With the 2006 NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships complete, there’s the annual day of recovering followed by the trip home and in recent years, the race to the internet to see who’s discussing what.
Those that didn’t make the trip have been doing this all weekend. But looking at some facts and figures, here’s some things that you might have missed or you might have been 100 percent aware of at the NCAA championships.
There was a lot of orange
While the University of Oklahoma was the “host” institution, there were thousands more orange shirts in the Ford Center lower levels than there were the crimson. The official attendance was announced as 95,501, which is likely tickets sold, since some of the early sessions had empty seats scattered throughout the venue, but regardless, the attendance total is the second highest ever. St. Louis in 2000 still holds the record with 96,994 at the Savvis Center.
The Ford Center is somewhat of a misnomer. Not saying this is a bad thing, but before Hurricane Katrina uprooted New Orleans’ professional sports teams, Oklahoma’s highest level of professional sports was minor league hockey and Arena Football. Why is it a misnomer? Not too many minor-league hockey teams, like the Oklahoma City Blazers, have an arena that seats 18,000-plus. According to the Ford Center’s official website, okfordcenter.com, seating capacity for the Arena Football’s Yard Dawgz is 17,868, while for Hornets games its 19,599.
Built in 2002 without a professional tenant, the Ford Center was a solid venue for the NCAA championships. For those staying in hotels near the arena, like the Sheraton or the Renaissance, the short walk to the Ford Center was fine, despite the wet and foggy conditions, which apparently Oklahomans were waiting on, due to brush fires around the state as a result of a prolonged drought.
The walk down to Bricktown between sessions was simple and the Cox Convention Center situated adjacent to the Ford Center made the fan fest pretty easy.
Overall, Oklahoma City was a fine place to hold the event, despite the grumblings of travel costs getting there if you delayed in making your reservations.
Speaking of delays
There’s a good chance some of you that made the trip and planned on flying back on Sunday got a chance to see many coaches, competitors and former All-Americans at the airport.
No, we’re not talking about just a glance “”Hey, there’s Zach Roberson!” But delays upon delays due to “weather” in Dallas, where many of the Oklahoma City flights were connecting through. “Hey, there goes Zach Roberson … again. “Care do draw comparisons to National Lampoon’s European Vacation?
“Hey kids, Big Ben, Parliment!”
Since many airlines overbooked flights, it caused delays and hassles getting out of Oklahoma City. Pat Tocci of the NWCA was set to fly out Monday at 7:30 a.m. and finally arrived in Philadelphia at 6 a.m. Tuesday. Photographer Danielle Hobeika arrived for an 11:45 a.m. flight on Sunday morning only to reach her destination in New York City at 4 a.m. Eastern.
Top prep recruit Mack Lewnes of Maryland was also in the same boat as Tocci. Ouch.
We’re guessing that journeys like Pat’s, Danielle’s and Mack’s were standard throughout the weekend.
I’d like to blame mother nature, but I’d rather blame the airlines.
Stat fun
Twenty-two of the 80 All-Americans matched their seeds, good enough for 27.5 percent. In contrast to the March 8 InterMat/NWCA/NWMA Division I Individual rankings, 24 out of 80 wrestlers placed what they were ranked, good enough for 30 percent.
Overall, there was little variance in the rankings with the seeds. Fifty-six of the 80 Top 8 seeds were seeded exactly what they were ranked.
Eleven of the 20 finalists were ranked first or second by the InterMat rankings. Ten of them were in the five weights where the two top seeds met in the final. The exception was Oregon’s Shane Webster, who was ranked second behind American’s Josh Glenn, but was seeded fifth.
Who needs a seed?
There were eight wrestlers that placed that came in unseeded ” half of them came at 165 pounds, which saw four wrestlers place in the top eight that weren’t seeded.
Edinboro’s Deonte Penn had the best finish of any unseeded wrestler, finishing fourth at 165.
Other unseeded wrestlers to place:
Tyler McCormick (Missouri) “7th at 133
Dave Hoffman (Virginia Tech) “8th at 141
Deonte Penn (Edinboro) “4th at 165
Joey Bracamonte (Oregon) “5th at 165
Dan Thompson (The Citadel) “7th at 165
Eric Luedke (Iowa) ““8th at 165
Chris Weidman (Hofstra) “6th at 197
Kirk Nail (Ohio State) “8th at 285
Tough go
Of the 20 wrestlers seeded first or second, only Minnesota’s C.P. Schlatter and Buffalo’s Kyle Cerminara did not place.
