At 2003 NCAA Division I Championships, Oklahoma State Takes Team Title; Upsets and Unusual Occurrences Make News
Article by Mark Palmer, Photos by Danielle Hobeika
Things never go exactly as planned at any NCAA Division I wrestling championship. Despite seeding selections and brackets based on wrestlers’ records, the phrase “expect the unexpected” would be appropriate for the collegiate championships in any given year.
However, the 2003 NCAAs -- held March 20-22 at Kemper Arena in Kansas City, Missouri – seemed to have more upsets, unusual occurrences and surprise endings than typical. It was as if Stephen King and O. Henry had gotten together to write the plot for this wrestling championship.
Cowboys lasso team title. Before the tournament, most predicted a tight three-school race between the top-ranked Oklahoma State, two-time defending champs Minnesota, and perennial powerhouse Iowa. However, the Cowboys rode out of Kansas City way out in front with 143 points; the second-place Gophers earned 104.5 points. Iowa was out of the title hunt, coming in eighth place, the Hawkeyes’ worst showing since 1974.
It was the first time since 1994 – when Oklahoma State last claimed the title – the team championship at the NCAAs did not go to the Iowa Hawkeyes or Minnesota Golden Gophers.
Although it had been nearly a decade since Oklahoma State was team champion, the Cowboys have a rich tradition of winning big at the big show. Since the NCAA championships were established in 1928, the Cowboys have won 31 titles, a record unmatched by any other Division I program.
1. Oklahoma State 143 points
2. Minnesota 104.5
3. Oklahoma 78
4. Lehigh 69
5. Arizona State 65
6. Penn State 62
7. Michigan 58
8. Iowa 57.5
9. Illinois 53
10. Cornell 52In recent years, much has been made of a Hawkeye dynasty. True, Iowa has won a total of twenty team titles since the 1970s under Gary Kurdelmeier, Dan Gable, and present coach Jim Zalesky. However, the Oklahoma State legacy was born at the first NCAAs. The Cowboys took the first-ever team title in 1928, and under the direction of coach Edward Gallagher, won most of the titles up to 1940. After World War II and into the 1950s, coach Art Griffith continued the dynasty… with Myron Roderick picking up the coaching reins in 1958 with a title-winning tradition that lasted into the late 1960s. The Cowboys are now coached by Olympic gold medallist (and Oklahoma State alum) John Smith, who led them to the team title in 1994.
133 lb finals: Johnny Thompson of Oklahoma State (left) defeated rival Ryan Lewis ofs Minnesota (right) in a rematch of last year's finals “It is a good feeling. It’s good to take it home and deliver our program its 31st title,” coach Smith told TheMat.com. “I’m proud that our student-athletes can share in this. We had this in the back of our minds all season long. But it is a different thing to actually do it. They got it done. They earned it.”
Placing third in the team standings was Oklahoma, with 78 points. Lehigh earned 69 points to finish fourth; Arizona State came in fifth with 65 points.Oklahoma State had two individual champions (Johnny Thompson and Jake Rosholt), three third-place finishers, a fourth, and a fifth. Minnesota had one champion (Damion Hahn), two runners-up, a third, fourth and eighth. The Oklahoma Sooners had two champions (Teyon Ware and Robbie Waller) and a third-place finisher. Lehigh had no individual titlewinners, but two runners-up, a fifth and an eighth. The Sun Devils of Arizona State had one champ (Eric Larkin), as well as a third- and a fourth-place finisher.
Upsets and unusual occurrences on the road to the finals. The championships got off to a strange start before the first of the 330 qualifying wrestlers took to the mat… and grew more unusual as weekend unfolded:
•Cooperman out before the tournament begins: The NCAA listed Cory Cooperman, the Lehigh 133-pounder, as not making weight… even though he didn’t show up at weigh-ins. On the advice of doctors and his coaches, the sixth-seeded freshman withdrew from the competition because of a week-long illness that prevented him from working out or making weight.
• Jones knocked out in first round: Defending 174 lb champ and top-seeded sophomore Greg Jones of West Virginia lost his very first match of the tournament to unseeded Ralph Everett of Hofstra in double overtime 3-2. It was the first time in NCAA history that a top-seeded champion was eliminated in the first round. In addition to crushing Jones’ repeat title hopes, this loss ended his 46-match winning streak.
• Esposito booted in second session: Oklahoma State’s 141 lb freshman phenom Zack Esposito – seeded second for the tournament – lost his second-round match to unseeded Shane Cunanan, one of Greg Jones’ teammates.
