University of Missouri
NCAA Championships Day 2
Three Tiger Wrestlers Earn All-American Honors
3/18/2005 12:00:00 AM | Wrestling
March 18, 2005
St. Louis, Mo. -- Three Missouri wrestlers, senior Tyron Woodley (165) and sophomores Ben Askren (174) and Matt Pell (184) earned All-America honors by advancing through their respective brackets today at the 75th annual Division I Wrestling Championships in the Savvis Center of St. Louis. This marks the second straight year that Missouri has been honored with three All-Americans in one year and only the second time in MU's 61-year wrestling history that the Tigers have had more than two representatives. At the end of the day, Missouri stands 11th in team points with 39 while Oklahoma State continues to lead with 127.50.
Opening the day for Missouri, Woodley met at center circle with fourth-seeded Mark Perry (Iowa) and was held scoreless for the first time of the season (3-0) at 165-pounds. Perry walked away after scoring all three points in the first period. In bout number two, Woodley came on strong and dominated Pittsburgh's Justin Nestor (11-0), moving on in the wrestleback bracket for a late night battle with Minnesota's Matt Nagel. Tied at the end of seven minutes, the grapplers went into two overtime periods and Nagel pulled ahead after scoring a takedown in the second overtime session.
Dropping Waldhaus for the third time of the season, Askren outscored his Sooner opponent, 17-4, landing a first period takedown and three-point nearfall for the early lead. Pushing forward in the 174-pound bracket, Askren competed live on ESPN with Illinois' third-seeded Peter Friedl and won a hard-fought 7-2 match, earning his seventh point through 1:01 of riding time. Askren is Missouri's only wrestler to advance to Saturday night's 4 p.m. (CT) championship bout and will pair once again with Oklahoma State's Chris Pendleton. This is the second straight year that the two have met on the national stage, and the grapplers will compete live on ESPN.
Pell battled with No. 1 seeded Greg Jones of West Virginia for the first time of his career in the early morning session. Outscored 13-4, Pell was only able to manage escapes, one in the first period and three in the third. The loss dropped Pell to the consolation bracket where he battled Minnesota's Roger Kisch and won an intense 10-7 victory to earn his first career All-America honor. Pell found his last bout of the evening against Big 10 wrestler Eric Bradley (Penn State) on mat No. 4 of the six-mat layout. Pell was again held to only escapes and lost the match 8-4.
"Pell becoming an All-American is huge for him and also our program," Head Coach Brian Smith said. "He wrestled hard on the mat today and it's exciting to see him do well."
Both Woodley and Pell will wrestle for seventh-place tomorrow morning beginning at 9:30 a.m. (CT). Woodley will take on Matt Palmer (Columbia), while Pell will challenge Purdue's Ben Wissel for the third time of the 2004-05 campaign. In their previous meetings, Pell won a 13-5 major decision in the season-opening dual Nov. 19 later shutting out the Boilermaker 3-0 at the Missouri Open, Nov. 21.
Cieleski, a four-time NCAA qualifier competed on outside mat No. 4 against Purdue's Colton Salazar for the second time of the season. In a result similar to their last outing, Cieleski dominated the Boilermaker, 15-3, for his first major decision victory of the tournament. Cieleski scored eight back points in the final two minutes of action to advance to his second consolation round bout. The Brookville, Pa., native competed in his last match of the tournament against C.P. Schlatter (Minnesota) and suffered a disheartening, 8-3, loss.
Team Scores At The End of Day Two: 1 Oklahoma State, 127.50 2 Cornell, 71.5 3 Michigan, 67.0 4 Minnesota, 66.0 5 Iowa, 64.0Fourth Round Matches: 165: Tyron Woodley major decision Justin Nestor (Pittsburgh): 11-0 165: Matt Nagel (Minnesota) decision Tyron Woodley (MU): 4-2 174: Ben Askren decision Pete Friedl (Illinois): 7-2 184: Matt Pell decision Roger Kisch (Minnesota): 10-7 184: Eric Bradley (Penn State) decision Matt Pell (MU): 8-4
Third Round Results: 157: Brad Cieleski (MU) major decision Colton Salazar (Purdue): 15-3 157: C.P. Schlatter (Minnesota) decision Brad Cieleski (MU): 8-3 165: Mark Perry (Iowa) decision Tyron Woodley (MU): 3-0 174: Ben Askren major decision E.K. Waldhaus (Oklahoma): 17-4 184: Greg Jones (West Virginia) major decision Matt Pell (MU): 13-4
Second Round Results 149: Tyde Prater (Va. Tech) decision Cody Greene (MU): 9-7 157: Brad Cieleski (MU) decision Marcus Effner (Cleveland State): 9-3 165 Tyron Woodley (MU) decision Mike Patrovich (Hofstra): 6-1 174 Ben Askren (MU) major decision Brady Richardson (Indiana): 9-0 184: Matt Pell (MU) decision Paul Bradley (Iowa) 7-6
First Round Results 149: Mark DiSalvo (Central Michigan) decision Cody Greene (MU): 7-4 157: Chris Horning (Clarion) decision Brad Cieleski (MU): 2-0 165: Tyron Woodley (MU) fall Donny Reynolds (Illinois): 4:46 174: Ben Askren (MU) tech. fall Mark Himes (Duquense) 18-2 (6:25) 184: Matt Pell (MU) Shane Webster (Oregon): 5-1
Updated MU Records 149 Cody Greene: 27-10 (66-27) 157 Brad Cieleski: 25-10 (109-30) 165 Tyron Woodley: 36-6 (109-38) 174 Ben Askren: 34-2 (66-7) 184 Matt Pell: 34-10 (65-22)
