both finished at their seed of No. 2.
Head coach Tim Cysewski, who now has 19 years in the books as the coach of the Wildcats, saw his squad enjoy a promising start to the year at the Michigan State Open. Herbert's first match back after the year away from college wrestling ended up being the shortest match of the year for any NU wrestler as he picked up a fall in just 14 seconds against Hunter Collins of Michigan.
Precin reached the tournament finals where he was narrowly edged by former national champion Paul Donahoe of Edinboro in overtime. The loss was the first of three to former national champions during the season for Precin--the other two coming against Indiana's Angel Escobedo--while the only other loss of his 33-4 campaign was the quarterfinal bout against Robles.
Northwestern started its dual season with a trio of wins at the Purdue Duals over Kent State, Tennessee-Chattanooga and Eastern Michigan before heading to the West Coast in late November. NU faced Stanford and UC-Davis in two different cities in the same day and split the decisions, earning a 25-15 victory at Stanford despite the absence of Welch, who missed the tour of his home state due to illness.
After a convincing 27-12 win in the home opener against Northern Illinois in which true freshman Paul Rands capped off the night with a pin, NU posted back-to-back wins in the Keystone State over Pittsburgh and Clarion. Herbert did not disappoint the host of friends and family who came to see him against Clarion, tech falling Clint Podish 26-9 to lead the 'Cats to a 29-3 win in the gym of his high school alma mater, North Allegheny.
From there it was on to the 46th annual Midlands Championships at Welsh-Ryan Arena, where NU's duo of All-Americans extended Northwestern's recent run of success at its home tournament. Precin captured his first Midlands title with a victory over Iowa State's Tyler Clark in the final while Herbert won his weight class in dominant fashion, besting second-seeded Phil Keddy of Iowa in the final match by a 15-1 margin. Herbert was a unanimous selection for the Dan Gable Outstanding Wrestler Award.
It was the second time in three years that NU won two championships at one of the most competitive open tournaments in college wrestling. The 'Cats took fifth place as a team.
Welch, who placed sixth in 2007 as a high school senior, finished fifth in his true freshman season after being knocked out of the championship bracket by eventual champion Chris Bono, the 34-year-old head coach of Tennessee-Chattanooga who now has won four Midlands crowns. Welch's fellow true freshman Eric Galka was recognized for recording the fastest fall of the tournament, a pin in 18 seconds against Vince Vallez of Triton.
Northwestern made its fourth consecutive appearance in the prestigious NWCA National Duals event, the longest such streak in program history. NU squared off against No. 4 Nebraska in the first round for the second straight year and found itself tied after seven matches. A pin by Herbert against Vince Jones gave the Wildcats a six-point lead, but top-ranked Craig Brester managed to score four points on a major decision of John Schoen to lift the Huskers to a 19-18 win before NU fell in the second round to another top Big XII team, No. 5 Missouri.
Junior Eric Metzler made his return to the lineup at 133 for Northwestern after missing the first half of the year due to injuries. Metzler went 2-0 for the Wildcats against Nebraska and Missouri in Cedar Falls.
It was an impressive start to the 2009 Big Ten dual season for Northwestern as the 'Cats downed Michigan State with eight bout victories in Welsh-Ryan Arena. Two days later, NU faced No. 15 Wisconsin at home and emerged with a dramatic 21-19 win thanks to a pin by redshirt freshman Robert Kellogg at 174. Kellogg trailed 4-1 against Travis Rutt before getting the turn and holding on to win at the 6:19 mark, sending the NU crowd into a frenzy.
The following weekend, 19th-ranked Northwestern battled No. 18 Michigan to a 17-17 tie in Ann Arbor, the first dual meet tie for the Wildcats since Dec. 12, 1999, against Central Michigan. Herbert and Precin led NU through close road losses at Illinois and Minnesota before the 'Cats wrestled their last road dual at Indiana, where Precin was narrowly edged by Escobedo in a 3-1 sudden victory decision.
A much-anticipated matchup between Herbert and Pucillo did not come to fruition when the Buckeyes visited Evanston as Pucillo instead moved up to 197. Pins in their respective matches by Herbert and Pucillo canceled each other out as Ohio State came away with a 23-18 win. Herbert closed out his home career two days later against top-ranked Iowa with a 3-2 decision over Keddy, while Precin notched an impressive pin of fifth-ranked Charlie Falck to end his regular season on a high note.
The highly touted Welch lived up to his No. 2 seed at the Big Ten Championships when he reached the final with a come-from-behind victory over Indiana's Kurt Kinser. Welch had suffered two previous losses in the year to Kinser, including a pin at the Michigan State Open and an 8-1 decision in the dual contest on Feb. 15. But Welch was not discouraged when he fell behind in State College, using an inside trip in the final 15 seconds to take Kinser down for a 4-3 lead and scoring two back points as time expired to avenge his earlier losses to the IU sophomore.
Meanwhile, Wildcat sophomore Andrew Nadhir continued his stellar wrestling down the stretch at Big Tens when he upset fourth-ranked Lance Palmer of Ohio State 9-8 in tiebreakers in the quarterfinal. In the ensuing match, Nadhir wrestled second-ranked Bubba Jenkins of Penn State to a 1-1 tie before losing by a riding time point on his way to a sixth-place finish at the Championships. Nadhir, who was 6-2 in Big Ten duals and 14-12 overall, narrowly missed out on an invitation to the NCAA Championships as the new qualifying standards left the conference with just five automatic bids at 149 pounds.
Nadhir headlines a promising young crop of wrestlers who gained experience as starters this season, including redshirt freshmen Kellogg (174), Schoen (197) and Ben Kuhar (285). Rands, Galka, Brian Roddy, Jr. and Aaron Jones also figure to be in the mix when next season rolls around as well as incoming freshmen David Helmer (Virginia) and Marcus Shrewsbury (Indiana)--both high school state champions. With Herbert as the only departing starter, Northwestern seems primed and ready to extend its streak of top-15 NCAA finishes to six in 2009-10.