Minnesota defeats West Virginia, Central Michigan
University of Minnesota Sports Information

The defending national champion Minnesota Golden Gopher wrestling team stayed alive in the 2008 NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals, defeating both West Virginia and No. 5 Central Michigan Saturday in Cedar Falls, Iowa. The sixth-ranked Gophers (seeded fifth this weekend) rolled over the Mountaineers 32-9 in their first round match-up before squeaking by the Chippewas 20-16 in Saturday afternoon's second round.

Minnesota, which is the two-time defending team champion in the annual 16-team Division I portion of the tournament, won 13 of 20 bouts in their first two duals and advances to face No. 10 Nebraska in Sunday's semifinal. The Gophers have won their past 10 National Duals meets dating back to 2006 and are attempting to become just the second team in the 18-year history of the event to win three titles in a row (Oklahoma State won three in a row from 2003-05).

Minnesota's first meet of the tournament began bright and early at 9 a.m. against the unranked Mountaineers of West Virginia. One-hundred twenty-five pound sophomore Jayson Ness, sitting on a consecutive pins streak of six (tied for third-longest in school history) saw his streak come to an end but still gave the Gophers a 6-0 lead with a win by injury default. Seniors Mack Reiter (an 18-1 tech fall decision) and Manny Rivera (a pin in 4:48) followed Ness with victories of their own and gave the Gophers a commanding 17-0 lead in the dual.

Two-time All-American Dustin Schlatter was held out of this weekend's competition due to injury, and his replacement (freshman Luke Mellmer) suffered a defeat before No. 6 C.P. Schlatter emerged with a win in the only match between ranked wrestlers in the dual. Schlatter scored a takedown with 30 seconds remaining to gain a 4-1 win over No. 17 Zac Fryling of WVU, giving Minnesota a 20-3 lead.

2007 NCAA qualifier Tyler Safratowich filled in for the injured No. 18 Scott Glasser at 165 pounds and won handily, a 6-2 decision. After a pin from No. 10 Gabe Dretsch at 174 pounds and losses by Brandon Sitch (filling in for second-ranked Roger Kish at 184) and Justin Bronson (197 pounds), the Gophers' newest heavyweight – former 197-pound sophomore Yura Malamura – scored an impressive upset victory over No. 13 Dustin Rogers of West Virginia. Despite giving up a significant weight advantage to the ranked heavyweight, Malamura used superior speed and quickness to emerge the 7-5 victor.

The Gophers' next opponent, the fourth-seeded Chippewas, proved a much more difficult test. Despite a Kish loss at 184 pounds, the Gophers prevailed behind an important Dretsch upset of No. 3 Brandon Sinnott at 174 pounds. Minnesota is now 9-0 all-time against Central Michigan in dual meets, including 5-0 in National Duals competition.
Ness improved his season record to 21-0 with yet another opening-meet victory at 125 pounds, topping No. 14 Luke Smith of CMU 8-2. The Gophers' lightweight dominance continued at 133 and 141 pounds, with Reiter and Rivera picking up their second wins of the weekend. Reiter picked up a bonus point with a 10-1 major decision over Conor Beebe, and Rivera defeated No. 16 Eric Kruger 7-5 to put the Gophers up 10-0 in the dual.

After Mellmer was quickly pinned in the 149-pound match (making the score 10-6), C.P. Schlatter and Safratowich go the Gophers back on track. Schlatter trounced Tyler Grayson 8-2 to make the team score 13-6 in favor of Minnesota, and Safratowich picked up four more team points with a 13-5 major decision win of his own, setting up Dretsch's heroics.

With a 17-6 lead entering the final four matches of the dual, Minnesota needed an individual victory in at least one to ensure a team win. Dretsch (who entered the weekend ranked 10th at 174 pounds) was up to the task and controlled the country's third-ranked wrestler for most of the match en route to a 6-3 win. The victory was Dretsch's third over a ranked opponent this season as Sinnott becomes is the highest-ranked wrestler Dretsch has defeated in 144 career matches.

Kish, who had not competed in a meet or tournament in over a month due to injury, played it safe in his match with No. 3 Christian Sinnott but lost a tight 3-2 decision. It was just the second loss of the season for Kish (following a 3-1 defeat by No. 1 Jake Varner on Dec. 2) as he dropped to 8-2 on the season.

With a 20-9 lead entering the final two matches of the meet, the Gophers simply needed to avoid being pinned twice to win the dual. Bronson accomplished just that at 197 pounds, lasting the entire seven minutes despite a 17-4 major decision loss. Malamura battled against the much-heavier No. 8 Bubba Gritter at heavyweight but closed out the meet with an 8-3 loss.

The Gophers now advance to face the upstart Cornhuskers, a team many experts believed to be a tournament favorite despite entering the event unseeded. The Gophers' early-season victory over Nebraska was actually much closer than the final score (25-13 in favor of Minnesota) would suggest – the Cornhuskers won four of the eight matches in which they did not forfeit. The Gophers enjoy a 46-17 edge in the all-time series with Nebraska, with one of those wins (a 30-9 victory in 2001) coming at the National Duals.

After missing the two teams' early-season match-up due to an injury, the Huskers have regained the services of 2007 125-pound national champ Paul Donahoe, setting up a potentially memorable match-up with Ness Sunday morning. The pair have met three times in their careers thus far – Ness won twice in 2006-07, but Donanhoe was a 5-2 winner at the 2007 NWCA All-Star Classic last November.

If the Gophers can advance past the Cornhuskers, they would face the winner of Iowa and Michigan in the championship at 3 p.m. Gophersports.com will be on hand to provide match-by-match updates, and fans can also follow the action live via LiveSportsVideo.com and TakedownRadio.com.

The NWCA/Cliff Keen National Duals features 86 teams (including Divisions I through III, NAIA and NJCAA) and over 1,400 wrestlers on 18 mats of continuous competition. The University of Northern Iowa is hosting the event for the third straight year at the UNI-Dome in Cedar Falls.