• Rowlands goes out with ankle injury: 2002 NCAA heavyweight champ Tommy Rowlands of Ohio State suffered an ankle injury in an early-round match, and was forced to sit out the rest of the tournament… eliminating any chance for a much-anticipated rematch against Iowa’s Steve Mocco, who lost to Rowlands in the NCAA finals one year ago, but had bested the Buckeye in all three face-offs this season, including the Big Ten championship finals.
• Simmons loses for using chokehold: Another much-talked-about freshman -- Michigan State’s Nick Simmons – lost a double-overtime tiebreaker to unseeded Terrance Clendenin of Lehigh when he was penalized one point for using an illegal chokehold in a 125 lb preliminary bout.
• Mocco nearly loses on illegal move: Unbeaten, top-seeded Iowa heavyweight Steve Mocco nearly saw his title dream exit the arena under highly unusual circumstances. In an early-round match against unseeded Scott Coleman of Iowa State, Mocco, ahead on points, applied an arm bar on his cross-state rival. The referee said the arm was bent back too far, making it an illegal hold, and penalized Mocco one point. Coleman was injured by the move; if he had been unable to continue, Mocco would have been disqualified. Iowa State coach Bobby Douglas intervened with a solution acceptable to all: The match was restarted for one second, with both wrestlers standing on the mat. Coleman immediately indicated he could not continue, making it an injury default win for Mocco. The Hawkeye heavyweight was still expressing his thanks two days later after the finals: “I have a lot of respect for the Iowa State coaches and program. They could have put me in a wild state of mind. Now if it was not for Bobby Douglas, I wouldn’t be here.”
• Fronhofer – from pigtails to finals: One of the true Cinderella stories from the 2003 NCAAs was Carl Fronhofer of the University of Pittsburgh in the 174 lb weight class. He arrived in Kansas City unseeded, having to start in the pigtail portion of the bracket -- essentially wrestling an extra match. In the pigtails Fronhofer pinned ninth-seeded Blake Kaplan of Ohio State. Next, he earned an 11-3 major decision over Curtis Yeager of Millersville… then beat eight-seeded Brian Glynn of Illinois 3-2… then bested Ralph Everett of Hofstra 4-1 in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, Fronhofer defeated Shane Webster of Oregon 3-2… and earned his place in the finals.
Finals.With all the plot twists leading up to the Saturday afternoon showdown, it seems only fitting that four freshmen made it into finals (Teyon Ware, Alex Tirapelle, Jake Rosholt and Troy Letters)… and only two defending champions (Johnny Thompson and Jared Lawrence). And it should be no surprise that some of the championship bouts would have some twists and turns, too.
• 125: In a battle of undefeated sophomores, second-seeded Travis Lee of Cornell beat Purdue’s top-seed Chris Fleeger 6-4. The match had been tied 4-4 into the third when the Ivy League wrestler scored a takedown on the Boilermaker. Lee is the first Hawaii-born wrestler to win an NCAA title.
• 133: Oklahoma State junior Johnny Thompson was the only 2002 NCAA champ to take home a title again in 2003, beating Ryan Lewis of Minnesota 5-3. This was a rematch of last year’s finals (which Thompson won) and a bit of revenge for a January match that Lewis won.
• 141: Top-seeded freshman Teyon Ware of Oklahoma secured a 6-4 overtime win over number three seed Dylan Long of Northern Iowa. The score had been tied 4-4 in regulation when Ware appeared to score a takedown. Upon review, the officials decided there was no takedown, and the match went into overtime. The Sooner scored a takedown on Long to secure the sudden victory. To celebrate, Ware performed a series of back handsprings and a backflip.
• 149: Arizona senior Eric Larkin was true to his top-seeded ranking, capping off his career with a 10-8 win over defending champ Jared Lawrence of Minnesota, and earning the tournament’s Outstanding Wrestler honor. Larkin, a married father of two, demonstrated continuous improvement in his four NCAA appearances, finishing 4-3-2-1.
• 157: Michigan’s Ryan Bertin was brought to tears – tears of joy – after he overcame a season of injuries to defeat Illinois freshman Alex Tirapelle by the score of 7-3. The sixth-seeded Bertin scored two takedowns in the second period to take the lead over his ninth-seeded Big Ten rival and did not look back.
• 165: Matt Lackey had come a long way from his loss in last year’s finals. The Illinois senior, coming off a stellar unbeaten season (including a Midlands championship), found his finals bout with Lehigh’s Troy Letters too close for comfort. Towards the end of the bout, ahead 4-3, Lackey stunned the crowd – and his freshman opponent – with a powerful footsweep near the end of the bout to bring Letters crashing to the mat... and putting the match out of reach with a final score of 6-3.
