State College, Pa.– The ESPN family of national cable networks will offer extensive live coverage of the 2006 NCAA Wrestling Championships, held on March 16-18 at the Ford Center in Oklahoma City.
Three of the tournament’s six sessions will be covered live, including the championship finals. Coverage begins on Friday, March 17, at 11 a.m. The quarterfinals and consolation bouts will be aired during that early session on ESPNU.
Later on that same Friday, ESPNU and/or ESPN-Plus will carry live coverage of the national semifinals. The next night, ESPN will carry the entire slate of Championship Finals beginning at 7:30 p.m.
Penn State, under the direction of head coach Troy Sunderland, will have eight individuals participating in the three-day tournament. The Nittany Lions will begin action with two sessions on Thursday, March 16.
Heading to Oklahoma City for Penn State are freshman Jake Strayer (South Fork, Pa.) at 133, senior DeWitt Driscoll (Connellsville, Pa.) at 141, senior James Woodall (Dupont, Pa.) at 149, junior Nathan Galloway (State College, Pa.) at 157, junior James Yonushonis (Philipsburg, Pa.) at 174, senior All-American Eric Bradley (Plaistow, N.H.) at 184, sophomore All-American and 2006 Big Ten Champion Phil Davis (Harrisburg, Pa.) at 197 and senior heavyweight Joel Edwards (Upper Darby, Pa.).
Penn State is coming off a fourth-place finish at the 2006 Big Ten Championships. The eight national qualifiers and the fourth-place team finish are the highest for Penn State since the 2003 season. The Nittany Lions are coming off a superb 13-4 dual match season in which they went 5-3 in Big Ten action.
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