While there are certainly more than 10, I have decided to narrow it down to what I believe are The Top 10 "CAME OUT OF NOWHERE" at the NCAA Tournament in the 21st Century Moments.
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| #10 Conor Youtsey Michigan 2015 and 2016 NCAA Tournaments |
It was a question to wrestling fans whether Youtsey was for real or if he had simply had a one hit wonder awesome tournament. When he finished sixth at the BIG 10's a year later, and this time entered the NCAA tournament with a losing 12-13 record, the general consensus was the latter. Yet Youtsey silenced his critics once again, this time knocking off #6 Eddie Klimara, #8 Barlow McGhee of Missouri, #10 Conor Schram of Stanford and #9 Dylan Peters of Northern Iowa to capture a fifth place finish.
A decision to initially skip out on his senior season for a career opportunity lead to Youtsey missing nearly all of the the season up until the BIG 10 tournament. While he had only a dozen matches and a 6-6 record entering the NCAA's, this time fans were more cautious before betting against him. Unfortunately for the talented Wolverine, this time the cards were not stacked in his favor. Youtsey would end up going 0-2 at the 2017 NCAA tournament ending his bid to become the first wrestler in the history of Division I wrestling to earn three All American awards without ever having the benefit of a seed.
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| #9 Bobbe Lowe Minnesota 2003 NCAA Tournament |
Yet he got the maroon and gold faithful to their feet when he gave #9 Jason Powell of Nebraska a scare in the first round in an exciting 8-6 loss. He would then grit his way through four consolation matches including a 12-7 victory over returning All American and #8 seed Skyler Holman of Oklahoma State who had majored Lowe earlier in the season. Taking eighth place All American honors, Lowe would end his season with a 19-20 record.
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| #8 Kyle Blevins Appalachian State 2012 NCAA Tournament |
If that wasn't enough, Blevins not only entered the NCAA tournament unseeded, he lost his first round match to #5 Mike Evans of Iowa. It was a long road, tough road ahead for the senior in his last opportunity to All American. Yet the switch that had been turned on and off throughout the season suddenly turned to the on position, and it was kept on as Blevins won six matches in a row to finish in fourth place. Along the way he knocked off #8 Robert Kokesh 4-3, #9 Conrad Polz 4-2 s.v. and #7 Josh Asper 5-2. Some will read this entry and think that teammate Austin Trotman the #8 seed that year at 184 lbs should also be on this list.
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| #7 Brandon Becker Indiana 2005 NCAA Tournament |
Yet he did and he did so in fashion. A minute and fifty-five second fall of Lock Haven's Seth Martin, followed up by a 12-3 major decision over future All American Matt Kocher of Pittsburgh and a 6-4 s.v. over Nathan Galloway of Penn State landed Becker in the blood round.
Who would Becker had to beat in order to be named an All American? None other than #1 seed Alex Tirapelle of Illinois. In what was arguably the biggest upset of the tournament Becker knocked off the returning two time All American in a wild 8-7 match. His upsetting ways did not end there either, as he also stuck #11 Chris Horning of Clarion in 4:03 and defeated #10 Brian Stith of Arizona State 10-6 to capture fifth place.
It wouldn't be long until Becker silenced any who wondered whether he was for real or not, as he finished off his career with two BIG 10 runner-up finishes and two more All American finishes of seventh and fourth place.
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| #6 Phil Davis Penn State 2005 NCAA Tournament |
Unseeded at the NCAA's he defeated #10 Jerry Rinaldi of Cornell 7-1 in the first round and Arizona State's #7 Ryan Bader 3-1 in the second round. After dropping a 9-4 decision to eventual champion Jake Rosholt of Oklahoma State, Davis used a unique version of a cradle to rack up ten points that Hofstra's Chris Skretkowicz despite scoring three takedowns of his own could not answer back in a 12-6 victory. Davis finished in seventh place, this time avoiding Flaherty's headlock and defeating the Badger 5-0.
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| #5 Mario Stuart Lehigh 2001 and 2004 NCAA Tournaments |
Many considered Stuart's run through the 2001 NCAA tournament to be nothing short of a miracle. A stroke of luck that would not happen again. In 2002 he went 2-2 at the NCAA tournament and had to give up his spot on the varsity in 2003 to Terrence Clendinin due to injuries. The odds were not in Stuart's favor.
After a second place finish at the EIWA tournament, Stuart entered the NCAA's with a 15-8 record. One of the eight losses was to his first round opponent, #4 Tom Clum of Wisconsin, who had defeated Stuart 8-0 major decision only a few weeks earlier. There was no being conservative about it. As soon as the match started, Stuart was deep in on Clum's leg, had it high in the air and scored his first of what would be three takedowns in an 8-2 victory.
After dropping a 12-5 decision to future four time All American Sam Hazewinkle of Oklahoma in the quarter-finals, Stuart defeated Matt Pitts of Chattanooga 14-9, Rob Rebmann of Drexel 7-3 and Vic Moreno of Cal Poly 4-2 sudden victory to place himself in the bout for third place. He would drop his final match 9-1 major decision to Hazewinkle to finish off his career with a fourth place finish.
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| #4 Chris Rodrigues North Carolina 2002 NCAA Tournament |
A four time state champion out of Georgia, and a highly sought after recruit, wrestling fans had high expectations for Rodrigues who began his career at The University of Michigan.. Unfortunately for Rodrigues, A.J. Grant was already in the position as the Wolverine's 125 lbs wrestler. As a result, Rodrigues transferred to the University of North Carolina.
After finishing as the ACC runner up with an overtime loss to North Carolina State's George Cintron, Rodrigues entered the NCAA tournament unseeded. He would drop a 7-3 decision to Edinboro's Shawn Bunch in the first round before making one of the most storied runs through the consolation bracket that wrestling fans have ever witnessed.
