Powell, Murray Lead Huskers at NCAA Championships

St. Louis ? Top seed Jason Powell and seventh seed Matt Murray advanced to tonight’s semifinals of the NCAA Championships after posting victories in the their respective quarterfinal matches. Powell recorded his first fall of the competition over Rob Rebmann, while Murray upset second seed Nate Gallick of Iowa State, 4-3.

Leading 2-0 at the end of the first period, Rebmann chose bottom. Powell scored a reversal to give him a 4-0 lead. After the reversal, Powell turned Rebmann onto his back and scored the fall at the 4:28 mark. With the win, Powell will get a rematch against Sam Hazewinkel of Oklahoma. Hazewinkel defeated Powell, 5-2 in the finals of the Big 12 Championships on March 6.

In a rematch of the Big 12 Championships Murray and Gallick went to overtime again, but this time Murray scored the 4-3 victory. After a scoreless first overtime and the match tied at one, each wrestler exchange escapes in the second frames before wrestling to another scoreless overtime period. In the fourth set, each wrestler again exchange escapes to tie the score at three. Murray earned the victory because he had the most riding time after the fourth set.

Shufelt bid to become the third Huskers to advance to the semi-finals fell short as he was upset by sixth seed Dustin Manotti of Cornell, 10-7. Despite controlling Manotti for most of the match, a three point-near fall by sophomore from Cornell proved to be the difference maker in the match.

Wright’s upset bid fell short as he lost to top-seed and undefeated Alex Triapelle of Illinois. Wright jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with a takedown at the 1:16 mark in the first period. Triapelle tied the score up at two with a reversal. In the second frame, Triapelle took the match over with a takedown before riding Wright out in the third period to post the win. The loss by Wright drops him into the consolation bracket.

Padden dropped a 5-3 decision to fourth-seed Ryan Bader of Arizona State. Padden dug an early hole in the match as Bader scored a takedown and a two point-near fall to take a 4-0 lead. After a scoreless second period, Bader was called for his second stall warning to bring Padden within three. With thirty seconds left Padden scored a takedown to cut the lead with one at 4-3. Padden gave Bader an escape to extend his lead to two. Trailing by two, Padden went in for a double leg takedown and dropped Bader to the mat but the official ruled that time had expired giving Bader the two point win.

In consolation action, Matt Keller bounced back from his first loss of the championships to post two victories over Rene Hernandez of Purdue, 7-4 and David Hoffman of Virginia Tech, 11-6. Keller will face second seed Mark Jayne of Illinois, who was upset in the quarterfinals. Jacob Klein also posted two victories as he defeated David Hoffman of Virginia Tech, 11-6 and J.J. Hoffman of Eastern Michigan, 3-1.

Travis Pascoe saw his season end as he fell to Missouri’s Matt Pell, 11-6. Pascoe finishes the year with a 28-7 record. Of his 28 wins, six went for technical falls and five went for pins.

Action continues tonight with consolation and semi-final matches beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Savvis Center in St. Louis, Mo.

Semi-finals
125 1) Jason Powell (NU) vs. Sam Hazewinkel (OU)
141 7) Matt Murray (NU) vs. 3) Teyon Ware (OU)

Quarterfinals
125 1) Jason Powell (NU) by fall over Rob Rebmann (DREXEL), 4:28
141 7) Matt Murray (NU) by decision over 2) Nate Gallick (ISU), 4-3 OT CRITE
149 6) Dustin Manotti (UC) by decision over 3) Travis Shufelt (NU), 10-7
157 1) Alex Tirapelle (IL) by decision over 8) B.J. Wright (NU) , 6-2
197 4) Ryan Bader (ASU) by decision over 5) B.J. Padden (NU) , 5-3

Consolation Matches
133) 9) Matt Keller (NU) by decision over Rene Hernandez (PUR), 7-4
133) 9) Matt Keller (NU), David Hoffman (VT), 11-6
165) Jacob Klein (NU) by major decision over Chris Stith (VT), 9-1
165) Jacob Klein (NU) by decision over 12) J.J. Hoffman (EMU), 3-1
184) 5) Travis Pascoe (NU) by decision over Jerry Rinaldi (UC), 9-5
184) 7) Matt Pell (MU) by decision over 5) Travis Pascoe (NU), 11-6