VANSTON, Ill. — University of Northern Iowa junior Nick Baima made the most of his two days at the 43rd Annual Midlands Wrestling Championships by being named the Most Outstanding Wrestler after claiming the 165-pound title.
As a team the Panthers finished in a tie with Northern Illinois for sixth place with 79
Illinois won the team title with 115. points followed by Central Michigan with 112.5. Iowa was fourth with 83 while Iowa State scored 82.5 for fifth
Baima became the first UNI wrestler to win an individual title at one of the nation’s most prestigious events since Dylan Long finished off back-to-back titles at 141 pounds in 2003.
Baima was able to score a 6-5 win over Mike Poeta (Illinois) in the 165-pound title match. Baima was a perfect 5-0 in the tournament and he improved his record this season to 18-2. Baima has now won a career-best 10 straight matches.
Poeta led 2-1 after the first period and led 4-3 heading into the third. Baima starts up in the third and tries to earn back points, but lets him up after a stalemate is called. Baima strategy pays off, as he lands a takedown with: 52 left to tie the match at 5.
The match ends tied and goes to overtime. Baima tries to use his massive upper-body to throw Poeta, but they go out-of-bounds. Both wrestlers scramble for shots, but the first tiebreaker of the first overtime ends scoreless. Poeta chooses to start down. Baima begins first time breaker of second overtime down, and Poeta lets him up. Poeta lands shot near the edge of the mat with under: 10 to go, but Baima circles left well and leaves Evanston with a 6-5 championship win in double overtime.
“Nick got taken down twice early but he didn’t panic, “Penrith said. “Nick kept moving him around then he finally got a takedown and took the lead.”
“I really thought we wrestled the best we have this season as a team, “Penrith said. “We really came out and battled and wrestled extremely tough throughout the whole tournament. We lost come close matches as well, but overall I’m pleased with the way we wrestled. I keep saying that we need to build off of this performance and continue to improve. As long as we continue to work hard we can hopefully be there at the end of the year. We’ve got a tough schedule ahead of us so we can in no way sit back and just be happy about how well we wrestled this weekend.”
For Iowa State, top-seeded Nate Gallick at 141 topped Andy Simmons of Michigan State 5-3 with a takedown in the second overtime.
Baima reached the final with a 4-3 semifinal win over Jared Frayer (GATOR WC). Frayer is currently an assistant coach for Harvard and is a former two-time All-American at the University of Oklahoma.
Poeta reached the final after scoring a 5-4 win over No. 1-seeded Travis Paulson (Iowa State). Baima has suffered only two losses this season and both have come at the hands of Paulson in two earlier tournament finals.
Although Baima was dominant in the tournament, he was far from the entire story as three other Panthers found their way onto the medal stand and head coach Brad Penrith could not have been happier.
At 125 lbs., Seth Wright placed sixth after posting a 5-3 record over the two-day tournament after entering the Midlands as an unseeded competitor.
At 141 lbs. Hudson native C.J. Ettelson came into Midlands as the No. 7 seed but battled his way to third-place finish with a 5-1 record. Ettelson scored an 11-7 victory over No. 4 seed Josh Wooton (Northern Illinois) in the 3rd/4th place match. At 197 lbs Andrew Anderson. finished in fifth.
At 133 Iowa State’s Jesse Sundell fell to Tommy Vargas in the championship match, 9-7. Vargas, a former Northwestern wrestler is now a current grad student and wrestling at Cal State-Bakersfield.
Iowa had three wrestlers finish in second. They were Joe Johnston at 157, Mark Perry at 174 and 285-pounder Matt Fields
TEAM STANDINGS — 1. 115.5 Illinois 115.5, 2. Central Michigan 112.5, 3. Michigan State 99, 4. Iowa 83, 5. Iowa State 82.5, 6. tie, Northern Iowa and Northern Illinois 79, 8. Indiana 66, 9. Cal State-Bakersfield 64, 10. Northwestern 62.5
CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES
125 — #1 Nick Simmons (Michigan State) threw #7 Pat Castillo (Northern Illinois) 5:54; 133 “Tommy Vargas (Cal State-Bakersfield) dec. #7 Jesse Sundell (Iowa State) 9-7; 141 — #1 Nate Gallick (Iowa State) dec. #2 Andy Simmons (Michigan State) 5-3, TB2; 149 — #1 Cliff Moore (Hawk TC) dec. #2 Mark DiSalvo (Central Michigan) 6-4; 157 — #1 Alex Tirapelle (Illinois) dec. #2 Joe Johnston (Iowa) 3-0; 165 — #3 Nick Baima (Northern Iowa) dec. #4 Mike Poeta (Illinois) 6-5; 174 — #1 Jake Herbert (Northwestern) dec. #2 Mark Perry (Iowa) 5-4; 184 — #3 Pete Friedl (Illinois) dec. #1 Ben Wissel (Purdue) 3-1; 197 “#1 Wynn Michalak (Central Michigan) dec. #3 Tyrone Byrd (Illinois) 1-0; 285 – #2 Les Sigman (UNO) maj. dec. #4 Matt Fields (Iowa) 9-0.
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