After a 5-3 victory over Drexel's Rob Rebmann, Rodrigues would face none other than A.J. Grant, the very one who had beaten him in Michigan's practice room. This time would be different as Rodrigues would come from behind to put Grant on his back and score a fall near the end of the second period.
In his next match, Rodrigues faced three time All American Leroy Vega of Minnesota. Down 2-1 with less than a minute left in the match, Rodrigues scored a reversal and held on long enough to erase riding time, to pull off a shocking 3-2 upset.
If that weren't enough, in the blood round, down 8-3 with less than ten seconds left on the clock against Oregon's Shaun Williams, Rodrigues hit a cement mixer and with one second remaining in the match secured a fall for All American honors. He would drop his next two matches, finishing in eighth place.
The next year as a sophomore Rodrigues continued his roller coaster ways with impressive wins and head-scratching losses. He handed Nick Simmons of Michigan State his only loss by fall in his entire career. And by entire career, it is not meant just college. Entire career meaning, the entire time Simmons wrestled. The only time Simmons ever lost by fall. He then turned around and lost a match to Jacob Gray of Edinboro who was unranked at the time.
There was a Chris Rodrigues who took a 14-4 beating at the hands of Travis Lee and there was a Chris Rodrigues that gave Lee who won the NCAA title the following year in 2003 a scare in a 8-6 sudden victory loss. You just never knew which Chris Rodrigues was going to show up.
Whether he would have ever made All American status again, won an NCAA title or finished somewhere in between will forever remain a mystery. Shortly into his junior season, Rodrigues and North Carolina decided to part ways and Rodrigues's wrestling career came to an end.
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| #3 Josh Moore Penn State 2004 NCAA tournament |
Yet upon further inspection, once it is put into context, it makes perfect sense for Moore to be on this list. You see Moore didn't just finish in fourth place at the Big 10 tournament. He got his rear end handed to him twice. Illinois's Mark Jayne threw Moore around in a 13-5 demolishing and then Wisconsin's Ed Gutnik shut down everything Moore tried to do in a 14-4 annihilation.
Many fans of three time finalist/two time NCAA champion Johnny Thompson were worried about the Cowboy making his fourth finals appearance as he was having his most challenging year yet. The weight cut to 133 lbs was taking a toll on Thompson as he took six losses into the NCAA tournament.
There was speculation that someone, somewhere along the way would knock Thompson off. It was simply a question of who. Many names were brought up including Darrell Vasquez of Cal Poly, Mark Jayne of Illinois and Travis Lee of Cornell, all three of whom already owned victories over Thompson during the season. No one thought the answer would be Josh Moore.
After avenging his loss to Gutnik with a 1-0 victory, Moore wrestled one of the most tactical matches of the tournament against Thompson. Capturing Thompson in what can only be described as a "Moore" cradle, Moore got out to an early 5-0 lead that an aggressive Thompson could not overcome. Even Thompson's patented "snake", which he would later use in victories over both Jayne and Lee, was of no use. He tried to put Moore into the move, but Moore was one of the only wrestlers Thompson ever faced that was able to avoid being turned in it. Moore would then be taken down three more times with Thompson's other go to move the double leg, but Moore escaped each time holding on for an 8-7 victory.
After a 5-4 victory over Vasquez in the semi finals, Moore would drop a 7-3 decision to Iowa State's Zach Roberson in the finals. Who by the way, Thompson had beaten in every meeting the two ever had, including three times earlier that season, twice by fall. Parity anyone?
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| #2 Kevin Tao American 2013 NCAA Tournament |
Having failed to place at both the Cliff Keen Las Vegas Invitational and the Southern Scuffle, Tao seemed a likely candidate to go 0-2. After all his first round opponent was Binghamton's Donnie Vinson who had pinned Tao in under a minute earlier in the season. Yet Tao showed the Des Moines, Iowa crowd why the NCAA tournament an be such a magical place with a 3-2 tiebreaker victory.
In the second round Tao would face Navy's Ray Borja who had defeated him at the EIWA championships 5-3 sudden victory. This time Tao would take complete control of the match cruising to a 9-3 victory.
If it had been a Hollywood film, Tao would have continued winning and became the first, "wasn't even supposed to be there" All American in NCAA history. Unfortunately real life doesn't always work the way it would in the movies and Tao dropped two heartbreakers in a row to finish one match shy of All American honors.
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| #1 Justin Gaethje Northern Colorado 2010 NCAA Tournament |
Yet he was granted an at large selection and he made the most of his first NCAA tournament appearance. A 6-4 victory over #8 Bryce Saddoris of Navy, a 3-2 tiebreaker over #9 Matt Moley of Bloomsburg and a 6-5 tiebreaker over Shane Vernon of Oklahoma landed the future MMA superstar in seventh place.
No longer under the radar, Gaethje would win the Western Wrestling Conference championship the following year, but fail to make the same magic happen at the NCAA tournament that he had the year before.
As said before there are more. Josh Arnone of Cornell and his 2007 run. Pittsburgh's Carl Fronhofer's run in 2003. The list is long. If you have one that you feel should have been included on this list, please share. Bryce Meredith in 2016....There are wrestlers from nearly every NCAA tournament ever held that could be on this list.
Not sure how I landed on this page, but ntl, if you haven't done a different but similar article, you might want to update this one to include Kyle Conel from Kent St. and put him at the top given his 2018 pigtail to semifinal to 3rd place romp at 197.
ReplyDeleteThat's most certainly a great example. I'm excited to see what he does in the Penn State lineup this season.
Deletewheres zeke moisey 2015?
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