Huskers Fall to No. 1 Gophers

Lincoln---Chris Oliver upset second-ranked C.P. Schlatter at 157 pounds, but top-ranked Minnesota defeated the 21st-ranked Nebraska wrestling team, 32-6, Sunday at the NU Coliseum in the final home dual of the year for the Huskers.

 

The Golden Gophers built a 15-0 lead by winning the first four matches, but in three of those matches, Minnesota won by three points or less. At 125 pounds, No. 13 Paul Donahoe fell 8-6 in the sudden victory period to fourth-ranked Jayson Ness. Donahoe held a 6-3 lead with 1:00 remaining before Ness scored an escape and a takedown to send the match to overtime.

 

No. 9 Dominick Moyer was also competitive in his final home match for NU but fell in a 5-2 decision to second-ranked Manuel Rivera at 141 pounds. Rivera broke a 2-2 tie with a takedown with 1:13 to go in the third period and rode Moyer for the rest of the match.

 

At 149 pounds, freshman Jordan Burroughs nearly upset top-ranked and undefeated C.P. Schlatter before falling, 9-6. A Burroughs escape with 1:20 remaining in the match cut Schlatter’s lead to 7-5, but Schlatter sealed the victory for Minnesota with a takedown of Burroughs with 18 seconds left in the match.

 

At 157 pounds, Oliver stormed back to defeat Schlatter 7-4 in overtime after trailing 4-1 midway through the second period. Oliver escaped with 1:18 to go in the second, then took down Schlatter with 44 seconds to go in the period to tie the match. After a scoreless third period and sudden-victory period, Oliver rode Schlatter for the first 30 seconds of the tiebreaker, before escaping with eight seconds left in the second half of the tiebreaker to take the lead for the first time in the match. Oliver added a takedown at the buzzer to polish off his second win over a ranked opponent in three days.

 

Three straight wins would clinch the dual for Minnesota, but at 197 pounds, Craig Brester got back on the winning track with an 8-1 win over Yura Malamura. Brester scored eight unanswered points, including seven in the third period. Brester started the final stanza down, but scored a reversal 58 seconds into the period. Brester rode Malamura the rest of the way and scored a pair of nearfalls in the last 23 seconds of the match.

 

Nebraska (8-7) finshes its regular season with a three-dual weekend on the road Friday and Saturday, starting with a 6 p.m. Friday dual in Bethlehem, Pa., against 24th-ranked Lehigh. On Saturday, NU wrestles at 11 a.m. against Drexel before closing the regular season with a dual against 16th-ranked Penn at 1 p.m.

 

#1 Minnesota 32, #21 Nebraska 6

Sunday, Feb. 11, 2007

NU Coliseum-Lincoln, Neb.

Official-Matt Zeitz

Attendance-864

125-#4 Ness (UM) by dec. over #13 Donahoe (NU), 8-6 (SV1)

133-#9 Reiter (UM) by fall over Aleksanyan (NU), 3:34

141-#2 Rivera (UM) by dec. over #7 Moyer (NU), 5-2

149-#1 Schlatter (UM) by dec. over Burroughs (NU), 9-6

157-Oliver (NU) by dec. over #2 Schlatter (UM), 7-4 (TB1)

165-Safratowich (UM) by dec. over Dwyer (NU), 10-4

174-#13 Drestch (UM) by major dec. over Harwood (NU), 10-1

184-#2 Kish (UM) by major dec. over Roberts (NU), 23-9

197- #9 Brester (NU) by dec. over Malamura (UM), 8-1

HWT-#1 Konrad (UM) by forfeit