Both were seeded second.
Cerminara lost four matches this season, once in a dual to Central Michigan’s Wynn Michalak, then again to Michalak in the MAC final and then in the quarterfinals to Cornell’s Jerry Rinaldi. Cerminara was again faced with another match with Michalak, which he lost 7-5.
Schlatter was pushed to the limit in the opening round by Lock Haven’s Seth Martin before being knocked out of the championship bracket by Harvard’s Andrew Flanagan. Tony Hook of Oregon State eliminated Schlatter 9-3 in the third round consolations.
How InterMat’s “Bad Draws “played out
We put together a list of wrestlers that were “bad draws” prior to the brackets being released at the NCAA championships. While we didn’t list everyone that was a “bad draw,” we still gave some props to some smaller conferences and un-ranked/un-seeded wrestlers. How did they fare?
125 pounds
Bad Draws
Pat Castillo (NIU), Mike Sees (Bloomsburg), Obe Blanc (Lock Haven), Matt Fisk (Lehigh), Austin DeVoe (Mizzou), Ricky Deubel (Edinboro), Steve Mytych (Drexel), Chad Sportelli (Kent State)
What went down
Sees made the biggest impact in the weight, knocking off fourth-seeded Kyle Ott of Illinois in the first round. Sees reached the quarterfinals, losing to Cornell’s Troy Nickerson and was knocked out of All-American contention by Northwestern’s John Velez.
DeVoe, Castillo, Blanc, Deubel and Sportelli each won their first round matches, while Mytych and Fisk lost their opening round bouts. Fisk won three matches in the consolations, beating Mytych and DeVoe, while Castillo won two before falling to Stanford’s Tanner Gardner.
133 pounds
Bad Draws
Mark Budd (Buffalo), Jason Borrelli (Central Michigan), Joe Baker (Navy), Zack Cunliffe (Rider), Josh Pniewski (Gardner-Webb), Jesse Sundell (Iowa State)
What went down
Borrelli made the biggest impact, knocking off Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly in the first round and then beat seventh-seeded Jake Strayer of Penn State to reach the quarterfinals. Cunliffe was injured in his opening round bout with Purdue’s Chris Fleeger and defaulted out. Pniewski and Budd won opening round matches, while Sundell earned the bad draw himself, seeing top-seed Shawn Bunch of Edinboro right off the bat and then was eliminated by Cornell’s Mike Mormile. Baker went 1-2. Budd went 2-2.
We missed the boat on Missouri’s Tyler McCormick, who finished seventh, beating Borrelli in the Round of 12 to earn a Top 8 finish.
141 pounds
Bad Draws
Dave Hoffman (Va. Tech), Vincent Ramirez (UNC), Michael Keefe (UTC), Dave Roberts (Cal Poly), Steve Adamcsik (Rutgers), David Pienaar (Slippery Rock)
What went down
Hoffman, for the second year in a row, ran into the tournament’s top seed early. Last year, it was top-seeded Travis Lee of Cornell in the second round. This year, it was top-seeded Nate Gallick of Iowa State. Hoffman won four straight in the consolations, including a thrilling last-second 7-6 victory over Josh Churella in the Round of 12. Placed eighth.
Keefe won his opening round bout against DeWitt Driscoll of Penn State, Roberts won his opening round bout as well, but Adamcsik, Ramirez and Pienaar fell in the first.
149 pounds
Bad Draws
James Woodall (Penn State), Josh Medina (Lock Haven), Joe Caramanica (N.C. State), Aaron Martin (UTC), Jeff Owens (Cal Poly)
What went down
Not too many shakeups from the bad draws, but Medina did beat 10th-seeded Daniel Elliott of Gardner-Webb in the pigtail before falling to Cornell’s Keith Dickey and Lehigh’s Trevor Chinn. Caramanica was pinned in 19 seconds in his pigtail, Martin beat Owens in the consolations and Woodall lost to former PSU teammate Matt Storniolo in the opening round.