• 174: Oklahoma’s Robbie Waller, seeded third, defeated unseeded Carl Fronhofer of Pitt 7-2. Fronhofer scored first with a takedown, but it was the senior Sooner who did all the scoring from that point on.
• 184: Call it a case of sweet revenge. Two weeks earlier, powerful Scott Barker of Missouri had overwhelmed Oklahoma State redshirt freshman Jake Rosholt to win the Big Twelve championship by the score of 9-1. At the NCAAs, the two met again in the finals. The match was close in the first two periods before the tenth-seeded Rosholt scored two takedowns and a three-point near fall to beat Barker 13-8.
• 197: In the battle of the junior-class warriors, it appeared that top seed Jon Trenge of Lehigh would be crowned champion in his second trip to the finals (having lost to Cael Sanderson last year). But Minnesota’s Damion Hahn had other plans. Trailing 4-3 with just seconds left, the sixth-seeded Golden Gopher attempted a lateral drop. Trenge slipped through that shot, but Hahn recovered, spun the Mountain Hawk around, scoring a takedown right at the buzzer for the 5-4 win.
• 285: Having nearly lost a chance at the heavyweight title in his early-round match with Coleman of Iowa State, undefeated sophomore Steve Mocco of Iowa proved his top-ranked status by controlling senior Kevin Hoy of Air Force, scoring three takedowns on his way to an 8-3 victory.When the last match was over, there were three champs who had been seeded sixth or lower (Bertin, Rosholt and Hahn)… two freshmen champs (Ware and Rosholt)... but only one champ who had also been a 2002 titleholder (Thompson).
All-Americans: Oklahoma State led the way with seven wrestlers who placed eighth or higher at the NCAAs; Minnesota had six, followed by Lehigh and Penn State with four each. Here’s the entire list:
• 125: Lee (Cornell), Fleeger (Purdue), Powell (Nebraska), Grant (Michigan), Black (Wisconsin), VomBaur (Boise State), Simmons (Michigan State), Lowe (Minnesota)
• 133: Thompson (Oklahoma State), Lewis (Minnesota), J. Moore (Penn State), Roberson (Iowa State), Martinez (Clarion), C. Moore (Iowa), Sola (North Carolina), Lauer (West Virginia)
• 141: Ware (Oklahoma), Long (Northern Iowa), Simpson (Army), Moore (Penn State), Mester (Central Michigan), Cunanan (West Virginia), Holker (Iowa State), Maney (Lock Haven)
• 149: Larkin (Arizona State), Lawrence (Minnesota), Jantzen (Harvard), Sanders (Oklahoma State), Percival (Ohio), Robertson (Boise State), Masa (Hofstra), Manotti (Cornell)
• 157: Bertin (Michigan), Tirapelle (Illinois), Roller (Oklahoma State), Becker (Minnesota), Owen (Northern Illinois), Anderson (Ohio State), Maynard (Michigan State), Zinck (Lehigh)
• 165: Lackey (Illinois), Letters (Lehigh), Volkmann (Minnesota), King (Edinboro), Lewis (Oklahoma State), Clark (Ohio State), Edwards (Navy), Woodley (Missouri)
• 174: Waller (Oklahoma), Fronhofer (Pittsburgh), Pendleton (Oklahoma State), Owen (Arizona State), Lillon (Lehigh), Webster (Oregon), Fee (Appalachian State), Lange (Purdue)
• 184: Rosholt (Oklahoma State), Barker (Missouri), Lambrecht (Oklahoma), Smith (Iowa), Wattenberg (Cornell), Heizer (Northern Illinois), Becks (Penn State), Parker (Princeton)
• 197: Hahn (Minnesota), Trenge (Lehigh), Laval (Oklahoma State), Stender (Northern Iowa), Ruiz (Nebraska), Skretkowicz (Hofstra), Smith (Michigan), Botelho (Fresno State)
• 285: Mocco (Iowa), Hoy (Air Force), Rushton (Boise State), Cummins (Penn State), Fluckiger (Arizona State), Rowlands (Ohio State), Feast (Pennsylvania), Testa (Clarion)Final numbers: Attendance at Kemper Arena for each of the early-round sessions was just shy of 16,000… with 16,436 fans on hand to witness the Saturday afternoon finals.
Next year, the NCAAs will move eastward on I-70 to the other end of Missouri… to St. Louis, which hosted the 2000 NCAAs. You can imagine that Stephen King and O. Henry are already working on a plot outline for the 2004 NCAAs that are full of upsets, unusual occurrences and surprises!
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