Brandon Precin Places Seventh at NCAA Championships
March 22, 2008
ST. LOUIS -- Sophomore 125-pounder Brandon Precin earned his first-career All-American finish by placing seventh at the NCAA Championships. The eighth-seeded sophomore defeated Old Dominion's 10th-seeded James Nicholson, 5-3. Top-seeded heavyweight Dustin Fox will wrestle in Saturday night's finals against second-seeded JD Bergman of Ohio State. The finals will be televised live by ESPN with coverage beginning at 7:30 p.m. CT. It will be the third meeting between Fox and Bergman, with the last coming in the finals of the Big Ten Championships. Fox is 2-0 against the Buckeye this season. Precin struck first int he seventh-place match, scoring the first points with a first period takedown. He could not keep Nicholson to accumulate riding time and led 2-1 heading into the second. The Wildcat started on top in the second and again, could not keep Nicholson at bay. After an escape, the match was even at 2-2, and went that way into the final period. Precin escaped in the third and wrestlers went neutral. Nicholson was looking for the winning takedown, and Precin was looking for some insurance. After a long headlock, Nicholson tried to score, but Precin countered and took the two points for himself. The late takedown by Precin gave him a 5-2 win and seventh place in his second trip to the NCAA Championships. Precin's campaign began Thursday morning when he faced Cornell's Mike Rodriguez. The eighth-seeded Precin had little trouble advancing to the second round, taking an 11-0 major decision. In the second round, Precin faced another Ivy Leaguer in Penn's Rollie Peterkin. Precin took the second-round match by 8-3 decision to set up the season's third match against Indiana's top-seeded Angel Escobedo.
Precin came within seconds of pulling off the major upset in the quarterfinals, but fell in two tiebreakers by riding time to the top-seeded Hoosier. The loss dropped him into the consolation bracket where he needed to win once to secure All-American status.
The sophomore came out on fire, defeating Bloomsburgh's seventh-seeded Michael Sees by 10-2 major decision. The win ensured Precin a top-eight finish for his first-career All-American finish. In the next round of consolation, Precin fell to Stanford's fourth-seeded Tanner Gardner, 5-0, to put him in the seventh-place match. The true sophomore finishes his season with a 37-9 record. He went 4-2 at the NCAA Championships.
#8 Precin dec. #10 James Nicholson (Old Dominion), 5-2
Saturday Night Finals Match |
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