March 8, 2008

Brackets

MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. - Sophomore Franklin Gomez continued his remarkable season, knocking off No. 2-seed Joey Slaton of Iowa in tonight's semifinals, to advance to Sunday's 133-pound finals of the 2008 Big Ten Championships, held at the Williams Arena on the campus of the University of Minnesota. The No. 3 seeded Gomez, who will now face the No. 1 seed, James Kennedy of Illinois, withheld a late flurry from Slaton, the only wrestler to beat Gomez this season, for the 10-8 win.

Gomez' championship match along with the finals bouts of all weight classes can be seen live on the Big Ten Network, beginning at 3 p.m. ET.

"Franklin qualifying for the finals is huge," said head coach Tom Minkel. "He was able to beat the only kid that was able to beat him this year. He fought hard and will now be a top seed entering the NCAAs and with a win tomorrow he probably will be No. 1 in the country. Overall, it was a rough day for us. He came out banged up and had a few disappointments. However, we still have a couple guys who can finish strong and qualify for the nationals tomorrow."

Gomez, who is now 27-1 on the season, began his night with a takedown 50 seconds in, but just over 20 seconds later Slaton escaped. Just under a minute later, Gomez gathered another takedown and would Slaton escape. With the score 4-2 beginning the second, Gomez started down and after almost a minute and a half of Iowa riding time, the Spartan escaped and quickly posted a takedown to open up a 7-2 lead after two. Slaton, who had a furious effort in the third, started down and put together a reversal 23 seconds in. Gomez quickly escaped, but was back down on the mat with 44 seconds remaining on a Slaton takedown. Slaton let Gomez escape and again followed quickly with a takedown with 21 seconds left to bring the score to 9-8. An escape by Gomez brought the score to 10-8, but despite a scrambled effort in the final seconds by Slaton, Gomez was able to hold on for the hard-fought win.

Sophomore Nick Palmieri, and juniors John Murphy and Jeff Wimberley each won their first consolation round match, but fell in their last bout of the night. Each Spartan will now wrestle in the seventh place match in their respective weight classes for an NCAA berth.

Palmieri upset No. 7 Benjamin Friedl of Illinois, 3-1 in the 184-pound class to begin his second session, but would fall to Wisconsin's Trevor Brandvold, 5-2 in his last match on Saturday. Palmieri will square-off with No. 8-seed A.J. Kissel of Purdue on Sunday.

Murphy posted a win over Ohio State's Alex Picazo, 4-3 at 174 pounds. After a scoreless first, Picazo started down and scored the bout's first point, and the lone point of the second period. with an early escape. Picazo was down again to start the third and Murphy would take the lead with a reversal with 1:27 left. A quick escape by Picazo evened the score at two. Murphy, however, would win the bout with a takedown with 28 seconds on the clock. A Buckeye escape with one second left brought about the 4-3 tally. Murphy was a little banged up going into his next match with No. 5-seed John Dergo of Illinois, falling 10-2. The Spartan junior will face No. 8-seed Dan Clum of Wisconsin in tomorrow's seventh-place bout.

Wimberley posted his second win of the day with a 9-6 victory over Indiana's Scott Kelly. However, he could not knock off his second high seed of the day, losing to 15-0 (5:22) to No. 3 J Jaggers of Ohio State. Wimberley will wrestle Penn State's Garrett Scott, the No. 5 seed, on Sunday for seventh place.

The championships ended for sixth Spartans on Saturday, most notably the 197 pound's No. 5-seed Joe Williams. The senior suffered a takedown with one second on the clock in regulation to lose 2-1 to Purdue's Logan Brown. Also falling tonight was redshirt freshman Joel Trombly at 125 pounds, junior Eddie Skowneski, who had to withdraw at 149 pounds due to injury, redshirt freshman and No. 8-seed John Fulger at 157 pounds, junior Rex Kendle, the No. 8 seed at 165 pounds, and heavyweight Alan O'Donnell.

As a team, the Spartans are in 11th place with 30 points. Minnesota leads the field with 106, followed by Iowa (93.5), Illinois (79), Michigan (78), Ohio State (76.5), Penn State (68), Indiana (66.5), Wisconsin (66), Northwestern (65) and Purdue (39.5).

Sunday's competition is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET.