April 7, 2010
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EVANSTON, Ill. — Northwestern began the 2009-10 season as the only school in the country to have won an individual NCAA championship in the three previous seasons. While the Wildcats saw that streak come to an end, NU spent the recently completed campaign developing a talent base that featured six newcomers to the starting lineup in addition to one upperclassman, Andrew Nadhir, who reached new heights in his junior year.
In his second season as a starter at 149 pounds and his third overall in the lineup, Nadhir climbed as high as No. 13 in the nation at his weight class while amassing a 24-12 record after starting the season 19-4. Nadhir easily qualified for his first trip to the NCAA Championships in Omaha where he won three of his five matches and finished one win shy of reaching All-American status. With the graduation of several top-5 ranked Big Ten wrestlers this season, Nadhir stands poised to vie for the top spot in the conference at 149 pounds when his senior season rolls around.
Narrowly missing out on joining Nadhir at the NCAA Championships were senior Eric Metzler at 133 pounds and redshirt freshman Brian Roddy, Jr. at 174 pounds. Metzler closed his career with a 14-12 senior season and several victories over NCAA qualifiers; six of his 12 losses during the year came by three points or fewer. Roddy, meanwhile, recovered from missing the early portion of the year due to injury to go 4-3 in his first Big Ten season and set the stage for a bright future as a starter.
Metzler and Roddy each contributed key victories over eventual NCAA qualifiers in Northwestern's most memorable dual win of the season, a 20-16 edging of Michigan on Senior Day at Welsh-Ryan Arena on Feb. 21. In addition to it being Metzler's final home contest, it also marked the last dual match under the direction of head coach Tim Cysewski, who after 20 seasons will be switching places with associate head coach Drew Pariano before the start of next season.
With a number of Cysewski's distinguished wrestling alumni and former All-Americans in the seats at Welsh-Ryan, the Wildcats were able to defeat the Wolverines thanks in part to Metzler's 14-12 come-from-behind decision over Zac Stevens and Roddy's 8-3 decision against Justin Zeerip.
The victory gave Cysewski his 155th career dual win, the most ever by a Northwestern wrestling head coach. In all, Cysewski guided his wrestlers to four individual NCAA titles and coached a total of 27 All-Americans, 12 Big Ten champions and 89 qualifiers to the national tournament. At 56 years of age, Cysewski is still committed to developing future Big Ten and NCAA champions and figures to play a key role in Pariano's first seasons as NU head coach.
Earlier in the year, Northwestern suffered a few key injuries to starters that thrust several redshirt and true freshmen into roles that were unforeseen when the season got underway. Already without two NCAA qualifiers in Brandon Precin (125) and Jason Welch (157) who were using their redshirts in 2009-10, Northwestern lost veterans Keith Sulzer, Ben Kuhar, Robert Joyce and Kyle Bertin to injury along the way. Consequently, true freshmen Levi Mele (125/141) and Kevin Bialka (157) moved into permanent positions as starters while their classmate Marcus Shrewsbury bumped up to heavyweight after starting the season at 184 to fill a void left by Kuhar's absence.
All three answered every call to help Northwestern to six dual victories throughout the season, including a dominating 42-6 victory at Cleveland State in December during which four Wildcats won by fall. After competing at the NWCA National Duals in Cedar Falls, Iowa, for a program-best fifth consecutive year, NU traveled to the Lone Star Duals where it won matches over both Air Force (26-15) and Brown (23-18). Against the Bears in the tournament finale, NU surrendered 12 team points due to forfeit before Shrewsbury stepped in and won a 2-1 overtime decision against Brown's Larry Otsuka in the final bout to secure the victory for the 'Cats.
In addition to the return of Precin and Welch in 2010-11, Northwestern brings back a wealth of experience from top to bottom with only Metzler departing after his five years of leadership and complete dedication to Northwestern wrestling. Joining the current Wildcats will be the nation's second-ranked recruiting class, which figures to make an immediate impact on the mats for Northwestern.
A Midlands Championships to Remember
During its long and illustrious history, the Midlands Championships hosted by Northwestern has come to represent the first leg of the triple crown of college wrestling, and this season was no different. On Dec. 29-30, 2009, the Wildcats hosted the 47th edition of the Midlands, which as usual turned out to provide wrestling fans a great preview of the NCAA Championships in Omaha 10 weeks later. Seven of the 10 NCAA champions in 2010 competed at this year's Midlands, including five who claimed titles at both events.
In all, more than 40 percent of this year's 80 NCAA All-Americans were in the field at 2009 Midlands Championships.