COMMUNITY JOURNALISM: Another look at the NCAA wrestling tournament

By McCall Meade, community contributor

The Iowa wrestling team concluded the 2011-2012 season with a third-place finish at the NCAA Wrestling Championships in St. Louis.

The Hawkeyes tallied 107.5 team points throughout the tournament, trailing Minnesota (117.5 points) and national team champion Penn State (143 points). Iowa finished with one champion, six All-Americans and two Big Ten Champions.

Head Coach Tom Brands had three “Saturday-nighters” as Matt McDonough would have put it. McDonough (125 pounds), Montell Marion (141) and Derek St. John (157) were the three lone Hawkeyes who made it to the championship finals on March 17.

Junior McDonough faced Penn State's Nico Megaludis, who became what one might call a rival of the Hawk's 125-pounder. The last time that the two wrestlers met was at the Iowa- Penn State dual in January where McDonough was victorious in a 3-1 overtime win. McDonough had the No. 1 seed with a 35-1 record and a 99-4 career record before the finals matchup. The true freshman Megaludis was the No. 10 seed going into the finals.

Scoreless after the first period, McDonough chose down to start the second period. McDonough escaped to lead 1-0 for the rest of the second, and rode Megaludis hard for the start of the third. McDonough got in on a single-leg for a takedown with 1:04 left in the third and rode Megaludis out the rest of the match. With a 3-0 win over Megaludis, McDonough is a two-time national champion and a three-time All- American.  McDonough also received his 100

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career win after defeating Megaludis. McDonough won the 125 title as a freshman in 2010, too.

Marion was looking to finish his career in the black-and-gold singlet as a national champion over the No. 1 seeded senior Kellen Russell of Michigan. Marion and Russell last met up at the Big Ten finals, where Russell outscored Marion 7-2. Marion was 27-3 on the year previous to Saturday's finals.

At the end of the first period, the score was 2-1 in Russell's favor. Marion deferred and Russell chose bottom to start the second. After a Russell escape, Marion responded with a takedown on the edge of the mat to make it 3-3. Russell then escaped led 4-3 going into the third period. With 59 seconds left in the third, Marion gets an escape to make it even at 4-4. Neither wrestler was able to score again, which forced it into sudden victory overtime. This would make it the third time Russell and Marion have met in overtime. Russell got around Marion for a takedown to get the 6-4 win in overtime. Marion was a two-time national finalist and a three-time All- American for the Hawkeyes. He ended the year with a 27-4 record and a 91-21 career record. Marion placed second his sophomore yea and fourth his junior year.

Big Ten champion and No. 2 seeded sophomore St. John faced two-time national champion junior Kyle Dake of Cornell. Dake has a perfect 34-0 record and was looking to become the first wrestler to win titles at three different weight classes. St. John was 21-2 previous to finals after battling a nagging knee injury the past few months that has kept him from competing late in the season. St. John and Dake had never met before in competition.

To begin the first period, Dake turned a single into a double leg takedown for an opening 2-0 lead. St. John was down for the rest of the period while Dake gathered 2:10 of riding time. Dake chose down to start the second period where he got an escape. St. John survived a scramble, and Dake was warned for stalling as the second period concluded with Dake leading 3-0 with riding time. St. John battled all throughout the third as Dake was again called for stalling and St. John was awarded a point making it 3-1. Dake concluded the match with a 4-1 win.  St. John now is a two-time All- American, placing fourth last year as a red-shirt freshman. He finished his season with a 21-3 season record.

Three other Hawkeyes finished with All-American honors - Tony Ramos (133), Ethen Lofthouse (174) and Bobby Telford (heavyweight).

No. 3 seeded Ramos concluded his sophomore season with a third place finish after getting in on a half and pinning Minnesota's Chris Dardanes ( No. 10 seed)   in 6:49. Ramos won six of seven tournament matches and finished the season with a 34-4 record.

Lofthouse (No. 5 seed) won five out seven tournament matches to conclude his season with a  seventh place finish with a 3-1 victory over Cal- Poly's Ryan DesRoches (No. 6). Lofthouse was 28-9 in his sophomore season.

Fifth-seeded Telford lost a 2-0 decision to Oregon State's Clayton Jack in the consolation semifinals before receiving a forfeit in the fifth place match. Telford, who is a red-shirt freshman, won five of seven matches and compiled a 29-9 record this season while earning his first trip to the national championships.

The Hawkeyes can hope to build off this year's performance to be ready for 2013. With returning talent, Tom Brands and the Hawks will be a tough competitor for next year's tournament.