By KEVIN EVANS, Executive Sports Editor
ST. LOUIS — Sean Stender left the 2004 NCAA wrestling tournament feeling horrible.
He blew a big lead in the semifinals and, before he left the tourney, injured his ribs and had a sixth-place finish to show for it.
On Friday night, the senior and North Scott High graduate left the 2005 tournament with a place in the NCAA finals secured.
The Northern Iowa 197-pounder beat No. 1 seed and four-time All-American Jon Trenge of Lehigh, 5-3, in the semifinals to become the first Panther to reach the finals since 2000.
“It will be nice. I am looking forward to it, “he said. “It is most every kid’s dream, wrestling up on a stage, everybody’s eyes on you.
“I feel great. This is amazing feeling this good. It is completely the opposite of last year. Last year was the most devastating defeat losing to (Ryan) Fulsaas in the semifinals the way I did after being up by five points.
“Now, words can’t describe it. I just want to go out and win tomorrow.”
By tomorrow, Stender means today’s national finals, and it means a match against Oklahoma State’s Jake Rosholt. In their only meeting this year, Stender lost a 6-2 decision.
With the team championship already locked up for the third straight year by Oklahoma State, individual titles were all that were available for Iowa, Iowa State and UNI wrestlers.
Besides Stender, ISU’s Nate Gallick and Joe Johnston and Mark Perry of Iowa will be wrestling for national titles this afternoon at the Savvis Center.
Oklahoma State ran away with the title, leaving the mat Friday with 127.5 points compared to 71.5 by second-place Cornell and 67 for Michigan.
Iowa stood in fifth with 64 points and Iowa State had 52.5, good for eighth.
Stender said once he got past the quarterfinals, which assured him of being an All-American, he felt the pressure leave.
“I wanted it really bad, “he said. “I felt like I had a 100-pound weight on my shoulders the first couple of matches, coming back wanting to be an All-American again. Once I got past that, I felt great. Today I felt amazing. My body felt great.”
Being a three-time All-American was important to him. He is the first since Justin Greenlee did it in 1993, ’94 and ’95.
“I had people telling me UNI had not had a three-time All-American in a long time, and I kind of had that running through my head, “he said. “That’s something I really wanted. But not only that, I want to win a national title.
“This is personal pride, something I wanted to do since I started wrestling. It makes up for last year. That was the lowest of the low. I thought about it every night almost, and I didn’t want it to happen again.”
Iowa’s two finalists come in a year when the Hawkeyes didn’t win an individual Big Ten championship for the first time since 1969.
“That was a good night. What I like was the effort, “said Iowa coach Jim Zalesky. “We got good effort in the semifinals and (Ty) Eustice and (Paul) Bradley coming back (in the consolations) is huge for us.”
Johnston became the lowest seeded finalist when he outlasted four-time All-American Jake Percival of Ohio, 9-8.
“For me it is a new wrestling philosophy, “said the eighth-seeded Johnston of his newfound success. “If I wrestle the way I need to wrestle, kind of the throw-back Iowa style of scoring, building your lead ” that mentality ” the wins will take care of themselves.”
Johnston made it to the finals of a weight most coaches thought was the toughest and deepest in the tournament.
Still, when names were mentioned, Johnston was not one who was talked about.
“I knew, my coaches knew, everybody around me knew, “he said. “I came in with the right mindset. The loss to (Alex) Tirapelle in the semifinals at the Big Ten ” he won when he got takedowns late in the second and early in the third off my shots. I knew to beat him I had to stop making myself so open, make sure my shots were just right.”
That’s what he did in the quarterfinals when he upset No. 1-seeded Tirapelle, 6-5.
“He’s just focused, and he’s scoring a lot of points, “said Zalesky. “When he scores a lot of points he usually wins. He’s a little more aware of his defense, too.”
Perry gave Iowa its second finalist when he beat defending national champion Troy Letters of Lehigh, 3-0. Now the Stillwater, Okla., native will face Johny Hendricks of Oklahoma State in the finals.
Perry said he has improved since he stopped worrying so much about his opponents.
“I’ve studied a lot of film on Hendricks, (Ryan) Churella, Letters, “he said. “I just said, ‘This is silly. I am worried about what they are doing instead of what I was doing.'”
Friday, he knew one thing he had to do was keep after Letters and not give him any openings.
“I didn’t want him to get into my legs so I just kept shooting and shooting, “he said.
Just in case he needed any added motivation against Letters, he got it from Lehigh assistant coach Kerry McCoy last summer.
“McCoy said nobody was going to touch Letters, “he said. “I remembered that.”
Perry said he got a lot of his inspiration when his father was an assistant coach at Nebraska. He watched as Nebraska’s Jason Kelber upset defending champ Terry Brands of Iowa.
“I have wanted to be a national champion ever since I saw that, “said Perry.
Iowa State won one of two semifinals. Gallick, one of just four undefeated wrestlers entering the tournament, made it 29 straight when he beat Michigan State’s Andy Simmons, 2-0, at 141.
“We worked out all summer two years ago so both of us knew each other pretty well, “said Gallick. “It is hard to wrestle guys who you know so well. He is real long and stands very far away from you. That makes for a difficult match.”
In the final he will meet Oklahoma’s Teyon Ware for the fifth time in his career. Gallick is 4-0 in those matches and expects another tough battle.
ISU’s Trent Paulson lost to Michigan’s Ryan Bertin, 10-7, in the other 157-pound semifinal.
The state of Iowa had one other semifinalist, but he was wearing a Minnesota uniform.
Don Bosco’s Mack Reiter lost a tough 6-4 decision at 133 to Edinboro’s Shawn Bunch. Bunch secured the win when he got a takedown off Reiter’s shot with just 29 seconds left in the match.
UNI had one other All-American. Eric Hauan earned his second national placing when he overcame a quarterfinal loss to win two consolation matches at 174.
He beat Andy Roy of Rutgers and Mitch Hancock of Central Michigan, and he can still finish as high as third. Last year he finished sixth.
“He had one bad match, and that was against a guy (Chris Pendleton of Oklahoma State) he has a hard time with, “said Penrith.
“I told him everybody has trouble with a certain guy, we all do. But I said, ‘Guess what? You don’t have to wrestle him anymore. Just go out and win and win.’
“That’s what he did and I am proud of him.”
In addition to Iowa, Cornell has two finalists while Oklahoma State has five. In all 14 schools have wrestlers in the finals.
Kevin Evans can be contacted at (319) 291-1469 or [email protected]
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