157 pounds
Bad Draws
Kevin Ward (Oklahoma State), Seth Martin (Lock Haven), Andrew Flanagan (Harvard), Ryan Hluschak (Drexel), Michael Chandler (Missouri)
What went down
Martin lost on exactly one minute of riding time in the opening round to Minnesota’s second-seeded C.P. Schlatter “but Flanagan did get the better of Schlatter, knocking him into the consolations in the second round. Unseeded from the Big 12, Michael Chandler beat fourth-seeded Matt Lebe of West Virginia to reach the quarterfinals, while Ward couldn’t get past national champion Ben Cherrington of Boise State in the opening round. Hluschak drew Indiana’s Brandon Becker in the first round, falling 11-0 before losing to Hofstra’s James Strouse in a re-match of the CAA final. Oregon State’s Tony Hook was overlooked as a bad draw, dropping Cornell’s Dustin Manotti in the opening round, but fell to Arizona State’s runner-up Brian Stith in the tiebreaker but then sent Schlatter packing in the consolations.
165 pounds
Bad Draws
Joey Bracamonte (Oregon), Ray Blake (Stanford), Jon Anderson (Army), Deonte Penn (Edinboro)
What went down
Bracamonte and Penn both placed and both beat seeded wrestlers in the first round. Bracamonte had a great run, knocking off fifth-seeded Matt Pell of Missouri in the opener before getting through two unseeded wrestlers to make the semifinals, where he fell to Ryan Churella by a point.
Penn was a winner of sixth-seeded Matt Nagel of Minnesota in the opening round before getting a fall at 10:53 (yes, that time is correct) over unseeded Will Durkee of Northwestern to make the quarters.
Penn beat Bracamonte in the consolation semifinals before defaulting to fourth.
Missed the boat on Daniel Thompson of The Citadel, the 7th-place finisher at the weight.
174 pounds
Bad Draws
Donny Reynolds (Illinois), Matt Palmer (Columbia), Jeremy Larson (Oregon State), Ken Robertson (Eastern Illinois), Dan Miracola (Cornell)
What went down
Robertson and Palmer had the best runs, winning a pair of matches in the consolations, but it was Robertson that upended 10th-seeded Gabriel Dretch of Minnesota in the opening round. Palmer beat Reynolds in the first round, while Miracola went 1-2 and Larson went 0-2.
184 pounds
Bad Draws
Vince Jones (Nebraska), Paul Bradley (Iowa), Rusty Blackmon (Oklahoma State), Dustin Wiles (Penn), Joe Rovelli (Hofstra), Ryan Halsey (Cal Poly)
What went down
Rovelli knocked off 12th-seeded Mike Tamillow of Northwestern after winning a pig-tail and won another match in the consolations. Blackmon and Halsey were non-factors while Jones won three matches in a row in the consolations before being eliminated by Bradley, who finished eighth. While Bradley wasn’t seeded, he was a returning All-American. Wiles was eliminated by Tamillow in the consolations in overtime.
197 pounds
Bad Draws
Dan Erekson (Iowa), Matt Cassidy (Lehigh), Jon Oplinger (Drexel), Jeff Foust (Missouri), Adam Wright (Old Dominion).
What went down
Erekson was bested by Daren Burns of UNC Greensboro in the pig-tail and Wright was the only one to win his opening round bout, beating Foust. Cassidy went 0-2, falling to Rider’s T.J. Morrison in the consolations. Oplinger won a match in the consolations and Wright finished 2-2, beating Morrison before falling to Boise State’s Casey Phelps.
Hofstra’s Chris Weidman, the CAA runner-up to Wright, finished sixth after up-ended top-seeded Wynn Michalak of Central Michigan and eighth-seeded Ryan Bader of Arizona State. We missed the boat on Weidman.
285 pounds
Bad Draws
Paul Weibel (Lehigh), Harold Sherrell (Buffalo), Joel Edwards (Penn State), Andy Patrick (Boise State), Mike Spaid (Bloomsburg)
What went down
Edwards had the best run, winning three straight after an opening round loss to Cain Velasquez of Arizona State to finish in the Top 12. Weibel won his opening round match, as did Patrick, but Spaid and Sherrell went 0-2.
Kirk Nail of Ohio State was the only unseeded wrestler to place, talking eighth.
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